Hello, I really want to get into penn state University Park ( the main campus). I know if I get accepted I will be attending there, but I have a problem. My gpa is a 2.75 weighted and I have 24 ACT but I plan on taking it again in September and i’m Aiming for a 26-27. The reason I have such a bad GPA is because I suffered from depression my junior year. I wasn’t motivated to do well in some of my classes and I was not getting much help. I plan on saying this in my personal statement. I have many extra curricular activities throughout all 3 years of high school, I have taken two dual enrollment classes, and i’m taking challenging classes this year. I know many people from my school have gotten into penn state UP with lower GPAs and test scores, but i’m still very worried. If this info helps I have visited Penn State UP many times and I live in Pennsylvania. Will signing up for a summer class for Penn state UP help better my chances of getting in for the fall semester? My major is undecided right now. Thank you 
I’ll tell you…that GPA is going to be far too low. Even if (that’s a BIG “if”) they considered grades as they are, you would need to score perfect on your ACT to make up for them. I think your only realistic shot at Penn State is a good year at community college, then you can transfer and finish the next 3 years there.
@coolguy40: you’re right for the idea but not the specifics. PA has a weird and very expensive system. 
1 year at CC then applying to the flagship: it’s not possible (or at least, very very difficult).
The process is applying for a branch campus, either the directional- equivalent (Erie, Harrisburg, Altoona) or the near- open admissions CC-equivalents (Greater Allegheny, Abington, Dubois…) 3-3.4 tends to be enough for the three “directional” branches but a 2.75 weighted (2.5 uw??) would likely only open a “cc equivalent” branch.
@happygirl220:
Choose one of the three top branches and one alternate that either is commutable from your home, or has a dorm. Erie/Harrisburg/Altoona are reaches for your GPA and you should check “summer session” (meaning you start in June and are automatically allowed to continue in the Fall).
Do not write about mental health in your essay - colleges are already overwhelmed with mental health issues and they don’t want kids who have problems even before they start. Your essay should illustrate what you’d bring to the campus.
Have you taken a foreign language through level 4?
Math through calculus or precalculus?
All three from bio, chem, physics?
Adding all dual enrollment, honors, and AP classes you’ve taken all 4 years in HS, what number do you get?
@MYOS1634 I have a 2.6 UW. I was thinking about applying to one of the branch campuses and I have visited some too. I did more research on what to write about in a personal statement and i’m going to do something positive; just like you said. I don’t know though, I’m still going to apply to Penn state UP and put Altoona as my second choice because penn state accepts a lot of people from my school with low GPAs and test scores. For example: they accepted someone with a 2.57 gpa and 17 ACT, a person with a 2.47 and 23 ACT, another person with a 2.73 and 21 act, etc. a part of me still has some type of hope thank you so much for your advice!
The students you list likely got into a branch campus with guaranteed transfer to UP. That’s still “got into Penn State” and Ultimately they’ll get a degree from UP but they start elsewhere.
I can’t think of any scenario where they’d get into UP straight from high school with these grades (unless thy were recruited athletes, and even then). The "bottom 25%"GPA for admitted students at UP is 3.55.
You should also apply to PASSHE schools such as Millersville, Mansfield… and private colleges such as Lebanon Valley, Lycoming, York, Susquehanna, Elizabethtown.
Run the net price calculator on all of them and talk about costs with your parents.
@MYOS1634 No, they got into penn state UP. Looking at the scattergram now ,on Naviance, there’s a person who got in with 2.6 gpa and 700 SAT, another with a 2.52 and 1020 SAT, a person with a 2.12 and a 1370 SAT, and another person with a 2.34 and 1380 SAT, and there are more. I know what you’re thinking, it’s hard for me to believe too. Also, Naviance doesn’t put all the penn state schools together what I gave you is specifically from UP. Anything is possible! Sadly, The colleges you named aren’t the type of schools i’m looking for. They’re all great schools and I’ve gotten letters from all them telling me I could apply for free and without an essay, but i’m just not interested. If I don’t get into penn state and get accepted to the other schools i’m applying to like university of Arizona, West Virginia university, temple, or UD then i’ll go there. I think if I do really good on my next ACT, write a really good essay and get feedback, explain my extra curriculars and my job I think I have a better shot at getting in to the type of colleges I want. Again, thank you so much you give such great feedback 
Even if you attend a super competitive prep school these numbers don’t make sense. I’ll leave it at that - but you may want to check with your GC to see if there might have been an input or output error.
