<p>smeal standards are a little higher than say, division of undergrad studies, as the average applicant boasts slighly higher marks overall... bahamut277 is right. unless its a special program, competition between a prospective actuarial science, marketing, and finance majors is in the same pool, and for good reason. Smeal, and most colleges, anticipate major changes, as i believe the statistic is like 70% change their major at least once, and of that 70% 2/3 are likely to change within the same discipline, so having all business majors in the same competition pool makes sense, as they cannot predict where you will go based off of your current interests</p>
<p>so that means by applying to smeal doesnt mean that i have a worse change of getting in right?</p>
<p>you are correct...once you apply to smeal, your choice of prospective major is irrelevant in their consideration. I would like to put this out there however...if you are applying to be an actuary (arbitrary) and you dont have any AP math (or any demonstration of a rigorous math course), your SAT math sucks, etc...this could be a problem for you....but in general, you compete against all different business majors</p>
<p>I'm applying to foreign languages. That's not really a hard major to get into, shouldn't be a problem there. Humph.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how competitive the agriculture program is to get into, generally</p>
<p>i've actually heard their agriculture program is tough. a friend of mine is currently at clemson and she's really smart, had great grades, class president etc and applied to penn state under that major because she thought it'd be easier to get admitted with the pretense of switching to arcitechture. with that major, she got into the summer program but when she decided to call and ask if she could switch to arcitechture they said sure and she could go in the fall.</p>
<p>still waiting and i applied mid-october, i dont even noe why i still have hope, at this point i dont see myself getting in at all :( the whole "random reviewing" is bull and im just getting my hopes up for nothing.</p>
<p>twilight-- during one of my recent calls to admissions, one of the ladies told me that there are more students who have NOT heard than those who have heard... and that the application reviewers work at night and they are going to push them all out by 1/31.</p>
<p>yeah it seems like there are TONS of people who still haven't heard. it's annoying but i guess the number of apps really blew up this year. i really don't have any hope of getting in at this point..</p>
<p>Have any of your friends been accepted to UP or diverted to a branch ? We are still waiting......</p>
<p>i've had friends who've gotten in and a couple who were accepted to branches a long time ago. the people who were accepted had great stats. the ones who weren't didn't have good stats. only one person i know of with mid-range grades like most of us still waiting got in, but her dad also went there too and PSU loves the alumnai thing so</p>
<p>thanks, mkc, just to make you feel better: my husband and i are both alum and my son still hasn't heard anything :-/ i am not sure that really helps.... and yeah, same here at my son's school > high stats have heard as well as lower (branches) with no one inbetween.</p>
<p>thats surprising actually. are you OOS?</p>
<p>no we live 20 miles from philadelphia</p>
<p>oh and one more thing: his guidance counselor told me that 51 kids attended PSU UP last year...</p>
<p>just to clarify some things for you posters out there...OOS MEANS NOTHING TO PENN STATE!!!!!!!!! I cant remember how many times this has been said and how many times its written on PSU's admissions FAQs!!! Also, the reason those in between have not heard is because they have been placed in the "maybe" pile. The "maybe" pile is the equivalent of being deferred in a typical admissions process, but a candidate is not officially deferred in rolling admissions. In otherwords, if you are mid-range, they are doing two things. 1) they are holding off to see how many more high and low stat apps come their way so that they can build the ideal class and/ or 2) they are taking the time to read the essay and ECs that are not read unless you fall in the middle so that they may make a more educated decision on your app!</p>
<p>With all of that being said, because of PSU's record number of apps this year, they have been slow to process. As you can see by the recent surge in decisions, they have been moving very quickly since the beginning of the year. If you have applied before Nov 30 and have not heard back, especially for business, the slowest out of all of the schools according to admissions, do not fret, as the majority of apps have not been released yet! If you applied after November 30, do not worry either as you will more than likely not hear until after the 31 as their focus is to live up to their notification deadline for early applicants..</p>
<p>Overall, to all you nervice folks out there, just stay calm...They are working the best they can and they WILL decide on you. Personally, I have a 1980 SAT and 4.27 GPA. Having applied to Smeal and being very near the upper 80th percentile for the stat range, I still have not heard and am axious like the rest of you, so I get it, but try to remain calm folks, as most of us posters will hear by Friday, NO WORRIES!!!!</p>
<p>actually, jaradw, oos means more $$ for psu so they might want to tap on the fine students from oos.</p>
<p>and thank you for your positive words :-)</p>
<p>Decisions probably won't come out on the weekends right?
But, this is the last week...I'm freaking out.
WHY ARE THEY SO SLOW!</p>
<p>are those of you who are still waiting smeal applicants?</p>