My Chances

Colleges & Universities Penn State
1

This may be a long one, but please someone help.

So I REALLY want to go to Penn State for engineering. I went up there a couple of weekends ago to visit my 4 best friends and absolutely fell in love. One of my friends had pretty much the same stats as me with a difference in SAT scores and slightly less extracurriculars. He got accepted directly into fall, and did PREF in the summer. I applied biomedical but asked to be switched to mechanical because I went to a career fair and a boeing recruiter said he didn’t want to see someone limit themself. I participated in a MESA competition in hich we came overall second place in states. I also have 2 mentors who went to Penn State and I know they connected me to a woman, shes not in charge of admissions or anything but does that help?. I am an African American Female, I applied to UP with consideration for summer with these stats:
Courses
GPA: 2.8 (Same as His)
SAT: 1570 (SuperScore 1650) vs his (1820)

[Freshman, 2012- 2013]
[Geometry Honors, Law and Government Honors, Environmental Science Honors, English Composition Honors, Spanish II]
[Sophomore 2013- 2014]
[Algebra II, Literature Honors, World History Honors, Biology Honors, Spanish III]
[Junior 2014- 2015]

[Precalculus, Chemistry Honors, American History, Spanish IV, American Literature Honors

[Senior, 2015-2016]
[AP Biology, AP Literature and Composition, AP Calculus,]

Extracurricular Activities
Softball (co-captain 2012-present)
Jazz Band (section leader, 2012-present)
“Black Jazz” Student-Run Jazz Ensemble (2014-present)
Concert Band (section leader ,2012-present)

Marching Band (band captain, section leader , 2011-present)
“Iron Patriots” Robotics Team (2014-present, lead designer, vice-president)
Science Olympiad (2014)
10th Grade Leadership Team (2013-2014)
Student Council (2012-2013, 2014-present, Treasurer (junior year), President (senior year)
Video Production Club (2012-2013)

Community Service/Volunteering
Red Cross Blood Drives- Greeter, Informant, Handler
Park Lane Playground Project-Builder
PMEA District 12 Bandfest-Greeter, Ticket Sales, Activity Coordinator, Food Distributor, Handler
Philadelphia Zoo-Volunteer

Achievements & Awards
2nd place Overall in American Division at Marching Band Championships (2014)
“Most Outstanding Sophomore in Music” Award (2014)
2nd Place Overall in State MESA “Prosthetic Arm” Competition
1st Place in State MESA “Distance Accuracy” Division

2

PSU doesn’t superscore so as far as they’re concerned you have a 1570.

http://www.budget.psu.edu/CDSRedesign/cds.aspx?reportindicator=FreshAdmn&Location=UP&AY=20142015
Percent who had GPA between 2.50 and 2.99 3.61%
So basically, your GPA is within the bottom 5% of freshmen at University Park. Might want to investigate which branch campus is your favorite, as a backup.

3

Yeah Harrisburg is my back up. Any other help/advice?

4

When did you apply? Any applications after November 30th are faced with increased competitiveness, and Engineering is one of PSU’s most competitive majors. Penn State is pretty much a by the numbers school…2/3 of the decision is GPA and 1/3 is test scores and other factors. The ECs don’t matter as much at Penn State. So your friend who got in with a 2.8 probably had higher SAT scores - I’m guessing by a lot. Was he accepted into engineering? A 2.8 is generally not admitted to UP in any major - but especially not in engineering. I think you should prepare yourself for a Harrisburg acceptance and then you can go to UP after 2 years. It’s probably not your ‘dream’ to do that, but it does get you to UP for two years and you will graduate with a PSU engineering degree which is extremely helpful in the job market.

5

He had a 2.8 with an 1820

6

Welcome to CC Jade. What do you feel your chances are?

7

1820 is much higher than a 1570. 250 points is pretty huge difference in SAT scores. I really think if you’ve applied to UP for engineering, your chances are very low of getting in to UP. The GPA is in the bottom 5% of students accepted to UP and the SAT score is in the bottom 25%. Those two combined don’t make your chances high. Look through the accepted students thread and see where the other engineering acceptances (and denials) fell. The acceptances are usually well over 2000 SAT and over 3.8 GPA for engineering.
Here is the middle 50% for all majors at PSU. Engineering middle 50% would be much higher…
http://admissions.psu.edu/apply/statistics/

8

ClarinetDad16 I honestly don’t know. I want to stay hopeful, but proof shows otherwise. I really feel like the support and Penn State would really help me to wor to my full potential.