<p>On a thread for another topic, there's mention that a student applying for summer entry may provide an admissions advantage over kids checking off they're applying for the fall. I think that Penn State University Park was referenced.</p>
<p>I imagine it's only relevant for state universities that have fairly significant academic offerings in the summer.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any anecdotal, college counselor or admissions staff info on this? If it's already been covered on a prior thread, please post a link to that thread. Thanks!</p>
<p>Back in the last century, at least one of my cousins (in-state) was able to get a space at Penn State University Park because he was willing to start in the summer session. I have heard rumors to similar effect for in-state students at U of Maryland College Park - easier to get in for second semester or for the summer than for the fall. I don’t know if this is true for out of state students. Probably the best source for this kind of info for your home-state public Us would be your HS guidance counselors.</p>
<p>Anecdotally, I think that stating one will accept a summer start in the University of Florida application helps the applicant. Once accepted, there’s a great advantage in that the freshman will be starting on a less-crowded campus, with other freshmen (mostly), learn their way around with less work/fewer classes, etc. I know this worked out well for my (now senior) son, and for all of his friends.</p>
<p>Just heard this today from a friend: UMich summer application=easier admit…but here’s the catch; summer at UMich is $25,000…crazy, yes, but if you really want in to the big blue…there you go…</p>
<p>Yes, have heard this the past few years at Penn State, UCF…and also have heard of January admits at UMD (no housing offered)</p>
<p>Shhh! Don’t tell everyone about this! This might be the only way my son can get in at PSU, main campus and if everyone knows, they’ll also apply for the summer start! </p>
<p>Seriously, PSU main campus is incredibly popular and the accepted GPA and SAT’s scores have been creeping up so much over the last few years that an avg. B student does not have a good chance of being accepted unless they will do a summer start. It was mentioned as a strategy at an admissions talk that we attended late this summer.</p>
<p>I have heard of a number of students doing this to get in to the main campus of Ohio State as well.</p>
<p>One advantage of starting in the summer is I think that, for new freshmen especially, is the fact that there is not the mass of all-new students hitting campus with the expectation of it being all one big party, all the time. It’s a quieter, less dramatic entrance to campus life that lets the new student get used to the college level academics and perhaps living away from home in a less frenetic and frenzied atmosphere, and lets the new student form good habits right from the start. I think this might be especially important for this group of students, who aren’t quite at the tippy-top of the applicant pool (of course, for some of the students, they are just as academically qualfied, they may have just been slower starters in high school or not as good test takers).</p>
<p>Kathiep – was the strategy mentioned in post #6 brought up by a PSU admissions person at a talk, or at a “general” guidance counselor or college counselor presentation? </p>
<p>I think there could be lots of advantages starting in the summer that have nothing to do with whether or not it’s “easier” to be admitted. Although… the main purpose of my post was to find out if it did provide an advantage.</p>
<p>Also, I’m still not completely clear on whether this is something that applicants choose when they apply…or if it’s something they’re offered after they’re admitted (or…possibly both?)</p>
<p>Particularly interested in PSU - Univ. Park for out-of-state…but definitely interested in hearing about other schools.</p>
<p>For Maryland, Spring Admission is offered to some of those who apply for Fall…it seems very numbers driven - more like their version of a waitlist. The up side is that you get in, the down side is that you might not get in the dorms. I think a lot of them even start in the fall, but they are off campus. “Freshman Connection” is what they call it - or perhaps that’s the name of the program that helps ‘connect’ these students to campus because of the ususual circumstances.</p>
<p>In state, for the '08 admission season, the GCs at my D’s HS mentioned that the cutoff for fall admission for SATs seemed to be 1250. They noticed that anyone below that cutoff was offered spring. My daughter was '09, and we noticed among her peers that those whose SATs were in that ballpark were offered spring admission. Some very good students were spring admits.</p>
<p>My dd applied to PSU last year. It is one application which contained a place to check off which campuses you were applying for: University Park, and/or some of the satellite campuses. There was also a question would you accept summer admission to the LEAP program at the main campus.
My dd only wanted UP and only checked that, and based on what we heard from other prior year’s applicants, as well as the whole purpose of LEAP, she did check that she would attend summer. That is supposed to maximize your chances of admission, as does applying for the DUS (division of undergraduate studies as an undecided major) rather than applying to say, the business school.
However, she was admitted to UP for the fall.
Everyone she knows that attended LEAP loved it, and thought it was a great experience. It would have cost another 6K I think though? Plus she would have had to forego her summer job earnings…which is her spending money for the year. So actually I was relieved she didn’t have to go in the summer.</p>
<p>The official word from Penn State is that applying for summer will increase your chances of admission. The official word from Michigan is that it will not. (I suppose the official word might be different from what is actually true…what do we think about that in general?) Maryland doesn’t ask you to choose, and will just offer spring admission to candidate who don’t qualify for fall admission.</p>
<p>This is just one factor that is considered. For S1 at PSU, it also helped that although his grades were not stellar (3.0) he took hardest classes (had APs that were accepted for credit), focused activities with music, was a double legacy, and OOS with no need for financial aid. With all that, agreeing to summer took him over the top and got him in. It was a bit of a jolt, though. He graduated one day and the next morning was at PSU in orientation. </p>
<p>Being there in summer was great for him as mentioned before, time to settle before the circus of fall at PSU and getting some classes in his weaker areas out of the way with smaller classes instead of the really large lectures. Downside was the lack of employment so we had to provide more financial support. It also added a semester, although he could have graduated early, he used the extra semester for an internship which also required some $$ to PSU to keep his student standing and get credits considerate from it.</p>
<p>RTR: as you know, I don’t believe a word of ANYTHING UMich admissions says; they say one thing and do another…often…last year, there were kids who were conditionally admitted based on attending summer; no idea what their stats were…</p>
<p>ASIDE: what other school would change the way they look at GPA in the middle of an admissons cycle?..right before kids can get their EA apps in?..alot of kids in our public HS were discouraged from applying based on the old system…and didn’t have enough lead time to do the essays for EA; had to apply RD…ok, my rant is over for today…</p>
<p>Attended an information session at PSU, University Park this past summer and they did indeed say that summer admissions would be easier than fall. They also recommended starting off at another of Penn State branches and then moving to UP for the last 2 years (a 2+2 program). This apparently is very popular.</p>
<p>On another note, a friends’ D got admission to WashU and was also accepted there for the summer program, completely free of cost. They paid for her flights, her boarding, meals etc for the summer term. She loved it - she felt like it gave her a leg up on the fall term - she already knew where everything was, how everything worked etc when she was back there in late August.</p>