Seems they are answering quickly about Branch Campuses. My older son applied to Altoona (he started as a freshman at a different college and hates it). He applied on Monday evening, we did the SRAR for his senior year of HS on Tuesday (he had previously applied and gotten into Penn State, but chose a different college), and we heard back already this am! He was accepted to Altoona for Mechanical Engineering. So… 3 day turn around?
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This is consistent with what we’ve heard as well. The only essays that are important are for the Schreyer Honors College.
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Pitt is half the size of Penn State also. Pitt also puts a lot more weight on test scores than Penn State does.
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Any chance you can share where he’s transferring from and why he hates it? Best of luck to him. I’m glad he’s making a change. Spending four years studying somewhere you are unhappy is never a good choice.
As a nurse in Pennsylvania, I will say that I would NEVER pay OOS costs for a nursing program. Not at Pitt and though I bleed blue and white, not at Penn State either.
Nursing is one of those careers where everyone, whether they study at a top Ivy or a local state school (or even community college) takes the same boards (NCLEX). BSN differentials are about $1/hr or so more than associate-level RNs across much of PA. While I think it’s important to have a BSN for many areas of nursing, it doesn’t do much for the average floor nurse (I have a BSN btw) and BSNs do not make much more money. It is of course important if you plan to further your education into a nurse practitioner or management positions.
All of that is to say, that I’d look for the best NCLEX pass rates and then go with the cheapest school that has good NCLEX pass rates. Because you will not get paid more for going to a more expensive school. All hospitals care about is if you passed your boards. Nursing is so short staffed right now because so many nurses left amid covid burnout. They want a license and a warm body.
Pitt and Penn State OOS will be two of your most expensive OOS public universities in the country and if your student is taking loans, that will dent them. If they aren’t taking loans, then forget what I just said and it won’t matter where they choose.
If you are insistent on Pitt vs. Penn State, Penn State requires nursing students to go Hershey Med Center for their senior year so they do not stay at UP all 4 years. Pitt is near UPMC and AHN facilities in Pittsburgh so the clinical locations are, in my opinion, superior to Penn State (and that pains me to say at PSU grad - who works for Pitt currently as a research nurse).
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My daughter applied last year TO and heard Dec 1st. so not all get bumped unless they changed this year
They do start to roll out decisions earlier than EA deadline of Dec. 24. Some will start hearing any day now. Most schools with EA deadline have set date when they release all on one date, but PSU starts releasing decisions before their EA deadline date. My son applied mid Oct, last year and heard back in mid Nov.
I know things may change for this year, but is there a normal day and/or time of day that decisions are usually released?
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My child applied EA to UP end of August and we have not heard a decision yet.
My son applied DUS at UP second week in Sept. Still waiting.
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With them hosting specific NJ days this week due to all NJ schools being closed for state teachers convention, it would seem odd to release any decisions before those events. Now that those are over, maybe they will start to trickle out. IDK just an option/theory/wishful thinking/putting it out there in the universe.
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Historically, Decisions are posted overnight and once a day. That gets a little muddy nearer to the deadline when they start posting multiple times a day.
Please remember decisions are random.
EDIT - DECISION ORDER IS RANDOM - not the actual method of determining admissibility.
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She meant to say “decision ORDER is random”.
Hopefully, there is a method to the madness of decisions ◡̈
But it is a good reminder that different colleges (eg. majors) get decisions in a different order.
I would expect the first round of admits to be rolled out this week. Historically, there is a group of kids that will hear the week prior to Thanksgiving.
And for those of you with high stats kids, remember, just because they are high stats doesn’t mean they are the first to hear. I can guarantee someone will come here and complain that their kid with higher stats didn’t hear, but a kid in their HS/sports team/etc. has heard with lower stats. It truly can be random as to the timing. (By the EA deadline). They don’t go from top down. Just be prepared.
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What is considered “high stat”?
Generally, something like: 1450+ SAT score, 3.8 uwGPA with 4+ courses in each of the 5 core subject areas, top 10% weighted rank in HS, 15+ classes honors/AP/IB/DE -though specific emphasis may vary by college (ie., Calculus and Physics would “weigh” more for Engineering). Note that not hearing early doesn’t mean your student won’t be admitted or isn’t considered high stats: it could be as simple as… no one’s got to his/her application yet!
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Yes, thank you! I did mean DECISION ORDER - not actual decisions. Just trying to temper expectations that always come when people post about what dates they applied vs received a decision.
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I think I read somewhere that last year PSU admissions considered applications that were submitted under both EA and rolling in the same batch if the applications were submitted before October 15.
Does anyone know if that is true again this year? It looks like we might have selected rolling admissions instead of EA in the common app.
Thanks!
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In previous years, the admissions department has indicated that if you submitted all of your materials by Nov 1 and you application was complete by that date, then it would not matter whether you selected EA or rolling on your application. However, there is a new director of enrollment at PSU for this year so no one can say for certain if that is true for this year.
My advice would be to call admissions and ask that your application be considered under EA rather than rolling. If a decision hasn’t been made yet, they will likely make that change if it is necessary to do so.
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Thanks - I’ll have my son reach out.
He is currently attending a very high stress Engineering school and it is located in a very urban area. His main reasons for transferring are he doesn’t enjoy the “city” type atmosphere, and he doesn’t want to study 5 hours every day. He should have listened to his Mama, but heaven forbid he went to the same school as me! He is also the same kid who didn’t fill out his SRAR by EA time, cause he knew it all! LOL
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