<p>Hello all,
I am a current student at Penn State as a member of the Schreyer Honors College (freshmen accepted). If anyone has questions regarding their chances, Penn State (#3 FB btw), or the shc life/academics, feel free to post here or pm me. </p>
<p>Here are my high school stats that i was admitted with.</p>
<p>ACT- 28
SAT-1270/1600</p>
<p>High School GPA- 3.98 (uw) 4.27 (w), graduated valedictorian
Very rigorous HS courses, including several honors and AP classes (Bio, WHistory, Gov, EnviSci, Eng Lit)
Attended PA Gov School for AgSci</p>
<p>ECs- NHS (Sec), FFA (VP), academic challenge team, senior science lab tech
Awesome teacher recs and essays (make friends with ur HS teachers, especially an english one, it WILL pay off)</p>
<p>I applied in September and am awaiting word -- do you know what the normal timeframe is to hear back?</p>
<p>Regarding your offer of chancing, I'd appreciate it!</p>
<p>WM in strong MA public school;
3.35gpa out of 4.0 (3/4 of all classes at the Honors level and 3APs this year (Biology, Statistics, Latin)
700M/610CR/540W; 670MathII SATII
2 very strong Rec's -- 1 from Latin teacher/1 from Math teacher
Pres. of Latin Club (2ys)
Varsity Golf (4 ys)
Cancer Relay For Life (4ys)
Few other ec's
Jobs the past 2 summers
Not applying for fin. aid</p>
<p>Applied to Smeal Business (regular, not Honors program)</p>
<p>Would you give me your thoughts as to my chance of admission? Thanks.</p>
<p>You look solid enough to get an offer at UP, Im not sure of your chances for getting into shc though. Its your GPA that is a little off. But you say that you have taken 3/4 of your coursewrok in honors/AP, so you challenged yourself in HS, that is good, that will help you. Not asking for Fin. aid wont effect your shc consideration.
Is your GPA different weighted or does your school not do that?</p>
<p>You will hear back in late Feb/early march either way.</p>
<p>To do the summer "LEAP" you needed to indicate that on your PSU app. Bascially, if you do so, you will ahve a better chance of getting in than applying for just fall, especially if you are a borderline candidate. If you diddn't indicate that, just call admissions and tell them that you want to change that. I personally diddn't do Summer session this past year but heard good things about it. Except it gets really hot in the dorms (No A/C)</p>
<p>^Summer session and Summer Leap are not the same thing. Leap is an entire different program for freshman students who chose to do it over the summer. You apply or indicate that you want to do it around April. This will NOT, in any way, affect your admission chances because the process occurs AFTER you have been admitted. The regular summer session, on the other hand, will increase chances if indicated on the application. In both cases, you take 2 classes over the summer. But in Leap, you take them with the same 30 kids or so, do various activities to build friendship/leadership/etc., and live together.</p>
<p>About a year ago the honors college/program at PSU decided to base admissions on a holistic review rather than simply judging applicants by their numbers. This, I think, is a better way for PSU to go and the OP is a great example of a deseving student (class val & Pa. Gov.'s school for AG) who would have been excluded under the prior stats based system due to a 28 ACT & 1270/1600 SAT.
Rumors used to be posted on CC that it took SATs of 1450+/1600 to get into this honors college/program. I didn't believe these rumors, but posters were adament that they were Ivy equivalents. Problem is that those accepted to an Ivy, MIT, Stanford, Northwestern, Duke, etc. were reluctant to turn down those ultra-prestigious schools. Then the tuition free programs at some Ivies & Stanford made it even more unlikely that super high scoring acceptees would attend the honors college in lieu of Ivies. Alabama currently has the best system for its honors college with clear cut standards for acceptance with scholarships.
Thanks to the OP for starting this thread. My info. under the prior system suggested that a low 1300/1600 with good grades was good enough & that those circulating rumors of Ivy like requirements hurt the honors college/program. The new system is much better for all concerned, IMO.</p>
<p>Thats very true, but SHC hasn't used SAT scores for the last 5-6 years. They do publish the averages of the students in the college, and its around 1450 or something like that I believe.</p>
<p>lil_killer: Actually, saying that you want to do the summer leap session on your application does give you a better shot at getting into UP if you are boarderline, I have a friend from my high school who applied for fall for a specific major, her GPA/SATs were not as good compared to the rest of the applicants for that major so they put her in the summer leap program to better get her aquainted to the college life. When she called and changed to undecided they allowed her to enter during the fall semester. She found out that she was admitted summer session LEAP with the first acceptance letter she recieved. </p>
<p>I have not met a freshmen who just did the regular summer session w/o doing LEAP, you are more on your own in regards to getting around college if you do not do the LEAP program.</p>
<p>Coldwind: thank you. Alot of other students I have met have applied to other ivies with their high SATs, the one's that were accepted turned down the ivy mostly due to $, the package the shc gives you + the $ you most likely will recieve from your PSU college for being a scholar are very nice.</p>
<p>^You cannot indicate LEAP on the application. Registration for LEAP begins on Tuesday, February 26, 2008, at 5:00 p.m. You must also be a Summer 2008 admit for University Park. Indicating summer session would greatly increase your chances, but you must register for LEAP separately in February if you wish to do it.</p>
<p>yeah when i did the application, there wasn't anything to indicate LEAP. just summer. on the website it says you have to be admitted already to do LEAP.
but i meant does anyone know what GPA/SAT scores they usually admit to summer? i've heard it can be lower than the regular people admitted to UP. some people say it's easier to get in if you apply for summer</p>
<p>Yeah, I just asked for 2 teacher recs a week ago. And ahh I just finished the essays..they were wayyyy more specific than other essays that I've done so far. As for ECs, I have SGA, NHS, school sports, various clubs, etc etc. I hope it's enough! =)</p>
<p>student1991 i know how you feel about the essays lol i felt the same last year...i spent so long on them, but it pays off! the essay topics were rough this year though...but i think you've definitely got a great shot! good luck!</p>
<p>blu_g8orade: I don't remeber exactly, but I think the app emails your teachers and they submit via online. You can check the status of the recs on your app as you should receive an email when the teachers submit them. It should say somewhere on the app about turning it in before the recs are back, I want to say yea go ahead but I'm not 100% sure. Try contacting the shc.</p>
<p>cwryan1 i think you're right...from what I remember my teachers received an e-mail and it was somewhat separate from the application itself. if that's the case you could probably submit them at different times. I think there may be separate deadlines for teacher recs and the app itself....but like cwryan said, contacting the shc would be a good idea.</p>