Penn State - University Park - Enrollment Controlled Major - Computer Science

My son was accepted into UP College of Engineering with intended major of Computer Science for summer 2018. I’m trying to get some insight as to how hard and fast is the 3.0 cumulative avg rule. Does a 3.0 gpa guarantee admittance into the major as website states and some students with a lower gpa will gain admittance depending on the pool of applicants at that time? We’re OOS and it would be expensive for my son to go two years and possibly not have access to his intended major. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

At least for my major (ChemE), there was a certain number of seats the department wanted to fill. If there were more applicants with 3.0s than the desired number of seats, those extra applicants would be accepted, and nobody without a 3.0 would get in. If there weren’t enough applicants with 3.0s, then the rest of the applicants would be looked at in GPA order.

The GPA requirement does guarantee you admission as long as you’ve met the other requirements (certain classes with a C or higher, etc.).

I believe my major usually errs on the side of having too many people, not too few. You could call the CS department and ask if they also use the process I described above and how it generally turns out.

Thanks. That’s a good idea. I’ll call the CS department.