Penn State Waitlisted?

Applying to College
1

<p>Just checked mypennstate this morning and saw that I got waitlisted. I was absolutely positively stunned; I've heard of several other students from my school that were much less qualified getting in. I applied after the November 30th deadline - what do you think? Is the waitlist reasonable? And do I have a shot at getting into NYU on ED2?</p>

<p>PROFILE
East Asian female
Region: South Jersey
School: competitive public school, pretty big
GPA: 3.88/4.0 weighted, unknown unweighted.
*I might mention that my GPA went from 87/100 freshman year, 94/100 sophomore year, 98/100 junior year, 103/100 senior year with increasing difficulty in classes.
Class rank: 149/658. Blargh.</p>

<p>SAT Composite: 2270
CR: 720
M: 770
WR: 780</p>

<p>SAT II
Math IIC: 710 (will retake)
Literature: 710 (will retake)
Chinese: 800</p>

<p>PSAT: 202</p>

<p>First-generation immigrant and first one to go to college.</p>

<p>FRESHMAN (<em>) means weighted
Spanish Intermediate</em>
Honors Intro to Physical Science*
Algebra 2*
English
Required PE
Lunch
Intro to theater (ugh)
World History</p>

<p>SOPHOMORE
Spanish Intermediate II*
Honors Geometry*
Honors Biology*
Required PE
English
Lunch
AFJROTC
US History I</p>

<p>JUNIOR
Spanish Advanced*
Honors Pre-Calculus*
Honors Chemistry*
Honors English*
AFJROTC
Honors US History II*
Accounting*
Required PE</p>

<p>SENIOR (registered)
AP Spanish*
AP Calculus AB*
Honors English*
AP Economics*
Honors Physics*
AFJROTC
AP Statistics*
Required PE class</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULARS:
Mock Trial Attorney, Captain senior year (10,11,12)
AFJROTC Officer, Head Staff, Kitty Hawk Air Society Commander, Cadet Captain (10,11,12)
Peer Facilitator (10,11,12)
National Honor Society (12)
Student council homeroom representative (9,10,11,12)
Interact Volunteer Club (9,10,11,12)
National Society of High School Scholars (11,12)
X^2 Cheerleading (7,8,9,10,11), out-of-school, varsity cheerleader.
Science League (10,11,12)
Math League (9,10,11,12)
DECA (11)
Nominated for Rotary Leadership Conference at Stockton College (11)</p>

<p>AWARDS:
Student of the month (11)
Renaissance Gold Card Holder (93+ GPA) (10,11)
People's Choice Award (11)
Honor Roll (9,10,11,12)</p>

<p>LEADERSHIP:
Peer facilitators trainer
Mock trial captain
AFJROTC head staff
Kitty Hawk Air Society (NHS of JROTC) Commander
X^2 Cheerleading JV captain.</p>

<p>VOLUNTEER WORK: every year unless noted
Monzo Madness – helped friend go door-to-door to raise money.
Buddy Walk – Down Syndrome awareness walk.
Thanksgiving with the Seniors – volunteered an hour per year to spend thanksgiving with senior citizens at the center.
Epilepsy awareness fair – helped with serving lunch and organization.
English tutor to prospective foreign exchange students: went back to China in the 2008/2009 summer to tutor future FE students.
Festival of Friends – dance for mentally challenged adults, helped organize and attended.
Offered SAT tutoring sessions for classmates.
Tutored in word memorization, math skills, and essay improvement. 5+ hours a week.
Tutor for students ages 6-14 in mathematics.
(A few more, relatively minor).</p>

<p>ESSAYS:
Writing is my strong point, I consider them very on-target essays. (10/12 on SATs)</p>

<p>RECS:
Good to excellent, from Mock Trial Coach, Math, History, English teacher, as well as AFJROTC instructors (will pick as the number each college needs from these).</p>

<p>ADDITIONAL INFO:
Took a Chemistry 111 class at the community college, received an A.
Took an MIT opencourse on Causes and Preventions of War, Multivariable Calculus, Intro to Anthropology with written essays.
My counselor for three years decided to retire, telling me so on the last day of school.</p>

2

<p>I am stunned, I thought you are a sure in …</p>

3

<p>I’m so absolutely confused right now.</p>

4

<p>Bump. Opinions, anyone?</p>

5

<p>Talk to your guidance counselor at school. Not only may he or she have insight, but if Penn State is your top choice, perhaps your school would be willing to approach the ad rep for your area to promote your admission off the waitlist.</p>

6

<p>Thank you guys. Fingers crossed for NYU now!
Anyone else get waitlisted at Penn State?</p>

7

<p>Yeah i was waitlisted too… extreeeeemlly shocked.</p>

<p>Gpa 4.39 weighted
Top 5% of senior class 18/384</p>

<p>Varsity football
varsity indoor track
varsity baseball
National Honor Society
National latin Honor society
P.I.N.K club
Rocket Club
Latin club founder
Chess club</p>

<p>volunteer in mentor program for 1st grade readers
volunteer at habitat for humanit
worked 2 summers at restaurant as a busser</p>

