There is good and bad with this process. The one thing that is clear is some schools view our kids as commodities and others value them as individuals. Regardless, college is " Big Business" and nothing else. Go to the University where you will graduate with the best chance to be the best you, you can be.
I have a feeling they wonât let us know until near the end of the month. Obviously nobody new has been getting accepted. Guess maybe theyâll release decisions all at once. My son got accepted last night to University of Colorado, Boulder (one of his top choices) with a nice scholarship. He applied EA there and found out a few days earlier than what was expected. I canât believe Penn State is so screwed up this year, Iâm disappointed with the way this is going. My husband & I spent time at Penn State and always speak highly of it, but with this mess, Iâm feeling let down.
I wondered when someone would bring up Housing. Accepting your offer and paying the deposit entitles you to a spot âin lineâ for housing, which is guaranteed to freshmen but nobody else at PSU. So being on the waitlist is a Housing âdisadvantageâ in that you are most likely to get supplemental housing, because you are towards the back of the line.
Before someone declaims that isnât fair â doing it in random order after May 1 wouldnât feel fair to early acceptors, and you would get the mixed results that nonsequential application review has.
PSU has 40K students just at UP, plus all the campuses. They get very little funding from the state. They are perpetually understaffed. Of course your studentâs tuition money is just a commodity. Do other huge schools do this better? Yes, and PSU does a crappy job. But that doesnât make PSU terrible or sneaky. Donât idealize a place and then blame them for not living up to it.
@caymangirl38 congratulations to your son for univ of Colorado and a scholarship too!
Helps take some of the sting out of waiting for penn state during this unprecedented admissions year
I also am curious whether or not decisions are coming out since 1/2 return from break
No one has posted decisions, but admits may still be happening, just not posted since here we see only a tiny fraction of people who applied
We are feeling sad and let down by the PSU
EA process as other acceptance offers come in, grateful for each
but other selective schools accepting her seems to confirm my d had reasonable expectation for UP
Not giving up but itâs the 12th, 1/31 is coming soon and no word here on new acceptances
Anyone hear from classmates who have gotten decisions since 1/2?
@greenbutton Pitt has a mass allocation of housing in June
All who have accepted and paid by May 1 are in the pool
Sorry, I think thatâs much more fair than PSU
Where my d applied EA 8/15 and if fortunate enough to be accepted by 1/31 will be in line for housing behind many of those who applied after 8/15 but were accepted before her
Doing an en masse housing at PSU would be equal to all who applied and take a lot of the stress out of waiting since housing choices are affected
Not trashing PSU, just another disappointing process to consider
Love PSU, thatâs why we expect more, not perfection just equal opportunity
^Strictly speaking I donât think the date of housing choice matters till February, when they start using dates. But thatâs because until this year the decisions were given âby Jan 31â.
We have not heard of any decisions since Admissions returned on 1/2. 4 of my sonâs classmates heard 2+2 right before Christmas. Probably close to 20 really high stat kids heard UP acceptance early fall. In State High School with approx 500 kids in the class. My son and 3 others had applications complete by end of August/ early September. The 4 of them received deferred decision to 1/31. I think all 4 of these kids should have a decent shot at UP, especially with summer session marked as option for a few of them though it didnât sound like they would definitely accept summer. My son would accept it if offered. 3 of them are DUS. I wonder if DUS is one of the last majors to hear? Trying to remain patientâŠand positive since my son wasnât included in the 2+2 decions that were sent before Christmas.
A NEW DECISION WAS POSTED WITH A DECISION DATE OF TODAY!
Wait list for fall 2017 (the last year the common data set exists for UP)
Number of qualified applicants offered a place on the waiting list 2,168
Number accepting a place on the waiting list 1,359
Number of wait-listed students admitted 0
So, 2,168 students were offered the wait list out of 60,000 applicants or about 3% of applicants. So you have a 97% of NOT getting offered the waitlist. I truly believe waitlist is used when they are out of space. Thatâs it. They will not be out of space until April. Same with housing. People who deposit by the end of March generally do not get supplemental housing. And even those who apply in April who DO get supplemental housing often end up loving it and deciding NOT to move into a double when space opens up.
As far as depositing at a school to hold a space while you wait for another openingâŠI think thatâs a big no no and it holds up space at whatever school is your back up, but may be someone elseâs dream school. For sure, there are people doing that at Penn State right now that are taking up spots from your children who are desperate to get in. I personally think itâs in bad taste to do so. Everyone should wait until they get a decision and then physically decline the offers at schools in which they were admitted but wonât attend. That opens up a lot of space for others. Too many just accept at one school and leave that spot open at the other school until May, which mean that maybe the school had to put people on the wait list just waiting to see if you were coming or not. I know that we tend to only think of ourselves and our children in these situations, but if people looked at the big picture it would run smoother for all involved.
Sometimes people deposit at many schools at once just so that they have options. Thatâs an even bigger no no. At this point, in January, there is no reason to deposit at other schools. The deadline isnât until MAY and itâs way too early to be holding spots from other students. ESPECIALLY when in all likelihood you will hear in the next 3 weeks.
Thatâs my college application etiquette soapboxâŠ
@MyaCocoa Can you elaborate a little more? My coffee hasnât kicked in yet. Lol
I see a posting in the Decisions thread with a decision date of 1/12. Are they actually releasing decisions today, a Saturday?
