I know Penn State itself isn’t a highly selective school (51% acceptance rate), but I was wondering if they review admitted applicants again for the engineering program, or if they are free to choose their majors once they are in.
Like for example Maryland is a bit more selective than Penn State in the first place with a 45% acceptance rate. However, each admitted student is reviewed again by the engineering school and not nearly as many make it in causing the overall acceptance rate to be highly selective.
I have been looking around for this answer and was surprised to see nothing on the topic.
Penn State admits by college, so it’s not that you get reviewed “again” by the College of Engineering, but that you ONLY get reviewed by the College of Engineering.
It is more selective than Penn State’s average, and more selective than DUS/undecided.
Do you have any stats on the selectiveness? I mean it would make sense because Penn State is ranked ridiculously high for engineering. However this is the only link I could find with stats on the subject. This link claims Penn State has an 84% acceptance rate to the engineering school, which is quite frankly awful if it is true. It cant be right, can it?
I would take anything that’s not from the school, and which “uses” data from 2013, with a big grain of salt. So no, I don’t believe that site at all.
They say the engineering school accepted “7,478 students in 2013,” but our entire freshman class at UP is only 9,000 or so – and Penn State is not made up of 83% engineering students.
It’s possible they’re including branch campuses, in which case it may be easier to get into the College of Engineering, just as it’s easier to get into a branch campus generally. But that misrepresents the selectivity of engineering at University Park.
Startclass rankings use 3 to 4 year old data and if you look at the subrankings for their «smart ranking« data is not complete. I think they rank Tulsa above Berkeley in engineering.
1° you’re admitted to the overall College of Engineering (note that some disciplines are in Mineral Sciences, not COE).
This is more selective than the college as a whole. How much more is difficult to measure but HS pre-reqs are more stringent in the STEM fields and many students who are well above average for the school don’t get in and ask to be reconsidered DUS.
2° once admitted, you have to take a set of Entrance to Major classes. You have to reach a specific average for these classes, as well as a certain GPA (ie., you can’t drop the ball on your other classes just to focus on these classes). You have about 2 years to have the grades and classes required for the specialized classes.
3° if your overall preparation and test scores aren’t above average, you’re advised to apply to a branch campus where you’d take your Entrance To Major classes and then move to Main Campus for the specialized major classes if you meet the grade and course requirements. Admission to Branch Campus Engineering is much easier than Main Campus Engineering.