@ziveli513 tbh i think we’re just gonna find out on jan 31, not before 
it’s upsetting because i’ve been waiting for a really long time and people who didn’t even apply ea got their decisions…this refelcts so poorly on PSU’s admissions committee. i thought applying ea would mean we get our decisions early…what was the point then?
@sagh527 As the mom of a hopeful son (Early), I think maybe we’ve all just been enrolled in PSU’s “Patience 101” class!
@MyaCocoa lol so true. i wonder how many people actually got deferred. the lack of transparency is really troubling - we know nothing at this point.
^ by deferred, i meant deferred to the priority filing group, not deferred to regular decision.
Spoke to admission today all applicants applied by Nov 1st will get a decision by maximum Jan 31st… as my son applied Nov 7th we will need to wait for Feb
@sagh527 I thought Priority WAS PSU’s “regular” decision time frame. I thought I read that on their web site. My question has been, was my S deferred after they looked at his (lackluster???) application, or before? Did you get a letter talking about the “next” decision they would make for you?
@airway1 It was my understanding that Priority = Regular = apply by Nov 30 = hear by Jan 31. And I just verified this: https://admissions.psu.edu/apply/deadlines/. Unless your son applied to a special program which they noted by asterisk? I am just checking with you to see if they have changed some OTHER decision deadline that has not yet been discussed here.
@MyaCocoa I’m really confused with their admission officers. 2 weeks ago I was told he’d get a decision by Jan and today it’s Feb. he applied Petroleum Engineering which is earth sciences nov 7th. I made sure everything was submitted on time (SAT and IB scores from junior year)
@airway1 the reason your decision was probably delayed until feb is because there are a lot of EA applicants who weren’t able to get their decisions by 12/24 as promised. they pushed us until jan 31 now which means that you guys who applied priority or regular are pushed into february.
Does everyone still have the deferral message?
@User7531 My son’s still says deferral.
@sagh527 @User7531 @myacocoa
still have deferral due to high volume message, applied EA 8/15, I agree with you , so disappointed that PSU didn’t prepare for high volume
@airway1 thanks for update from admissions, so sorry to read that priority decision won’t get decision until February?
Weren’t priority promised decision by 1/31 ?
I think it’s time admissions sends another email if they have changed the priority decision deadline to February!
Fingers crossed we ea hear admit or deny by 1/31, and not wait listed. If ea was so high pushed priority to February as told to @airway1 the volume must be extreme
@ziveli513 I posted this scenario a few days ago and will copy for you. You see extremely concerned that you haven’t seen any decisions since 1/2 (although there is one on the decision thread).
What if admissions is loading all of the applications into their spreadsheet/database and they are trying to figure out “where the line” is … they may be trying to get as much aggregate data as possible to make decisions. (and maybe those high stats kids didn’t hear right away is because their regional AO had a computer problem, or a SAT score got submitted late, or something didn’t match up in the system and they have to manually input it, or a specific major is more competitive or trying to become smaller…)
Here are some factors/assumptions they have to consider:
- major (differing standards by major)
- diversity (geographical, ethnic, gender, etc etc)
- yield (how does common app and EA play into this?)
- commonwealth campuses (where is the line drawn for each campus?)
So, the decision tree is complex. As easy as it is to jump straight to “Because my kid didn’t hear within 6 weeks of submitting their application, Penn State admissions is screwed up, therefore the entire school is screwed up” … don’t make that jump. While I would hope that Admissions recognizes they are the “30 second first impression” of a school, once you are admitted and enroll, you never deal with them again. Posting 10x/day doesn’t make them make their decision any faster, it just ramps up the anxiety. Hopefully, everyone will hear the answer they want… end up at the school that is for them… and in a year from now, this will just be a blip in your memory.
@ziveli513 did your daughter really apply 8/15 and you haven’t heard anything other than a defer to 1/31?
You seem to spend a lot of time in this thread talking about how Pitt does things. Feels a little like you are with your boyfriend talking about another guy all the time. Shouldn’t be surprising when you break up with that boyfriend to date that other guy that you talked so much about. Maybe you should break up with Penn State and date Pitt instead since they do so many things right.
For what it’s worth, my son’s portal changed on Jan 3 from the deferral message to the standard “under review” message, I assume because that was finally the date they verified the SRAR (i.e. there was something to update in his case).
Purdue EA decisions came out on schedule yesterday and my son got the news he was hoping for. So stress levels around here are way down, though we will wait for the PSU decision so he can consider all his options. I liked Purdue’s approach in retrospect - RD deadline was Jan 1, so when Purdue issued EA decisions yesterday they had the benefit of having the entire applicant pool already in the system. So no deferrals - only options were accept (potentially to alternate major), deny or waitlist. The whole process was very transparent.
I really feel for everyone here for whom PSU is definitely the top choice. Waiting for decisions to come out on a set date is tough enough. Not having a clear idea of how decisions will unfold is infinitely worse. I hope everyone gets the news they want, and soon!!
@airway1 @sagh527 you said that admissions said that all EA deferred candidates originally slated for 12/24 will hear by 1/31.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that all priority decisions will be pushed to February. They could be making these decisions in total - so deferred EA and priority hear at the same time? Just want to make sure we aren’t making a logic jump that may or may not be true.
@UKexpat88 congrats to your son! Hope he hears the news he wants from PSU! Sounds like he has great options!
Someone in my daughter’s school posted on social media that they had just been accepted last night (9:30 pm EST) to Penn State.
So, either Penn State is trickling out some decisions (and the recipients aren’t on CC to tell us), or perhaps the student is not correct. Maybe it’s a pre-Dec 24 decision they are just logging on now to see?
@UKexpat88 DS was also admitted to Purdue yesterday and yes stress levels are down here as well. I think releasing all EA decisions on a selected date instead of rolling decisions would help alleviate these anxiety levels which I am noticing on other forums for schools that also have rolling decisions. Another difference I’ve noticed with PSU is that not only have they introduced the Common App this year but they also do not require any supplemental essays. This increases the applicant pool tremendously since additional effort is not really required to apply to PSU.