<p>My daughter applied to another school in early November. They begin their rolling admission notifications November 15th, and today she received an acceptance and scholarship offer in the mail. Now, THAT'S rolling admission as I understand it!</p>
<p>I guess I'm confused how PSU can call their admission process rolling? My daughter applied September 2nd with her application complete about a week later. If it were truly rolling, she'd have a decision by now. We are attempting to patiently wait, but If I look at the "your credentials are being reviewed" status one more time I think I might lose it ;) She's had that same status since early September and we realize we may still have TWO more months to wait!</p>
<p>Getting this acceptance today was a much needed ego boost to my D, because the PSU wait is very stressful to her. Especially when she sees others who applied way after her getting their decisions. PSU is still her #1 choice, but at least we have a "back up" now. If she only gets admitted to a branch, then she will have a decision to make. </p>
<p>In the meantime, I'm wondering what rolling admission really means. Do I not understand it correctly? I thought it meant they consider applications in the order in which they are received. But that's obviously not the case at PSU. Thoughts? </p>
<p>I feel your pain and I only had to look at that status with my daughter for a little over 5 weeks! Rutgers has Early Decision…my daughter applied and 6 days after they got her completed app she was accepted. Rutgers is not her 1st choice, but a great back up. PSU should not call this rolling…to me rolling means…as we get apps in we make a decision and get notifications out. If someone is a maybe/borderline don"t leave them hanging for months…wait list them. I would rather be on a wait list …anything is better than being left hanging for months and having to check every day. The only other school we applied to has no rolling or Early Action. The app goes in and NOBODY hears until close to February. I also think that is fair…my daughter applied and will not even check her status for that school until late January. I would complain…but we are awaiting a decision. I will say once this ordeal is over, maybe in the Spring or over the Summer I will call and speak with someone in Admissions. This process should/could run so much better or just don’t call it rolling! </p>
<p>As soon as I finished this post I checked the website again…even though they say…they only update over night…it changed to accepted since earlier today! So I guess it is not true they only update over night!</p>
<p>@jlhpsu - I agree. Not sure why they call it rolling admission. They make their own rules for sure.
You’ve been very patient. I’m very glad you had a back up plan. Happy that you received good news and a scholarship.</p>
<p>We waited almost 4 months. I was getting so sick to my stomach by the time January rolled around. Then there were reports that COE was full. Lots of denied students posting. This made my son and me really worried. Luckily it worked out. We felt like that was way too long to wait to know if he was accepted or not. </p>
<p>The other 5 universities he applied mentioned that we wouldn’t hear from them until XX time. So this wasn’t as bad. Most came back with decisions between late January to into February. </p>
<p>@jlhpsu. I agree that Penn State does not have rolling admissions in the traditional sense. They should call it semi-rolling since they have multiple deadlines, not just early and regular. But, a school like WVU has real rolling admissions. I think they say the average time between application and decision is about 2 or 3 weeks. I really don’t understand why it takes Penn State so long to review some applications. It’s frustrating and aggravating to those waiting, especially for the kids that make the effort to get their applications in early like your daughter. It’s not like they only have a few spots, they are admitting almost 9,000 students and they aren’t Harvard for goodness sakes. Hang in there.</p>
<p>@PERplexD it’s definitely easier when you get a straight forward date. Some of the schools my older DD applied to were like that and we knew not to expect anything until the end of March. Although, after getting a few early admits it made the waiting a little harder and in the end those schools were knocked off my DD’s decision tree because she just got tired of waiting to make a decision. </p>
<p>TLD1367 - you said “Rutgers has Early Decision…my daughter applied and 6 days after they got her completed app she was accepted. Rutgers is not her 1st choice, but a great back up.”</p>
<p>Early Decision is binding…Rutgers has now become her first choice. She’s done!</p>
<p>Yes, if no one were to hear until January, then I wouldn’t even be checking. But when I see others getting the “coming days” status, it seems like she <em>could</em> hear anytime - even though she likely won’t. It’s making me crazy. And now we are going to drive 5 hours away to look at this school that she was just admitted to (Seton Hall) - and I know that is probably a waste of time since she won’t want to go that far. But I figure she needs to see these things for herself and make her own decisions so she isn’t always wondering “what if”. She loves that SHU is so close to NYC. But it’s far from home, and probably a little too “Catholic” for her. That’s not a criticism of Catholics. I am one. But she’s a fairly liberal thinker on social issues (as am I, so I’m probably not a good catholic), so I’m not sure a socially conservative school will be the best fit. But, you never know. She will have to decide. But if PSU would just tell us already then we’d at least have something to decide! Ugh…just venting. I’ll be happy when January is over and there is some finality in our plans. I’m a type AAA planner, and this stuff is making me crazy ;)</p>
