My son was accepted back in January to University Park Smeal summer session. I’m a little surprised that he has to go for summer.
3.8 gpa
1310 SAT
3 college credits to start already
A bunch of extra curriculars
2 AP courses
4 years Varsirty Baseball
My daughter applied to UP Smeal and was very disappointingly offered Altoona 2+2
3.8 UW/GPA
1,460 SAT/32 ACT
Full IB Diploma with tons of work experience and EC’s.
Sounds like you should be happy with your Sons UP Smeal offer and not get hung up with the Summer Session thing.
Smeal is the hardest college at Penn State to gain acceptance to as a pre major freshman year. They accept only something like 11% of the applicants. Many of his fellow students will have been admitted with GPA’s well over 4.0. And there are lots of kids starting at a commonwealth campus with the exact stats of your son.
Just want to give you some perspective so that you can celebrate this achievement. Summer session is wonderful. My daughter did it. Just send him and enjoy his success and be glad he was admitted at all because plenty were not!
True, I’ve seen kids with higher stats get rejected from Smeal. And some kids come in having 6 to 7 AP courses under their belts and a ton of college credits. Here’s why this is significant: Kids who come in with credits potentially have the opportunity to register for courses earlier in subsequent semesters. This means they might potentially get preferred class times and professors with higher ratings on ratemyprofessor.com. Having an excellent professor can be the difference between getting a A,B, or C, or even lower. Smeal requires students to have a minimum GPA in order to declare their major officially their sophomore year. Having 2 Cs or Ds could make it mathematically impossible for them to stay in Smeal. So frankly, if you can financial swing summer, consider it a wonderful opportunity!!! Your son/daughter will start fall with a nice high GPA (summer is easy) and be 6 credits ahead. Summer students have already adjusted to campus, developed a social network and buddies to study with, tend to feel more comfortable/confident, etc. They are probably quite amused when all the fall students arrive, looking lost and stressed. (And some of the party-party has even gotten out of their system.) Count your blessings! It really is a true achievement to be accepted to Smeal. Consider summer a blessing.
Thank you for clearing that up.
I was really just surprised I guess, but you’re right I should be thankful. I am actually happy he is going for the summer because of the credits he will have under his belt and to get accustomed to the school. He is doing the leap program and sounds like a great program to do.
Congratulations to your son for getting accepted into Smeal! I know summer session doesn’t sound so great in the beginning but I’m a sophomore in Smeal now and doing summer session was the BEST decision I’ve ever made in my life. I made so many amazing friends (my current roommates are girls from my floor during summer), got used to the campus and learned my way around, and most important got 2 entrance to major classes out of the way. I think this is what really helped me get into Smeal since I was initially in DUS. A few of my peers in my classes were overwhelmed by having to take a lot of ETM’s per semester, but I took English 15 and Econ 102 over the summer so my course load wasn’t bad at all. I know you said he’s doing the LEAP program, but I would recommend taking 2 entrance to majors instead. I know some of the LEAP’s offered classes like public speaking, and those are already pretty easy, so it’d definitely be more beneficial to take a more challenging course like Econ over the summer to get it out of the way. Either way, congrats again 
@katiek98 Thank you! I am now excited for him since it is getting closer. He is actually looking forward to it as well. I appreciate your input and will talk to my son about it. But I am so glad to hear that summer is worth it, I only hear good things about it. Good luck with the rest of your years at PSU!