What’s your parents’ budget for college per year?
Do you know your EFC and whether your parents can afford it?
Except for Temple, the universities you list will be OOS for you, meaning you’ll pay an OOS surcharge and won’t get financial aid. You want to make sure beoeebou apply that your parents have about 150k in savings for your college, or have money saved + can afford to use part of their income for you.
What makes these universities attractive to you? I’m assuming sports play a big part ?
@MYOS1634 What attracts me about these schools is the fact that the schools are big, their school spirit, they have a lot of majors. And yes I have talked to my parents about cost. Plus, if I choose to go to an out of state school in Arizona, Delaware, or New York I’d only have to pay OOS tutition for a year because I have family in Arizona that are willing to let me live there and change my address and my parents are divorced and so my parent is moving to Delaware after I graduate, and I have another family member in New York and it only takes a year to become a full resident. And yes we know all about fasfa.
What amount have your parents committed to? It’s really important because come Spring, many students end up stuck with unffordable options.
The FAFSA EFC is the minimum you’ll be expected to pay - but none of the Universities on your list “meet need” meaning they’re free to ask for twice as much.
In the past ten years, states have cut public universities’ budget. One way they’ve tried to recoup the missing money is by greatly increasing Oos tuition and making it virtually impossible to switch from OOS to in-state rates.
Residency for tuition purpose depends on here your custodial parent lives. That parent has to live in the state for a year and you both have to switch driving license and voter registration before you can be eligible.
So, you would not qualify unless your father or mother lives now (for Fall 2019). If they move I june 2019 you have to ask whether you will be allowed to switch to in-state rates for Fall 2020 when your parent has lived instate for over a year. Not all universities allow that.
Two states still allow to switch to insure residency after a year: Missouri and Utah.
@happygirl220 I know you don’t want to hear it, but it certainly seems like a stretch with your GPA. Of course, check Summer and try to get that SAT higher.
When I look at the Common Data set, for freshman to UP, it is:
Percent who had GPA between 2.50 and 2.99 3.72%
Percent who had GPA between 2.0 and 2.49 0.35%
So, of the two people in your HS that were lower than 2.49, they were truly in the 1%. They clearly had a hook - a skill or talent that was highly desired.
I wish you the best.
@lucyvanpelt Yes, you’re right. I’m not even going to apply anymore. I’ll just apply to different colleges! Thank you for your input w
Apply to Altoona and to another branch. Then after two years you’ll be at University Park and will graduate from there. That’s what 60% UP graduates do.
For the sake of others, I want to add that Chance threads are concentrating on the chances of getting IN, when students on the margins of admittance should be concerned with chances of getting OUT. If you are in the bottom 20% of admittance, be concerned about academic fit. How will you manage? How will you suddenyl change the habits that got you through high school but aren’t enough for college? And if you are academically unsure, why deliberately choose a school where the size alone makes some things much more difficult? Why choose schools with reputations for partying? (WVU, UDel, PSU)
Penn State does not care about ECs, and only reads personal statements to see if you have some extenuating circumstance (car accident. debilitating diagnosed illness, multiple moves. flood.famine. locusts) . MYOS is spot-on — apply to a commonwealth campus like Altoona or Beaver or whatever is closest to you . Spend two years gettingg your feet under you and come to UP having proof that you can succeed.
@greenbutton just because the schools are known for partying doesn’t mean that i’ll be partying all the time. There are so much more to these schools than partying to me… I like big schools, and these schools all have programs i’m Interested in. Also, I have been changing my ways I’ve been reading up and learning about the material i’m going to learn this year to be successful, studying more, focusing more, talking about how i’m feeling when I need to. I’m not interested in going to a commonwealth college either. I’m not gonna settle for something I don’t want. Why do that when I could get something I want? I may or may not get denied to penn state but that doesn’t mean I won’t get accepted to some of the others! Thank you for your input though
Please just remember that the end result of college should be a degree. As someone who puts faith in data, please consider the graduation rates of these colleges. Look for schools where your stats, at a minimum, fall above the midpoint so you can be in the percent of kids who get to the other side with that degree in hand. It sounds to me that you are very driven now, which is great. I still think you would be better served working your way up to a big school, regardless of where it is. With a history of depression, you need to be careful not to put yourself in a precarious situation of being on your own, struggling to manage college level work, having to make new friends and define a support system, etc. College is very stressful and stirs up mental health challenges for many kids. Just be kind to yourself and find a place where you can succeed, build confidence, and earn that degree.
