Going off of what jlhpsu mentioned. Has anyone heard of anyone getting accepted or rejected yet? Assuming any acceptances heard now are top applicants.
If you look at previous years (my sons included in 2018 Class) the acceptances began Oct. 30th, his was Nov. 5th.
@amomoffour Thanks. I think most decisions have been made. Anyone who is not a top candidate is put in a pile as conditionally accepted…then they wait to see who applies from now to end of Jan. Then depending on how many higher candidates apply. They send out acceptances for what they have left in their quota. But, who know… Penn State seems to use some kind of mystery decision process.
Hopeful for Penn State UP Admission. What do you think are my chances?? I did apply to Division of Undergraduate Studies and Summer Session …
SAT: Not reported
ACT: 24 Composite
GPA: 3.85 unweighted and 4.15 weighted (96 cumulative average)
Rank:32/508 (top 7%)
EC’s: National Honor Society (11/12), 15 Honors courses during HS, Baseball (9,10,11,12), Soccer (11,12), Nominated to participate in Congressman Youth Leadership Summit, Community Service (special olympics, holiday food drives), Employed part-time
Applied: October 1st (Test scores finally sent Oct 26)
Essays:Solid
Hook (if any): Father is Alumni. 2 Uncles and Cousin are alumni
State or Country: PA
School Type: public
Ethnicity:white
Gender: male
@zipbags The acceptance noted on the other thread was from a really high stat applicant. S/he has a 34 ACT - which is equivalent to a 2300 on the SAT. Those are the types of applicants that hear this early generally. I don’t think decisions have been made. They get 50,000+ applications and they randomly go through them. I know last year, my daughter called about changing something on her application in early December and they were able to do it because her application had not even been looked at yet. Here is a great behind the scenes blog from a few years ago about what happens to your application once it’s received.
http://sites.psu.edu/weadmit/2013/12/06/behind-the-scenes-look-at-your-application/
@burbs20 You have a good shot with GPA alone. Especially if you applied DUS and summer option.
@jlhpsu if you don’t mind me asking, what were your D’s stats - GPA and ACT?
@jlhpsu, I feel so thankful to see your thread here! I am a mother with an only son so this college thing is all new to me. I pulled up class 2019 thread last night and I read ALL your postings, starting from 10/30 till the news of your D getting accepted. There were times I cried and there were times I laughed…I was so happy when I read your D got the “in the coming days” message and cheered when the news of her acceptance arrived!! I am a type A like you, I can’t help but log on daily to see if there is any activities in the portal. Although my husband said I should learn from your story and expect news in January…I have a feeling I will start logging on twice a day starting 10/30. Sigh…
Any idea of my chances for UP?
ACT- 33
GPA- 4.15 w
rank: 95/476 (20%)
Lots of extra-curriculars and leadership
both parents graduated from PSU UP
applied to college of engineering, without summer session.
Thanks in advanced!!
It’s funny. My daughter was saying it takes so long to hear back and then if she gets in to have to wait another 9 months before she goes. I told her it only seems like yesterday when we first visited Penn State…but, it was almost year already. We went the first week of November last year. That made her feel better…for a short bit. 
Had a very interesting conversation with someone from Admissions. She gave me a good insight to how the applications are processed.
She said imagine a pile of 100 applications (or 50k). The top of the pile are all of those applying to branch campuses. The bottom are the top applicants who are also applying to big name schools (Princeton, UPenn, etc). Everyone else is in the middle. So they start going through the pile from the top AND bottom. Eventually working their way to the middle where the majority of applicants are. They start at the branch campuses because of housing concerns.
How would they know who us applying to “big” schools? It does not ask that on the app
They do not know what other school you are applying to, but they do take the highest scores and best credentials first.
@sunbeams haha…thanks! Sometimes the wait last year drove me crazy, as evidenced by my posts last year. But honestly, I know I’m not alone in those feelings! I’m glad my crazy can at least help some other people lol.
It is a long wait, but honestly, now it feels like so long ago. My daughter has been at PSU since then end of June and it is already home to her. She loves it. Conversely, she has some friends who were deferred to the branch who were initially upset but now love their branch campuses as well.
@burbs20 My daughter had a 3.45 GPA and a 28 ACT. She applied DUS and summer and got in for summer start 2015 which is what she did. She loved it!
I think it’s important for everyone to keep in mind as they look at the acceptance thread - it is very difficult to compare GPA’s across schools. That’s why PSU asks for your school’s scale. A 4.0 at one school may be very different than a 4.0 at another. For example, at my daughter’s school an A was not earned with anything less than a 94%. A neighboring school…90%. So don’t get too caught up in GPA’s. Some schools calculate on a 5.0 scale, others on a 4.0, others international, etc…Penn State has their own way of doing things to make it a fair process, but it’s impossible in my opinion to “chance” people based on GPA alone unless their GPA is very very high.
Last year, there was a heartbroken family who thought for sure their child would get in, but she didn’t and was sent to a branch campus…when they called they were told that the way their school weights the grades was detrimental to her application. So, they do pay attention to it. Anyway, just thought I’d throw that caveat in there as every year there seem to be people who get in who others thought wouldn’t, and vice versa. Some ins and outs are givens…for the rest of us, it seems it’s just a terrible waiting game!
My D had a 3.34 from #1 HS in NJ, 1930 SATs, and an excellent essay. She was admitted to UP Fall 2015.
@runnergirl16 They are very big on the alum thing! Good luck!
First time poster here, but watched (and needed!) these boards so much during my daughter’s app season last year, thought I would see if our experience helps anyone. Daughter found out online that she was accepted Halloween night last year. We got the ‘coming days’ notification about 24 hours before the status changed to accepted. Had been watching Twitter for the keywords ‘penn state accepted’ and knew to check online when some UP acceptances started showing up. Not a terribly ‘high stat’ applicant, out of state, 1900 SAT (Math was low at 530), ACT 28, but high GPA and class rank? IB student. Accepted to Univ Park Fall 2015. Loves it there, could not be happier. She and the whole family are 100% happy with her decision to attend!
Happy to answer any questions about UP, housing, move in, etc.
I remember this time and what a support these boards were to me, hang in there!
Also applied to University of Maryland College Park, University of Connecticut, University of Vermont. Accepted to those, turned down by the two ‘reaches’ Boston U and Chapel Hill, no shock there. Was always PSU as #1 choice. And no, she is the first in the family to go PSU, no alumni connection here, we are a house of Clemson Tigers!
My daughter followed the PSU admission page. They retweeted a few people who were accepted today. One posted a pic of a letter saying “You Are In Penn State” Class of 2020.
I see lots of branch campus acceptances coming in, as well as sports scholarships and special grad programs, but so far I can’t find any concrete UP acceptances. The one letter that I saw in a photo says Greater Allegheny campus? There are a few people celebrating that don’t specify what campus they got accepted to, so it may be happening or it will be very soon!
Has anyone had the ‘coming days’ status change yet?
@zipbags I noticed that too. 3 congratulatory messages were retweeted. Hope it will be our turn soon!
Ours is still at ‘under review’…