My son got admission at Smeal college- Supply Chain program (out of state) at the Brandywine campus, with 2+2 option where he gets transferred to College park after two years. I know that Smeal’s supply chain is top notch, but unsure about the Brandywine campus. Is it worth sending my boy all the way from Colorado to this campus? or should I stick with CU Boulder? Please guide me on the 2+2 option and how good is the Brandywine campus? Do they share faculty with the main campus?
@harekrishna , not for Brandywine. Maybe one of the larger campuses like Altoona or Harrisburg. Penn State is #1 in supply chain according to Gartner, so getting a degree from PSU would definitely take him far. But Brandywine is more of a commuter campus. As an OOS student, you may want to try Harrisburg as it’s a larger campus and easier to fly in and out of compared to Altoona. Although Altoona is very convenient to UP.
Woke up, Checked portal Still under review since 8/15 . Dejavu
Congrats to all others. @greencarrot01 yay!!!
???
I guess next possibility for portal update is feb 5 at 12:01 am ? ???
Anyone else still waiting “under review”?
The universe is really sending me a message to be patient ? I get it!! ??? til feb 5
Some writes “I’m guessing they’re going to have worse yield than usual: even those admitted are discouraged at this point since not one but TWO self imposed deadlines have passed and they haven’t been able to complete their side of the deal.”
Maybe, although they have covered themselves with the Waitlist. On this board, we have seen many high-stat students with great backgrounds waitlisted for the main campus.
My feeling is that someone thought this through and figured out how to keep people interested. As someone else writes, it’s hard to decline the offer/ waitlist on the website. How many students will just let that offer stay open until May 1st, to see what happens?
I mean, students are rational. Yes, Penn State will lose some but they will anyway (because the student gets a better offer at another school). If it’s April 29th, and Penn State offers you main campus and that’s your best offer (atmosphere, price), you’re going to take it.
There are more qualified students than spots, so Penn State has room to make a lot of mistakes and still do fine, unfortunately for the rest of us. There are really no consequences for Penn State here.
One more point–I suspect in later years Penn State will give their admissions department more time. They’ll push back their deadline for telling students until February or March. I’m just guessing, of course, but if they are overwhelmed with the common app applications, why wouldn’t they?
My fingers are crossed for you all those still waiting.
Looking back at the various admissions processes at the various schools, I think my “favourite” was Purdue - which was a rolling admissions school until a couple years ago. No ED… EA deadline was Nov 1, priority RD deadline was Jan 1. They strongly encourage students to apply EA. EA decisions were all released by 5 pm EST on Jan 15, as we’d been told when we applied (they wound up releasing an hour early this year).
With this approach they have the bulk of the application pool in place two weeks before EA decisions come out, so they know what they are dealing with. Then they roll out RD decisions between Jan 16-March 15.
Once you’re admitted, they send out loads of info, plus there’s a family FB group (in addition to the student group) where deans from the various colleges and administrators answer questions, usually within a couple of hours. Very good post-admissions marketing, which I assume helps with yield.
Just my two cents (in case any PSU admissions staff are lurking!)
To add to what @UKexpat88 said, Pitt’s admission process is also seamless. True rolling admissions. No EA or ED. As a matter of fact Pitt also went on common app this year and after a few minor glitches in August, everything has run smoothly. They obviously thought ahead to hire the needed manpower for this admissions cycle.
They also have a dedicated admissions officer on here to help with questions.
Adding to what @UKexpat88 has already said…Purdue also gave a deadline for when merit scholarships would be announced and gasp actually stuck to it. From the time DS received an acceptance we’ve received emails from Purdue, The College of Science and the Department Dean and all have responded in a timely fashion to all our questions. They’ve also been hosting live YouTube sessions to answer questions. Definitely one of our better experiences. We continue to wait with PSU…
Next chance for update may be 12:01 am feb 5???
Penn state process defenders will repeat that psu has more applications therefore somewhat understandable
But that’s not an excuse or even a reason in today’s world with tech available
As many have said, staffing up in advance might have made a huge difference
This mess cannot have been beneficial to penn state staff either or yield or anything
I read many posts here that stated well, because so many apply there is a long line eager to attend (no matter what) behind every qualified applicant who gets disheartened by the process
penn state is so huge that it just is what it is
But it doesn’t have to be that way as demonstrated by many examples of large and prestigious universities who manage admissions processes well and I say more fairly
we expected more, raising a kid in pa in a legacy family with our eye on penn state as an example of excellence in all things college
We expected more from our beloved and revered penn state, that’s why for me this has been so frustrating and disappointing
Feb 5 !!!maybe my d portal will have an answer, hopefully accepted fall UP DUS
Waiting under review since 8/16
4.0 uw, 5.1w, rigor, great pa hs, 680m660e
She is blessed to have other options but still hopes happy valley ?
???good luck to any still waiting here
@Provincetown btw I completely agree with you that in the end, psu will not suffer any consequences so unlikely matters will improve next year
That’s the logical assessment, I’m disappointed emotionally but I see clearly it makes no difference to psu lol
Food for thought, and what it means as a reflection on overall admin of penn state as a prospective freshman
Great name degree after 4 years, but at what cost personally
Each student is different so of course each family needs to assess their student, this experience on the boards has given many of us lots of info to help us weigh pros and cons of attending up if accepted
zivelli513 writes “we expected more, raising a kid in pa in a legacy family with our eye on penn state as an example of excellence in all things college”
I love this, and I agree with it. And I grew up in this state and I remember that’s how it was in my house.
I was accepted into branch campus for smeal but I really wanted UP. Should I contact admissions?
@2019college123 , depends on what branch you got. From some of the other posts, it sounds like Altoona and Harrisburg are great starting schools
@2019college123 if u really want UP, contact admissions Monday, and ask to speak to an admissions counselor, not just phone answerer
If u want DUS, ask advice for it
I think @greencarrot01 posted here today is from someone who asked to switch to dus in January after being given a decision, and just got in fall 2019 up DUS
Of course this is just my opinion, please ask admissions counselor for advice for your specific application
Good luck!
How do you guys know that next deadline will be Feb 5th?
@2019college123 I think that at this point the only thing you could do would be to change to another branch campus. Smeal at UP is highly competitive and would be very unlikely with an ACT of 25. You could try calling Monday and speak with an admissions officer about any other options.
@CalinAmry hi. Sorry, I didn’t mean there is a new Deadline
I just meant that if updates are on weeknights after midnight the next opportunity for an update is 2/5
12:01 am
Sorry for the confusion, no new deadline is posted
Do you guys know if we could hear during the weekend?