@5melissa1234 Yep. I know some people who have gotten denied and other posters have posted about people they know getting denied. I think it’s a lot harder to write/talk about getting denied so many people are probably keeping this to themselves. Yea that would be horrible haha… fingers crossed it doesn’t happen!
yea denial is horrible to admit. i was denied from northeastern and cornell and felt horrible to admit to my friends. sigh 
Agree much harder to post denied but it just seems like those posting admissions have way higher GPA and SAT/ACT then is statistically required…
Keep in mind that Penn State gets upwards of 50,000 applications a year (57,229 last year), so obviously only a small % are on CC and even less actually post on CC. So I don’t think we can take what is posted here as the “norm” for applicants.
10 days and counting!
@jlhpsu “…what does getting denied and then calling and changing to DUS/Summer do to those who are still waiting to hear and have originally applied DUS and/or summer?”
So, I did go back and reread last year’s threads and talked to someone at our hs, and I think it does bump down those who have not yet heard, but who applied before nov. 31. PSU wants to get as many people in with either or both high GPA and Scores. Allowing a high SAT/lower GPA or vice versa (ex: 2100/3.2) who originally did not select Summer and DUS to now change their mind, definitely lowers the chance/spaces for an overall 25%-50% (ex: 1710/3.5) candidate. That may be why they hold back acceptances for the bulk of 25-50 percentiles until the end – because there is constant shuffling and re-ranking??
@Leyland That would really stink because DUS is intended for people who actually don’t know what they want to do, rather than a “catch all” for those who’s stats don’t meet the entrance criteria of what they want to do. Not to mention penn state says that applying DUS would not hurt the applicant in any way.
That being said, another nervous mom called admissions yesterday to ask this exact question and she was told, and relayed to me, that the major changers do not get put in front of those still waiting. Admissions told her that the decisions are made for the major changers after all decisions have already been made for priority applicants (even if they haven’t been notified yet). Obviously not the case for those who applied after priority.
Hopefully the admissions advisor was correct!
I always assumed Penn State had enough super high stat applicants that they could fill their classes with just them if that’s what they wanted, but that they weren’t trying to be an Ivy and wanted more balanced educational opportunities for a wider pool of applicants…hence the summer option etc… That’s why you see some super stat applicants denied and some middle 50% accepted. I don’t know…I’m trying to figure out a process that is very mysterious! But for this question, admissions seems to think that the “DUS changers” does not affect the applicants still waiting.
I also want to weigh in on this. This is just a hunch why some super stat kids get denied. I think its their major. D was accepted into engineering with lower stats then some males that were denied.(SAT wise, not GPA hers was a perfect 4.0 unweighted) I read somewhere that only 15% of engineering majors are female. I assume it may be the same thing with Smeal. I am not sure. However, I am pretty sure that female engineering majors have a lower threshold than males.
Honestly, I don’t see how that can work logistically. That would suggest that they really do practice “rolling” admissions, but they just don’t release decisions on a rolling basis, and I think evidence doesn’t support that. I guess I just have to be grateful that my son is happy as a clam and unaware of all the acceptances that have been posted here so far!
@Leyland
Ok…because I am a complete pain in the ass, I called myself 
I just spoke with admissions and they told me the following:
-They ARE getting requests for major changes from those who have not been accepted into their major of choice.
-They WILL NOT re-evaluate until everyone from the pre-November 30th priority deadline has a decision.
-AFTER they have evaluated and made decisions on all priority applicants, they will begin re-evaluating
-She said that it would not be fair to re-evaluate prior to those who have been waiting and that no one will take anyone’s spot.
-The January 31st deadline to hear is a NOTIFICATION deadline…not just an evaluation deadline. So those of us still waiting will hear by January 31st, therefore we will get the ‘Coming Days’ status before then.
There you go! Made sense when she was talking to me anyway VERY NICE admissions person and was very sympathetic as her own child went through the “horrible” waiting (her words!).
I went back to look at the infamous bubble chart. It looks to be holding up for accuracy so far. That means that my son will get an offer for an alternate campus. He’s right in the middle of the grey/yellow zone on the bubble chart (but in the green on Naviance), and with this long of a wait, I’m braced for the alternate and will be somewhat surprised if he gets in for UP for Summer.
At this point, I have just about given up on a Fall acceptance for my Daughter, and just hope for Summer. We are just ready to move on with our lives!
i know it’s hard to stay positive when there has been such a long wait for many of us, but in reviewing the thread from last year, there were many acceptances at the 11th hour (last week of priority notifications). So even though it feels like it - I don’t think that just because we haven’t heard yet means that our kids didn’t get in to their first choice. I’m keeping the faith and staying hopeful. No news is not a denial at this point. If my D gets into Altoona and not summer/fall main campus, she will no doubt be devastated…and it will be hard to watch. But I will have to trust the powers that be that Altoona will be the right place for her. Still very hopeful that MAIN CAMPUS is the place for her! About a week left maximum of this torture. I swear someone in admissions has figured out who my daughter is from my CC posts and now they are just having fun with me! LOL. I haven’t seen many who applied earlier and haven’t heard yet.
Maybe I should start painting and inhaling paint fumes! Haha I like your attitude, and I am going to try to be Positive! [-O<
How long after status change to “coming days”?
I wonder if I should call admissions and ask if they will be updating over the weekend? It might save us some sanity if I know not to bother with it…
Yes, please!
My Ds status changed to Accepted yesterday…1 day after status changed to “coming days”!
adkdad & D – Congratulations!!
My son is one of those whose status hasn’t yet changed to ‘coming days.’ Now with this “historic, apocalyptic storm of biblical proportions” approaching and the promise of being locked in the house for days just staring at the MyPennState Application Status, I was wondering what others are doing while waiting. If this storm is as bad as ‘they’ say, should he simply enroll at the University of Phoenix and get some on-line credits while waiting for the snow to melt and/or a decision from Penn St (not sure which will come first)? And do you think the Admissions Office will have a snow day or two from this storm? (According the the maps, Happy Valley should make out much better than our area of NJ).
The impending storm sounds terrible, but I hope the PSU staff puts out some more decisions. I’m thinking of doing something relatively more fun and less stressful – 2014 tax returns?