@palves@psudad2022@afnr99
To help others, don’t forget to indicate stats and major when you post your admission results. Thanks.
@seth0825 : how many honors/APs did you take? What major did you apply for?
You’d have to pass three very difficult language courses if you only took one year of Spanish and were admitted. You should probably study over the summer to get ready for it (you’ll cover HS Spanish 1 in about a month and a half - expect 4 hours of class a week and about 3 hours of homework for each class period. You’re free to take other languages - they offer a lot, from Italian and French to Swahili and Chinese.)
Ok then, you should be okay - 4.0 and DUS definitely helps so I’d say 50/50 Fall admission or Summer admission.
In the summer, take required classes you didn’t get Ap credit for AND are very good at, then in the Fall take your 4 credit Foreign Language class + the 1-credit freshman seminar in anything (business, science, etc - and do take it seriously because if you do as told it may be your only easy A that year) + 3 classes including English and Math (if not taken over the summer) plus either lab science or social science. Try to find smaller classes so that you don’t have all lectures as the step up in rigor is likely to be high.
@PenState7317 As @Psuguy1818 said, applying DUS Is almost always less competitive than most majors. The exception being liberal arts majors etc which have roughly the same admission stats. That being said, while you do apply at the end of your sophomore year, you do have to complete entry to major requirements to get in to the major - so you do have to know what you are working towards long before that. This is true even if you are “IN” a major. Everyone for that major has to take the same entry to major requirements regardless of whether they start in pre-major or DUS. With your stats I’d assume you’d get in as a pre-major, but if you are concerned you can always change to DUS now, OR wait and get your decision and then if it’s not what you want, call and ask to be reconsidered for DUS. This happens a lot and works most of the time - but if DUS is full or they’ve denied you for other reasons, then it doesn’t work. Good luck!
However if you look at the RAP (year by year plans for each major), you’ll see the first year is very similar accross majors and you can’t go wrong if you take your required Foreign Language class, a stats class, freshman seminar, English Composition, Economics or a Science first semester - those would keep open all majors. Second semester you ought to have an idea whether you’ll want a major that requires calculus or not, so take either calculus or a math gen ed like Math of Money or Math and Citizenship, then Speech/Comm, second level of foreign language, and two classes you think you’ll need for your major. If you are still totally clueless and can’t decide on the two “classes for possible major”, take an Interarts class OR a science and a class that fulfills the International perspectives requirement, as all degrees have those. This should cover all possible majors (except for engineering) since all of these are required for graduation.
@jihpsu Great advice, thanks! Do you know how competitive the college of education is compared to DUS? My daughter applied for that and she has a weighted 3.6 out of solid high school with a 24 ACT. She has a good number of AP courses etc. She applied to both fall and summer. I am alumni and so want her to get in! First choice school for her by a mile.
Apparently it is far more competitive to get in to DUS this year according to an admissions counselor I spoke with. My son was rejected to UP with the following stats
SAT 1360 (1460 superscore)
GPA 3.6 W
19 honors classes, top public school in PA (1/3 of class gets into UPenn each year)
Varsity athlete, youth coach volunteer, 4 years PT job
Legacy
Very disheartening that OOS students seem to be getting preference over strong in-state students. Penn State has been his only choice for years but has zero interest in attending a branch campus. It appears Penn State pushes in-state kids to the 2+2 because they know OOS kids won’t go.
DUS University Park Fall
Applied mid sep.
Residency- OOS (CT)
1380 SAT
3.8 GPA
AP and Honors classes, varsity softball 4 years, NHS, multiple other clubs
White Female
@Cookies510 since 2/3 of the decision is GPA, a 3.6 weighted GPA is on the lower end of average for UP. Even with a strong SAT, your son seemed like he just missed the cut. Did you apply for the summer session?
He did apply for summer session and was rejected to there as well. His GPA 3.6 was in the middle of the 50% range & his SAT at high end. He also attends a special admit high school that is extremely rigorous.
@Cookies510 based on some of the other stats on here, I am still not sure why your son wasn’t accepted. That’s a crime if it was purely GPA driven. Clearly not all GPA’s are created equally, especially when considering the number of Honors/AP classes that are taken and the time commitment required for multiple Varsity sports. My son will probably be in the same boat as yours. So sorry. As an aside, Virginia Tech just extended its cut off date from 12/1 to sometime in January. Take a look at VT - Take care.
It is crushing, so now we are back to the drawing board. Maybe he’ll change his mind & consider Altoona but it seems unlikely at the moment. He’s a city kid & a tiny school in the middle of nowhere isn’t very enticing.