Does anyone have any links / info regarding the admissions information for the college of health and human development? How competitive is the school compared to others? Is it better to apply “undecided” if a student is borderline?
Thanks!
I think H&HD is one of the easier colleges to be admitted to at Penn State. I know that my daughter’s friend (now a junior) was admitted for fall 2017 with an SAT of 1090 and GPA under 90 (probably high 80s). I think it would be better to choose H&HD rather than DUS unless there is a chance that your daughter might change her mind about major and decide on business or engineering. If a summer start is doable financially, she should probably check that box as an alternative to fall start.
@kidzncatz Thanks for the info! I wish Penn State published the admissions stats for the individual schools like Pitt does.
I agree. It would be very helpful. Does your daughter have a specific major in mind? I think some of the H&HD majors (e.g., Athletic Training, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Kinesiology) may be more popular (and therefore more competitive for admission) than some of the others. Or would she be applying to H&HD undecided?
@kidzncatz she hadn’t even thought about going in to a specific school with an undeclared major. She wants to be an occupational therapist, specifically working with children. She was looking at human development and family studies. For OT it’s more about getting the pre-recs you need for grad school. She’s a biology kid who doesn’t want to major in bio.
She has a 4.1 gpa and a 1240 SAT. She’s retaking it in October but we’re not holding our breath for a drastic improvement. Very little studying = very little improvement.
Thanks for your input and giving us something to think about.
In my opinion, I think she has a very good chance of admission, whether she chooses to apply with a major of Human Development and Family Studies or H&HD (undecided). Has she considered the possibility of direct admission (from high school) occupational therapy programs (not available at Penn State)? As I’m sure you and she are aware, admission to graduate level OT programs can be quite competitive.
@kidzncatz admission to an OT grad program has been her primary concern. She wants to end up in a place where she’s likely to succeed. She’s avoiding bio majors because she doesn’t want to end up in classes with uber competitive pre med students!
She’s seriously looking at Duquesne for their direct OT program. Time to get the apps in and see what the admissions gods have to say!
If she is sure she wants OT, I would suggest that she concentrate on applying to multiple direct entry programs. Fortunately, Pennsylvania has a number of such possibilities.