someone who didn’t even apply EA got their decision yesterday… really fed up w the committee. I guess there was no point/purpose applying EA, when I could’ve gotten my decision earlier with RD.
We spoke to admissions this afternoon. They told us they are not waiting to release all former EA/now called priority decisions on the 31st. They are working to get them out now. They also said it is best to wait to get your decision before considering switching to DUS. The reasoning from them was DUS is extremely competitive as well due to the volume of students that that apply DUS. Said to call a counselor to discuss and receive advice regarding your best options if your decision is not what you wanted. Hang in there everybody!
…and to clarify “get them out now” means asap not necessarily today. I took it as they will be coming out as they can process them up to and including the 31st
@sagh527 That person was a nursing student. Nursing is handled differently as it’s a direct entry major. Some of the majors have very few slots (like Nursing) for A LOT of applicants, so Nursing goes into one bucket and their decisions do not appear to be related to when others get their decisions.
@ziveli513 - day drinking ??
@jlhpsu understood but there are people further up the thread who didn’t apply EA and got their decisions within a week or so. iapplied mid october and i’m just waiting now. i really feel for those who’ve been waiting since august. i don’t know why they don’t review submissions in order.
@krabbiek???
@sagh527 I have a thread at the top of the main page about what happens to your application. Read that and it might help you to understand. They aren’t a small school with one line and one admission rep making decisions. When you apply, the applications get sorted into all kinds of different categories…major, GPA, test scores, summer, fall, domestic, international, etc…then they get coded and filtered down to different “buckets”. Each bucket is then looked at by admissions reps - but by that time, the applications aren’t in order anymore. They’ve been filtered all over the place for different stages. One person’s application may take a lot longer to verify than someone else’s. Maybe Penn State has a lot of information about one applicant’s high school and next to nothing on another’s. So again, more time.
It’s a randomized process because it really has to be. That being said, i think Penn State should not be releasing any priority decisions before they release all EA decisions, so I think they are wrong if they are doing that. Now THAT being said, it is entirely possible that there were no EA Nursing applicants still waiting, so they could move on to priority for THAT major.
I know it’s frustrating…Penn State isn’t true rolling admission. They are modified rolling and that can make some people really frustrated if they didn’t know that up front.
@jlhpsu FYI: They have NOT notified all the early action nursing students yet. They are giving decisions to some who applied AFTER November 1, while not yet giving decisions to those with similar or better stats who applied as early as August.
@vamom4 That is absolutely not fair.
It is also possible that once they make admission offers to a certain pool of applicants with a certain level/cut of stats in various majors that they take the rest, re-pool them and start the process of categorizing the remainder of applicants all over again, then they will do the same with waitlisted applicants. It could be a continuous process of repooling and evaluating. Just a theory!
Should we switch out of DUS if we want a better shot at getting in? Last year an admissions rep told me that I should apply DUS to have a better chance of getting admitted. If we should switch, what major should we switch into?
@pama3115 @LM3232 I’m wondering whether or not DUS switch or not to switch advice here will change now that psu counselor said yesterday DUS is highly competitive after all?
Makes me feel a bit ill, so many have been advised call and switch DUS in recent weeks
Ironically we were advised not to but my d reviewed DUS and found appealing
Now DUs switch advice a new thing to worry about according to psu admissions counselors
Advice has been given to switch DUS before decision as well as after denied, after denied still seems reasonable
But advice may be to discuss personal best options with actual psu admissions counselor, (not just person who answers phone) not just advise switch to DUS as has been advice many times
And we have to assume advice given to one poster is read here by hundreds and hundreds in same boat
Maybe each post giving very specific advice on a personal application status and major should always include contact admissions and ask to discuss with an admissions counselor, not just phone answerer, other less competitive majors might be best for someone, options discussed
Not everyone here reads history of posts to understand advice given in context
DUS option may be in greater demand now than ever when other options might work
@ziveli513 I suggest you step away from your computer and stop over analyzing every possible scenario. Your posts are reading as borderline obsessive and I can only imagine how many times you’ve called or emailed admissions.
Would be wise to not read and post on this site for a few days. Maybe do something productive. I dunno just a suggestion…
I have been reading the comments on changing majors and/or colleges, and while I will say up front this is my FIRST rodeo and I don’t have any special knowledge regarding that…
My worry is that changing majors/colleges midstream might appear to admissions as a lack of passion for the previously listed preference. To the extent that there are an overwhelming number of good applicants, if one appears to have waffling interests and another appears to have an unflagging passion for a topic… how does that look in terms of an admission decision? (I realize most students change majors once in school.)
Days ago one poster mentioned changing majors to increase the chance of acceptance, but the two majors were not even closely related. I think reading that is when I started to worry about these changes everyone is talking about. That particular case would catch my attention were I in admissions and I would wait to make a decision about that student.
On the other hand, maybe showing how badly the student wants to be accepted is a good thing. But if I were the student in question, and I changed last minute to try to increase my chances of acceptance and THEN got denied or waitlisted, I’d be like, “Hey! That wasn’t even really me!” I’d rather be evaluated on what I am really interested in, than on what I am not. Fewer possible regrets. (That’s a lesson I learned in college when I tried out being someone I was not and then lost possible friends and wanted to scream, “But that wasn’t really me! I was trying that persona on! Come back!” But it was too late. I would rather be rejected for who I really AM. No matter who we are, there are some who will never like us. Being rejected for something I was NOT was super tough.)
This being our second time doing this, I feel that PSU would benefit from a second major option on the application. Many bigger (not as big as PSU) do make that option. I’m sure there must be many reasons they do not choose to do this that I have no idea about, but I think it would make all options transparent - summer, fall, choice of campus (when D17 applied you did not have to put a second choice of campus), major etc… Although this would add probably another step in the huge process, it may be better than answering all these phone calls and having to revaluate when students request changes mid-process. Just a thought.
This is starting to get really annoying, they said they’d release decisions on the 24th and it’s been three weeks, and if seems like they’ve hardly released anything since before Christmas break. This is so unprofessional, they didn’t even tell me they were changing the decisions date.
Switching to DUS is a good strategy in the Fall, especially before majors start to fill and students with decisions ask to switch. That’s why I’m not sure switching now is the same good idea it is in the Fall. DUS becomes competitive in January.
Choosing an ‘easier to get into /closely related major’ can also work (ie., political economy v. Smeal, Environmental Science in Ag or Biological Anthropology in CLA rather than bio/Eberly, Earth&Mineral Science v. COE, IST v.CS…) as long as you have the pre-requisites for either one.
(For instance, a student with a high GPA had applied to COE. Denied. Stunned. Turned out he had not taken precalculus, let alone calculus… Applying for a Stem major with just algebra1+2and geometry, regardless of STEM, is a bad idea. Switching majors wouldn’t have worked.) It does suppose reading through the kess- known colleges and the less- obvious majors.
Think of a big square made of 10*10 squares. You have 9 squares per college + 10 squares DUS. If all the students turned down for their college choose DUS the DUS square is full after the first decisions have been made. If 8 squares have been filled in the Engineering square thy get really picky for who will fill those last two squares. If only three squares are filled in the Ag or IST square then they’re not as picky up until they reach 8 full squares. Those squares fill at different rates and Admissions need to figure out who’s likely to attend (+1 if PA, demonstrated interest, etc) and who’s less likely (1580/12Ap kid obviously applying there as a safety). Lots of variables that explain the differences in results.
Naviance can only help so much since the major isn’t specified (typically).