So, you’re not going to apply to Altoona?
The reason most students fail to graduate in 4 years and many fail to graduate, period, isn’t partying. It started not realizing what a huge step there is between high school and college. .I assume you’ve taken a few AP classes and found them hard; and that they’re considered the hardest classes offered at your school. Yet these classes are equivalent to the easiest, most basic classes in college. Not only that but the AP class is taught 5 periods a week, over 9 months. In college, the same content will be taught over 4 months only and you’ll only have class 3 times a week. The pace and the autonomy are very different from high school.
It means you’ll have to teach yourself. Each class period will require about 2 1/2 hours of efficient homework (more if you’re not used to reading a lot and annotating everything).
You’ll have to add office hours, when you go meet with the profesor and ask questions about the points you annotated during your reading or during the lecture. Then you have tutors - unlike in high school, they’re not for remedial help. They help you get organized and more efficient in order to get to an A. You may have a study group and/or review session.
The kicker: none of that is mandated or monitored. If you don’t do it it’s your problem. You get organized, you meet expectations, you pass. Or you don’t get egznuzed, you don’t pass. Your choice.
Many freshmen take that to mean “I’ll do as I please, I’m not a nerd, who does all that stuff anyway?”
On the first day of class they’re handed their syllabus and instead of writing the graded work’s due dates and the exam dates in their calendar/agenda, instead of reading through it thoroughly to know how grading is handled (dropped HW? Late penalty? Curve? Illness?), instead of booking a tutor three days before a paper is due to make sure they have someone with whom to improve said paper, they put the syllabus in their folder and do something else. Then there’s an exam and no one had told them to study for it. In fact they realize that they covered two months of HS materials in three weeks and they can’t possibly learn all of it, especially since there’s also a paper due. They do study for one subject as they would have in high school and get a 64%. They’re bewildered and overwhelmed.
At that point either they correct course (go over syllabus, book tutors, go to office hours…) and have a shot, or they are stubborn in their ways and fail.
Thank you for the amazing advice!!! This is honestly the best advice I got
@MYOS1634 yes, i understand what you’re saying but i’m not that type of student. I don’t want to waste my parents money by blowing off college and not working hard. I want to succeed and get good grades and a degree, and I know i’m going to have to go the extra mile. Altoona and the other penn state branches are just too small for me. I’ve visited a couple and I just feel like there too small for me and that there’s nothing to do on campus. Then there’s the big type of colleges that i’m Interested in where I know that if I want to do something i’ll be able to, there’s many places around campus I can go, there are a lot more things I can get involved in, finding a tutor would me more easy( I feel like I could have more than one for the same subject). Of course I’m going to party in college and go out, but i’m not going to do that all time especially when I know i’m In college for a purpose! And I have seen a therapist about my problems and she’s really helping me. We both think that my depression won’t come back and I know if I ever need to talk to someone or get stressed I can talk to a counselor at the college. If my first year at a big school is too hard I don’t mind transferring into a smaller school. I just don’t want to start at a small school if i’ll be ok at a big school. Thank you again for the wonderful advice!
MYOS, this post should be a sticky on the homepage!
Thanks!
Some large schools for you to add to your list (because right now it’s mostly reaches - you need two safeties and 3-4 matches. A match is a school where you’re above the middle 50% and near the top 25% for both GPA and scores.)
Towson
UMD-BC
Radford
VCU
ECU
Appalachian State
College of Charleston
St Louis university
UDayton
SUNY Plattsburgh
SUNY Albany
Ithaca
Cleveland State
Youngstown State
Ohio University
Millersville
Bloomsburg
Temple
Run the net price calculator on each of these and bring each of the results to your parents: what can they afford from their current income? What savings do they have for your college? Start the conversation now.
Remember you can only be considered a resident for tuition purpose of a parent moved to the state and lives there 12+ months and both you and your parents switch driver’s license and voting registration after you move.