<p>Senior Schedule:
AP Language
AP Statistics
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics B
AP Government</p>

<p>1760 composte SAT not that good i know
620 math
570 reading
570 writing</p>

<p>I kno people who have like 3.7 weighted gpa’s that got in…
im extremely shocked and no nervous about VT and UVA</p>

8

<p>my son got waitlisted to UPark, admitted to others. What is the difference? we live in CA and have not visited to Penn State.</p>

9

<p>thats weird… i know people with 1600something sats and below average high school transcripts who got in :S</p>

10

<p>I have absolutely no insight into Penn State, and this is probably the least likely explanation, but some may consider the possibility of game playing. Admissions offices are often under pressure from alumni to reduce admit rates and increase yields. It is theorized that some schools may waitlist ‘over’ qualified candidates that they suspect have little serious intention of matriculation (no visits, test scores above standard deviations) in order to increase their yield. Whether or not this is practiced by any college is speculative, and asserting that Penn State may resort to this tactic is even more speculative.</p>

11

<p>The difference in PSU and their satellite campus’s is huge…I’ d pass on their other locations in a minute,and find other schools…the OP has great stats,so wait listed is strange…What I do see is with the economy still bumping along,many great students are applying to state flagship schools as a way to cut college costs,where only a few years ago,they may not have even considered state schools…Hence,the competition is stiff</p>

12

<p>I am shocked that you didn’t get in.</p>

<p>Have your GC call… maybe they didn’t get your highest test score or something.</p>

<p>Your rank is not high, but that shouldn’t matter that much for PSU.</p>

<p>Are your senior year grades good so far? Have your GC send a new transcript with fall semester grades.</p>

<p>*why i gds name u didnt get in with a full ride to penn state… * </p>

<p>??? PSU doesn’t give “full rides”…they hardly give any merit scholarships at all.</p>

<p>*my son got waitlisted to UPark, admitted to others. What is the difference? we live in CA and have not visited to Penn State. *</p>

<p>Going to one of the other schools is NOT a good idea for a Calif student. the other campuses are commuter schools. Your child will hate it.</p>

<p>If your child wants to go to a flagship, have him apply to another one…there are ones that will accept him if his stats are ok.</p>

13

<p>I think hinsdale1’s post might be right. It isn’t uncommon for a school to reject a very qualified applicant if they think the student considers them to be a safety school and will ultimately matriculate elsewhere. Was Penn State your first choice? If yes then let them know that and they might take you off the waiting list. If Penn State wasn’t your first choice then don’t worry, I think you were rejected because you were over qualified, not under qualified.</p>

14

<p>it may also be because you are out of state applicant. As a state U, & with increased number of applications, Penn State may be making a commitment to offering admission to more PA residents. So the out of state applicants may have a bigger hill to climb to be offered admission.</p>

15

<p>Thanks very much for your insight. My grades senior year are fantastic, with unweighted GPA of 97 and weighted of 103. I did tell my guidance counselor and we are working things out.
I did consider the overqualified thing as well as the out-of-state… oh well. I’ve accepted it right now, it just came as a shock because I thought I was beyond prepared for PSU.</p>

<p>Yes, the side campuses are often commuter schools. They certainly don’t have the vibrant atmosphere of PSU. If I get accepted to NYU tonight, I will withdraw my application in hopes of giving others a better chance at getting into main.</p>

16

<p>All right - I just got accepted into NYU CAS.
Thanks so much for all your comments. I will be withdrawing my application to Penn State. The best of luck to all of you!</p>

17

<p>Can anyone give me any insight to why I possibly was waitlisted…? Two people from my school were accepted… and their GPA’s are like a 3.9 weighted… I just am confused… Thought I definitely had a legitimate chance to get in.</p>

18

<p>@tlitsch757 – the same reason as thenshersaid, you are overqualified. They don’t want to accept you because they don’t think you want to go there, Penn State is your safety and with your stats they think you will get in and go to somewhere else. They waitlisted you because if they are wrong and Penn State is your first choice, then they assume you will push to get off the wait list, at which point they will take you off and offer you admission.</p>

19

<p>ahhh, okay. well thank you very much… my mom will be more than delighted to hear that… :/</p>

20

<p>Hello All…</p>

<p>I was wait listed as well for fall at PSU. What you all need to understand is that this is NOT based on what your stats are! There is no reason to be surprised that you weren’t automatically accepted because of your outstanding grades, EC’s or sat scores. The point of this unranked wait list is that there are a group of students who met the admission requirements (they WANT to offer you enrollment) BUT they have already offered all of their spots before having reviewed your application and, therefore, can only ask you to wait for one. </p>

<p>The statistics for WL’d students being admitted is good, so don’t fret. You will not hear back until after May 1st, so you may have to commit and put the deposits down for another school (no more than $500). If you end up hearing back, you can always leave the non-refundable deposit and go to Penn State. If you don’t want to do that, you are automatically in at any other Penn State campus.</p>

<p>Good Luck.</p>