<p>jihpsu - Totally sympathize with you! The hard part is seeing stats that are similar to your child and knowing, based on info that they have provided, that they applied after you and heard before you. Knowing that it was rolling admission, I pushed my child to get info submitted (all in my mid-Sept) so that he would know where he stood sooner rather than later. Only to show him that it all didn’t really matter. Obviously, I too, am a type AAA planner! Fortunately for us, PSU is probably not his first choice but definitely up there to revisit if he gets in. Can’t help thinking that your daughter and my son’s applications are under someone’s desk somewhere! As it is your daughter’s first choice, fingers are crossed that you hear something positive very, very soon! </p>
<p>HAHAHAHA, think my daughrer’s app is under that same desk too!<br> @jihpsu…congrats on your daughter’s acceptance to SHU! That’s where I went, and my husband, and we got married there, too! It’s very different from PSU, as you prob already know. There is a religious presence on campus, but not overly so… Wasn’t a big deal, really… Neither of my daughters were interested in applying…too close to home I think!</p>
<p>@PSUMom1321 I haven’t actually ever visited SHU! We are going this weekend to check it out…I’m concerned about how far it is (we are from Pittsburgh) and how close it is to sketchy areas of NJ. But it seems like it’s easy enough to avoid those areas. She applied there because she heard good things about their 6 year physicians assistant program…
PSU is still #1, but I do want her explore all of her options. </p>
<p>Sounds like this is your first child to apply to college. Rolling admission is not an exact order, like waiting on an orderly line to get into the movies. Rolling admission means that they let candidates know as they make their decision as opposed to letting everyone know one 1 specific date. But the making of that decision is based on many factors, one of which is when the application was completed, but other factors affect how long that decision takes. Some candidates are clear cut yes or no but many others are borderline and require longer review times. So think of it as a big crowd trying to get through 1 gate into a football game. When you became part of that crowd is a factor but will not assure you get in exactly prior to the person that joined that crowd right after you. Stop dwelling on the when.</p>
<p>I for one am glad to know that there are others out there feeling the same anxiety. Obviously, we are all dealing with it, not dwelling on it.<br>
There is an older thread inre: SHC where a guy who is a PSU dad and a faculty member and a reviewer for SHC posted some interesting points. The one that stuck was that they just don’t have time to really “read into” the essays and documents in the review process. So, spending more time on the application/essays probably wouldn’t have any real payback. It’s about numbers in the context of your own high school and then the larger pool, I guess.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s my first child who is going to college. I expect to be just as concerned with the future of my 2nd, 3rd and 4th children however. I’m not dwelling on it…although I will say that at this time in her senior year, it is pretty much all her friends are talking about and every time we run into someone it is the question of the day…so yes, we are dealing with it. There is anxiety. Which I was venting about. Others can relate. And obviously some cannot. That’s ok. We are all on our own journey with our kids. The “when” is a cause of anxiety for many of us.</p>
<p>My question was really about the rolling application process and what that means. The analogy is a good one. </p>
<p>This is my second child to hit the college circuit. First one ( two years ago) applied to three rolling admission schools and heard back from those within the first two weeks of a completed application. For the current child, he has applied to one other rolling admission school besides PSU and has already heard back from them, within two weeks of application. Given our experience, it feels like PSU is the exception, not the rule. I would just expect that the admissions/rejections would follow a more unified path…ie I apply earlier, I should hear earlier. Obviously a flawed conclusion as we patiently (ha!) wait our turn.</p>
<p>@adkdad …Not every school’s Early Decision is binding…read the fine print on the school’s website carefully…Rutgers has non binding Early Decision</p>
<p>I was told outright by Office of Admissions in September…“we do not read the essay”… I asked because we were having a problem with the format of the essay after we cut & pasted it on the app. I did not go to SHU but I did go to school in North Jersey…Montclair State…very close to SHU. I loved it! Very easy to avoid the sketchy areas! Close to NYC and so much to do in the area…but I was only an hour from home…</p>
<p>What I want to know is, what happens to all the priority applications “currently in review” after the priority deadline (Nov 30) passes, and what distinguishes them from non-priority applications at that point? </p>
<p>@jlhpsu, why not Seton Hill? It’s in Greensburg, PA which should be only an hour away from Pittsburgh!
They have a physicians assistant program.</p>
<p>@adkdad Rutgers has early ACTION therefore nonbinding, it is not early DECISION. Also, with early decision, she would have had to sign an ED agreement.</p>
<p>@jlhpsu So far i’ve mostly seen kids who applied to a certain college/school like engineering, business, and such get in; is it possible her applying to DUS has created a delay, as in they handle DUS students after they do a majority of the other schools?</p>