@Thekingnigel
I applied on November 30th
Is it true that communications is a mandatory four years at UP?
@dpschool No, that is not true. My son is starting at Altoona in telecommunications in the school of communications and will transfer to UP campus for his last 2 years. I checked each of the other majors in the school of communications and each recommended action plan had options for starting at a commonwealth and finishing at UP.
There are VERY few majors for which you must be at UP all 4 years. Off the top of my head, the ones I know about are Golf Course Management, Nursing (you can be at many campuses but you stay at that campus all 4 years), Architecture and Musical Theater.
wait, housing for altoona is gone? how can that be possible, I just recieved my acceptance last week. Does this mean I have to live off campus, if so where? Im very confused.
so the kids that get denied from UP late have to deal with the disapointment of being denied and have to live off campus? my parents do not want me to live off campus. Im stressing out.
@veryconfusedsenior611 You will have to call Altoona and ask that question. Like I said, I know for the direct applicants to Altoona, housing is on a waitlist. But Altoona may hold back rooms for those people like you who are coming as a deferred student. I am not sure about that though. If you have to live off campus, there are plenty of apartments that abut campus. Many, many, many students at Altoona live off campus because there is only housing for 900 out of over 4000 students.
Everytime I get anxious and stressed for my kid to get an admissions reply, I try to think of how the Admissions Officers must feel right now and it makes me feel a little better not to be so selfish and to send good light to others, but man it is hard. T-minus 11 hours…
Once accepted to UP is there any benefit to the timing of accepting the offfer in regards to housing? So for instance if I want to live in Pollack over East as a Frosh is it better to accept earlier?
Kinda hard as I’m still waiting on a few other schools and won’t know till March on them
Any guidance would be appreciated?
Son accepted on Jan. 27 for IST
OOS
30 ACT
3.7 WGPA
I was just on Altoona site and it says the deadline for on campus housing requests was January 19th! Another question if I can—I’ve heard of “people” being able to transfer to UP after one year but am guessing that that is a very small portion. Any info on that?
@dpschool That January 19th date was for CURRENT freshmen trying to get housing for next year as sophomores. That is not for INCOMING freshmen. Current students enter a lottery for housing. They hold some housing back from incoming freshmen for current students. When I talk about 900 dorm rooms, those are for Freshmen. There are more dorm rooms than that, but they are held for upper classmen. Still, the number of students far outweigh the available on campus housing at Altoona. But like I said, there is tons of housing nearby. However, I’d move on that pretty fast too once you have a final acceptance. The longer you wait, the further from campus you might be. Incoming freshmen are not in the lottery. It is first come first served. But, there is a waiting list because many students offered housing may not commit to it in time so they lose it.
You will not be able to transfer to UP after one year UNLESS your major requires it. A few (a very few) majors have classes that are only at UP, so there are some majors that will require you to transfer to UP after a year and a half (so halfway through sophomore year). But those are few and far between. I believe the school of communications has one major like that but I’m not sure. If you go to the top of the Penn State page here on college confidential, there is a pinned link up top all about the 2+2 program and you can read all kinds of posts on the subject.
The chance of getting supplemental housing (5+ roommates) goes up the closer to May 1 you accept. Otherwise (East vs Pollock for example) I’m not sure, but plenty of people WANT to live in East so if you accept in March you should probably be fine for requesting either one.
^ which (East choice) baffles me: thin walls, furniture you can’t move around, far away from classes, 60’s tower block architecture, not-very-good-at-best dining hall…
I know they’re improving those (have?) but it doesn’t make sense to me. Must be my age. 
Pollack or even West seem like better choices than East. But Pollack is so much better located to the center of campus, Pollack is my first choice
My son LOVES East halls. He said he couldn’t see himself living anywhere else and yes he lived in South for the summer session in a beautiful renovated room. He still prefers East. To him, it’s not noisy at all. He always studied in his room with no problems and ended his first semester with a 3.9. It’s really up to each student. He loves the fact that it is all freshman and easier to make friends. When he walks back to his dorm at 2-3 am from parties/outings he always has someone to walk with. My son loves to walk, never takes the bus anywhere, so to him, he does not consider it far from anything. Helped keep the freshman 15 off. lol!!
@oneiota Usually any acceptance after April 1 results in supplemental housing. Before that, you should be good with your first choice of housing.
So all decisions will be posted tonight?
@oneiota I am planning to pick Pollack over East too
I am going back March 13 to visit again for Smeal Accepted Student Program
@jackoneill by midnight tomorrow for those whose application was complete by Nov 30
@Oneiota Actually West is the closest to the center of campus (Old Main) than Pollock, and even South. Though South isn’t that far either, and is across Shortlidge from the Hub.
Speaking of housing, based on last year’s crisis it would be interesting how many they accept this year, especially today and tomorrow…
All depends on where your classes are. Freshmen and sophomores may have classes in Forum and Willard, where West would probably be better. This semester I have to go to Osmond, Thomas, Buckhout…all five minutes or less from South, whereas Forum was a bit of a hike (10-15 mins). And you can’t predict where most of your classes are going to be. West is fine. Pollock is fine. South is fine. East is farther but you’d better get used to walking anyway – it’s a huge campus.
I appreciate having lived in South but also would have been fine with Pollock as far as location goes. Now that the ChemE Dept is in the basement of Thomas, West/North/East would be inconvenient for me personally. But even if you have to do more walking than you want…free additional exercise. 