@cb1414 , I am sorry to hear that your first choice major did not work out. It is interesting that they took the time to make an alternative suggestion for you. Did your letter say that you are accepted to UP for Fall 2020 regardless?
Good luck with your decision.
That’s pretty much in line with other admission years. Every single year they tell people that decisions roll out once a day and every single year that is just not true. Decisions roll out several times a day, as we’ve seen.
Decisions also are not ‘first in, first out’ and never have been. It’s frustrating as anything to see someone who applied later get a decision sooner, but it happens regularly. I have a sticky thread at the top of the forums about how decisions roll out - it’s from 2014 though, so surely things have changed from then - but it does give a good overview of why it’s not first in, first out.
The best advice I can give anyone is not to expect anything. Decisions are random, portal updates multiple times a day, definite yes’s and definite no’s hear earlier, HOWEVER, not all of either category will hear earlier. So if you haven’t heard yet it doesn’t mean a yes or a no. It simply means you haven’t heard yet. And that advice goes all the way down to the last day of the deadline. Plenty of people get accepted on that very last day of notifications.
Penn State admissions processes is brutal and frustrating and the wait is agonizing. But the good news is, if you get in, the next months until August fly by and you are there before you know it (maybe not such good news for moms and dads 
) And if you don’t get in, the good news is you are meant to be somewhere else.
The last bit of advice I have to give everyone is don’t automatically dismiss the commonwealth campuses as “less than”. It’s just not true. I think some of them are the best-kept secrets in PA. Altoona, Harrisburg, Behrend…they are excellent 4-year colleges in their own right. Many students choose to start there, especially in the science and math-heavy majors as the smaller class size helps students get through those very tough weed out courses. Other students applied to UP and didn’t get in and ended up at commonwealth campuses that they didn’t want to go to, and end up staying all 4 years rather than doing the 2+2 because they love it so much.
I hear it all of the time. So, IF you wanted UP and you don’t get in, and you are offered a commonwealth campus, and you are in state especially, don’t dismiss them. They are not all created equal however, so do your research. Altoona, Behrend, Harrisburg - great small colleges with the big Penn State name and resources.
Seems like they are accepting students with 3.8 GPA or higher. Figures my DS has a 3.78 unweighted. Makes me feel like the years of him taking honors and AP classes was a complete waste of time and energy. I don’t understand how a school can only look at unweighted GPA. Not unless I’m wrong on this.
They absolutely consider the rigor of coursework. The problem with GPA is when school A weights heavier or has a much easier grading scale than school B, so it looks like kids from school A have better grades when that’s not true.
For example, in our high school, they JUST switched to 90% being an A for new freshmen. My daughter is a junior. 94% is an A. So her freshman brother can get a 91% and that’s a A for him, the exact same grade for my junior daughter is a B. That affects GPA tremendously.
So, Penn State takes into consideration your school’s grading scale, weighting scale and your child’s coursework taken from what was offered. If your school doesn’t offer AP classes, they don’t expect that you’d take them. If your school has 90% as a A, they can’t compare that to the 94% A that another kid from another school has. They have to level the playing field - so Penn State does their own calculations of GPA.
The above is also the reason the “chance me” threads are ridiculous. Without knowing the grading scale, the weighting scale etc…it’s impossible to tell what a 3.7 means. It’s also the reason why we shouldn’t compare GPA’s here once denials start rolling in. The GPA posted is the tip of the iceberg.
Also, I am positive there will be plenty of 3.8 GPA’s hearing closer to the deadline. Many higher stat students hear early, but not all of them will.
Ah, yes, this makes A LOT of sense! Thank you so much for shedding light on this. That was very helpful! You probably have to explain this every year to us! I appreciate you taking your time to do this.
I have not seen an acceptance for the College of Communications yet. Has anyone else noticed or heard of one yet? Thanks!
I called again since I forgot to ask about weekends/Thanksgiving.
Here’s what I was told:
Hope that helps. ?
My daughter received her acceptance this am for College of Communications. She is OOS.
i did comm school too but i haven’t heard yet!!! 
Congratulations to those who have heard back! Seems like a lot of OOS students to me?
@SCressler : anecdotally, from old main (building) to the lion shrine (statue of a mountain lion/jaguar type).
My daughters friend received her acceptance today. My daughter is undecided and still waiting…
My daughter’s friend (double legacy) heard as well. She has pretty high stats and I believe wanted some type of engineering. My daughter (single legacy fwiw) applied HHD. Penn State UP is her first choice (Checked summer start option) and her stats indicate she has a good chance but the waiting is so hard. We are OOS.
Has any DUS for UP heard back yet?
Has anybody heard from HHD?
Our portal pic didn’t change after DD was accepted. It’s still Old Main
My daughters pic didn’t change either.
Was accepted into the Smeal school of Business this morning.
Good luck to those still waiting!
Accepted into College of Engineering, computer science major.
(I didn’t check the portal until morning of 11/21, so don’t exactly know when they posted the decision.)
Was accepted today into the College of Ag as a Veterinary and Biomedical Science Major.
SAT- 1310
GPA weighted- 102.7642
GPA unweighted- 96.6428
-participated in various extracurriculars, clubs and varsity sports