@kansha I saw that also. It maybe the decisions released based on yesterdayâs work day after midnight.
You can deposit the Housing deposit where they allow you to do that without first accepting admissions.
I think you can accept an admission offer and deposit for housing then switch as long as itâs before May 1st, although itâs bad form, especially if you get closer to May 1.
You can always ask whether housing deposits are refundable before May 1st.
@spqr70nj Coffee doesnât do much for me, but I will try to understand and work with your situation. Step 1: Sniff coffee. Step 2: Sip coffee. Step 3: Look euphoric. Step 4: Go to http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/penn-state-university-park/2101617-class-of-2023-admissions-decisions-only-penn-state-p19.html and see⊠wait⊠more coffee first⊠and then see, where a student posted they got their decision today January 12. Boom. Repeat Steps 1 & 2. Do not look euphoric, because I am guessing this student is not your kid⊠Repeat Steps 1 & 2 while obsessively refreshing above link. I hope this helps!!! 
LOL
@MYOS1634 When my daughter accepted in Jan 2015 and my son accepted in October 2016, both times the deposit was non refundable. Maybe theyâve changed it. You werenât locked in per say - but if you decided not to go, you did not get your deposit back. Iâm not sure how other schools work but at PSU, at least then, it was non refundable.
@jlhpsu You are correct-the deposit is non-refundable. My daughter accepted her offer in November, and we had to pay the deposit to be placed in the housing queue and select choice of housing (you select 2 options) as well as select meal plan. PSU made it clear that the deposit was non refundable.
Thanks @miltonmom
Thatâs what I thought⊠although I hoped it wasnât (itâs not âsupposedâ to be that way); it may well be done at other universities, not at psu (contact other universities, youâll see). I guess they donât want the headache ;)âŠand since theyâre short staffed, no one would be there to process the request anyway <= silver lining ;)⊠imagine if people had to wait six months 
I donât think thereâs a legal obligation so 
If you visited, write your opinion/ posts in the âhousingâ section, I have a feeling several students will be moving on to that very topic soon. 
the more I learn here about psu policies the more disappointed I get
Pressure to commit in order to get in line with non refundable housing deposit
Itâs ânot supposed to be that wayâ
âToo short staffed to process refunds?â
Too bad, especially since anyone who did want a refund due to maybe unforeseen circumstances, psu knows those spots will be filled
Other schools like Pitt and Iâm sure more donât pressure students to pay for housing to get a space in line
Equal opportunity should be psu rule. Bummer
Are people really supposed to think admissions policies donât reflect on psu policies as an institution?
What other disappointments and unequal treatment await?
Not simply big school headaches but bad policies
My d wants to wait, itâs her choice, I respect that
But if she is fortunate enough to be accepted, eventuallllllllly, we will have to sit down and make a pros and cons chart and enter all we have learned about psu policies through this admissions waiting period
70,000 applications received by 11/30 deadline due to adding EA and common app, maybe PSU should have considered changing other policies like housing apps in anticipation of the unprecedented number of applicants (which Iâm sure is higher now when you add those who have applied post 11/30)
Housing to a freshman is a big deal
Being at the back of the line after applying 8/15 is disheartening
@ziveli513 by no means is your daughter at âthe back of the lineâ!
last year, the people who were placed in supplemental were the ones who accepted their offers of admission on May 1st. I know a kid who was in supplemental and was given the opportunity to move to a traditional dorm room in January and opted to stay in supplemental with her 5 roommates. (they all stayed) So it isnât the end of the world.
be careful when you assume everything you read from a poster is an official policy. âif it is on the internet it is trueâ syndrome.
I would be unhappier about a policy like this:
âAt times, would-be students are asked to pay money to save a spot in dorm rooms they will never have the chance to live in because they are subsequently rejected, without a refund. The University collects roughly $170,000 a year from students for dorm rooms they will never call home. About $100,000 of that comes from some 4,700 students whom the university doesnât admit, The university asks all applicants who would like to live in the dorms to pay a housing application fee â thatâs $25 students donât get back even if they arenât admitted.â
Penn State is a big place - with lots of warts and lumps and problems. It is also an amazing place for the kids that make it so. I will correlate it to building a house - the process stinks, you get mad at your builder, mistakes happen⊠but in the end, when you move in, you have to love your house and get past the process to be happy there. If you canât see past the building process, then donât build! Penn State is the same - if you canât see beyond the admissions process to all the great opportunities, then maybe it isnât the right school.
Admissions is the same ⊠but so is life at Penn State. There is always a subset of the population that:
- didnât get the dorm/classes/professor they wanted
- didnât get selected for the organization/fraternity/sorority/club and/or IM team they wanted
- didnât get the internship/job/graduate school they wanted
Kids (and parents) have to learn to look past the admissions hiccups and have fun at football/hockey/volleyball games and wrestling matches, play IM sports, join a THON group, study abroad with one of the myriad of opportunities, get a great internship, get a great job or go to graduate school.
I recognize there are issues, but it isnât doom and gloom. And if it is? Maybe not the right school.
My daughter declined her offer to PSU today - hope it helps to get one of you who is still waiting to get in. Wishing you all the best of luck!