Does anyone know how competitive the biomedical engineering program is at PSU UP?
Pitt vs. PSU - totally different experiences and depends what you’re looking for, and as @pennst2021 states, can be program based. D #1 at Pitt pharmacy program, PSU doesn’t have one. D #2 just got into Smeal, a really great business program, probably looked upon as a “better” program than Pitt, however I know Pitt business graduates with fabulous jobs. Nice rivalry between the 2 schools and I may be heavily dealing with that in the fam next year depending if #2 picks PSU. I’m happy either way - both great schools. Btw, D #1 loves the city and is having an amazing experience. And as a side note, knew by Sept. 9 of her senior year thanks to Pitt’s quick rolling process.
PSU gets nearly 100,000 applications. It is purely a numbers game; absolutely NO holistic approach at UP. The only time a holistic approach is applied is if the applicant doesn’t qualify for UP and their application is pushed down to a Commonwealth campus. They do not receive as many applications and actually do look at the whole student.
It is 2/3 GPA, 1/3 SAT or ACT.
admissions is only closed until January 2…holiday break
ACCEPTED TO SMEAL COLLEGE OF BUSINESS!
Stats:
SAT: N/A
ACT: 31, 32 Superscore
SAT IIs: Did not send.
GPA: 3.70/4.00 Unweighted 4.22 W
Rank: N/A
Other stats:
Took 7 AP’s (3 in Junior Year & 4 in Senior Year) Got one 5, one 4 , and one 3 last year
Subjective:
Essays: Fairly good.
Teacher Recs: Amazing I hope.
Counselor Rec: Amazing.
Hook (if any):
Asian and female
Location/Person: Chicago
State or Country: Illinois
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: female
Other Factors: Started a business club at my school and I’ve been in debate for four years
Has anyone gotten word of summer acceptance or have heard of anyone who has ?
I got my packet today! 
Are people hearing back for the summer program yet?
Honestly this process pisses me off. I don’t understand why this is random. What need is there for it to be? People who applied two weeks ago should not be hearing back before people who applied months ago (like me). I sat down and spent the time to make sure I had my application in early so why should I have to wait incredibly longer? It deters me from considering Penn State as much as I normally would. They should truly reconsider how they approach admissions, or hire more people to get it done so maybe they wouldn’t have to change their process at all.
I agree. My friend that just got accepted today (who applied 11/30) assumes i didnt make it in just because i still havnt heard back (applied oct 8). It is very annoying because i tried to explain the process to her but she and a couple others at my school are assuming things like that and now its making me very nervous @CathJR
They clearly triage apps, hard to argue against that when very high stats were accepted back in October/November. So the fact it is random is not entirely true.
After reading through this thread and personal experience they give the app a once over and separate based on stats. Those with high GPA and SAT/ACT scores get offered right away. Then they work through the more competitive schools(Engineering/Business) knowing demand will outweigh supply. Finally the least competitive areas are reviewed as well as DUS. Hard to argue they do it this way…
Not to sound conceited but I have higher stats than friends of mine who have been accepted so I don’t think what you’re saying is entirely correct. Even if it is so, I don’t think it’s okay to leave people waiting so long.
I agree with you that it’s not right to make people wait 3-5 months. But I’m pretty certain if you have very high stats, both GPA and SAT/ACT you get an offer early. Penn State knows those are the most competitive students to get and waiting to notify them will not help in that process. I’m talking 3.8 or higher UWGPA and over 1400 SAT or 32 or higher ACT. If you have those STATS and a rigorous HS schedule you’re not waiting till Jan 31st to be notified
PSU gets hundreds of thousands of applications. There isn’t a better way to process those, and in fairness to PSU, they don’t represent that you are not going to have a significant wait. Think of it as part of the freshman experience and practice for life at a huge school. IT certainly doesn’t seem to be hurting their numbers.
As has been said numerous times, the November pool is collected and evaluated but decisions are not released until mid November for high stats, then after Nov 30 as available (and software allows, there seems to be a lot of issues this year?) The rest really are random. How else could that work? Do you really want them to spend an extra week just sorting applications by school?
Have anyone heard back from Graphic design major yet?
I got accepted into the Eberly College of Science on Friday. SAT: 1360 GPA: 99.4889
I believe PSU is doing the best they can given the number of applicants they receive. I understand the wait can be stressful because I was there. However, PSU has thousands of applicants as @greenbutton stated and they only have a few admissions counselors. The math means the process will take a while for all the decisions to be made. This is why they assure the decisions to be out by January 31st.
While you are getting upset at the process because of the stress of uncertainty, keep in mind you are in the company of thousands of your peers.
As hard as the waiting is, let’s remember that a lot of other schools give a drop dead notification date sometime in March and April! Now that’s waiting. PSU gives you a deadline that you will hear by - and while some high stat kids hear earlier, MOST everyone hears between Mid December and the end of January…regardless of stats. There will be plenty of 4.0 kids who hear the last week. It happens every year. DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED if you haven’t heard yet. Look at the old admissions threads. People are accepted all the way through April…
PSU gets literally hundreds of thousands of applications and they have no way of knowing who has PSU as their dream school and who just applied on a whim, so they treat all applications the same.
Believe me, I get the frustration…we were equally frustrated a few years ago when my daughter applied the first week it was open and didn’t find out until end of January that she was admitted. It was awful watching people only wait a few weeks when we were waiting 5 months. But, in the end, I think PSU does things in the order that has obviously worked well for them. It’s a numbers game. They have to fill all of their spots without going over (as they did last year!). It’s more complicated than it looks I am sure. They do hire more people for admissions during this time, but even so, it’s a ton of applications to go through.
Just remember, if you get in, no one will know nor care if you got accepted in October or January 31. No one will care if you started summer or fall. No one will ask either. You are no less admitted on Jan 31 than if you were admitted on Oct 1. It’s a stressful time - try to enjoy the holidays and know that you will know in the next month or so. And while that drags out, once that notification comes, the time between then and moving into campus FLIES BY!
I believe people are missing my main point. Everybody is telling me I just have to wait and they have thousands of applicants blah blah blah. I’m aware of this. What I said was that it is unfair for them to do it how they have. I’m not discouraged, I’m just annoyed as are the rest of my peers. You shouldn’t wait five months when others wait two weeks. I’d rather wait until April and at least know that then everybody is getting them at once. Also, a few of you are acting like I and all the other people waiting for decisions shouldn’t be upset. If you think so you are not going through this yourself. That is all I have to say.