<p>In the fall, I received an app invitation from Penn State and filled it out. No essay required. I had not even thought about it, but I researched it and am truly undecided but was happy to hear about Discovery House and decided to apply hoping I could get in there. It sounded perfect to me. </p>
<p>I go to a competitive hs in NY and have taken mostly honors with some AP classes. My SATs are CR 680, Match 630, W 650. SAT II is Eng Lit 740 and Math 2 660. My GPA is 3.7 weighted. I have several ECs across a few areas (art, track, school newspaper, school spirit, cancer walk volunteer) but they were curtailed due to my father's illness and death. </p>
<p>I was accepted to UP, undecided for summer 2011. I'm pretty sure I can't afford Penn State (independent student out of state), but if I can I don't think I can afford the summer session.</p>
<p>Further, I'm worried about being placed in LEAP. Does that mean my app was really not that strong? Being placed in LEAP now makes me worry about my other applications. </p>
<p>Does anyone know how they make the decision about LEAP? Is it because you are not academically strong? I think my essays were very strong but Penn did not see them. I worry they won't make that much of a difference in other schools.</p>
<p>‘Further, I’m worried about being placed in LEAP. Does that mean my app was really not that strong?’</p>
<p>1) Large public universities make most or all of their decisions based on statistics; you have all AP’s and honors but Penn State would not necessarily care and as you mention, essays don’t count</p>
<p>2) In the case of Penn State, they probably compare the entire OOS pool and, specifically, may compare to other NY students…doesn’t mean your application is “bad” but probably means that other OOS students (possibly from NY) were better based on pure stats (SAT and GPA)</p>
<p>you are competitive for all of them; obv some are reachier than others (NYU, Barnard)…your essays and your class rigor will be most important at all but UMass…</p>
<p>ready2011, LEAP is a special program offered only in the summer. LEAP is a special freshman program with living learning communities of 24 students that take the same two courses. If you were accepted for summer 2011, you are not necessarily in LEAP. Some people just start in the summer and take regular courses. If you are interested in doing LEAP, I believe that you need to send in your deposit and then register for LEAP.</p>
<p>In answer to your other question, it is commonly thought that summer admission is offered to those who did not quite “make the cut” for fall admissions based on PSU’s admission matrix. While it is not 100% clear, they base this primarily on your standard test scores and GPA, though they do state that rigor of curriculum is something they look at. So, they may have noticed your AP classes.</p>
<p>Another factor is that certain majors are more competitive for acceptance, I believe that Smeal college of Business and Eberly college of science are two of these. Some people on this board have posted that they were able to change their admission from summer to fall by calling admissions and switched from one of these more competitive colleges to DUS, the division of undergraduate studies. If you were offered summer for a school other than DUS, you might consider doing that switch too.</p>
<p>Penn State had more than 50,000 applicants this year which makes admissions more of a crap shoot so don’t feel bad.</p>