Hey I got admitted to Smeal for fall at UP . But is it true that you aren’t guaranteed admission into smeal unless you get 3.2 GPA in the first year? Please help.
Controlled majors have GPA requirements, portfolio requirements, etc…Education majors, for example, have to have a 3.5 to be admitted, Film majors have a portfolio to submit before admission to the program, as do graphic design majors. Nobody is officially in a major until Entrance to Major is met, which is usually end of sophomore year. Long answer to your question! Yes, you have to have a 3.2 to be admitted to Smeal during EtM
@greenbutton then whats the use of getting admitted to smeal, when you can just apply for DUS ? 
The assumption for DUS students is that they are spending some of the first year in classes designed to help them decide what they want to major in. So if you are undecided, DUS is a great opportunity to get your bearings and (depending on how you are leaning) get some prerequisites in. If you already know you are headed for Smeal, you can concentrate on a good gpa, plan more directly for your major…But yes, there’s no gigantic advantage. Welcome to a really big University!
@greenbutton what if I want to change my major to economics after the first sem? what will be the requirements for that?
The deal with Smeal is you need a 3.2 (3.5 for finance) to get into YOUR CHOICE of major - that being said, generally this applies for Accounting, Finance, and Supply chain. Marketing, Management, and MIS usually don’t fill up and they begin taking people who still want to be in Smeal based off of highest GPA in the pool of remaining applicants.
ECON is a fairly popular switch from Smeal students, so its not hard.
@Etuck24 does one need a specific GPA in order to get into the economics program?
See this link in Penn State department of economics website:
http://econ.la.psu.edu/undergraduate/advising-schedule
DECLARING THE MAJOR
All change of major paperwork must be processed with Chad Eline during an appointment.
Students are eligible to declare the Economics major once ECON 104 and 102 have been completed with grades of C or better. Cumulative and major GPAs of 2.0 or higher and a minimum of 27.1 credits are also required.
Doesn’t anyone do the simplest of research anymore?