It helps because fewer students apply straight to Summer so itās less competitive in the early round - thereās a āsummerā stampede after EA decisions are received.
-with his stats Iād be pleasantly surprised if she got Fall/UP for DUS but you never know, especially because A/Bs in a high rigor curriculum is in her favor and her GPA is borderline- though Iām not even sure Fall admission is the best idea because Penn State is pretty unforgiving and it sounds like she needs a bit of a ramp off. First semester would be like 4 APs at twice the pace and second semester like 5 APs at twice the pace, at a level expecting 4-5s.
What does she like about PSU?
If Summer is a financial burden (requiring parental loans for instance) itās always possible to see if thereās another university thatās similar so that she has more choices 
Loved PSU campus size and beautiful buildings and what felt like a small city surrounding. Wants 4 seasons, football and strong academics (has shown growth since 9th grade and then 11th grade showed upward trend in grades and rigor). Saw campus during summer orientation and felt at home there. We (parents) like that it has a higher % of OOS students than some of the other universities. Appreciate any recommendations, but she does have a well rounded list of safety and targets with similar schools to Penn State as far as size/seasons etc 
Summer would not be a financial burden and what you are saying about Fall makes a lot of sense. We (parents) both feel that summer start at the schools where it is available would likely be best in the long run, so definitely something to think about.
Is there a cut-off deadline where selecting Summer session only on the application is no longer of benefit? Like where they would already have moved on to the Fall/Summer apps? Was planning to wait for that August SAT.
Interesting. They had a āwhy Penn state/ why majorā the last year few years
This ^ has always been called āthe personal statementā 
You can still see it on the Apply/US freshmen pages. 
And yes indeed rather than a personal narrative, itās supposed to be more of a why psu/why major especially why youāre qualified for it etc (cf. Upthread)
All EA apps that are complete by Nov1 (*) are on the same footing. Those who apply straight to Summer are processed at the same time as those who checked Fall. Then a decision is made. If the Fall applicant also checked Summer then thereās a second process.Thats why it takes longer for Fall/Summer applicants. Itās always worth it to apply for both of borderline. Thereās even a third chance through reconsideration.
(*
That means test scores received, SRAR processed. Cf upthread wrt deadlines, @lucy_van_pelt 's post and mine above 
)
Sounds like all sorts of good reasons - plus, seeing the campus during orientation would fit into the personal statement (note to all readers: itās more a āwhy PSU and I are a matchā and not just āwhy I think PSU is greatā).
For a DUS applicant who is truly interested in many fields they want to explore, PSU considering DUS as a place from which you can pivot to any college and major (except Smeal -*-) stands out since at many universities āundecidedā students are barred from all sorts of majors.
Sounds like she already has a solid list of colleges If she has 2 affordable safeties she likes, the hardest part is done 
-*- strictly speaking some Smeal majors will be open to DUS students who took Smeal pre-reqs and succeeded but not a majority of them like itās been done till now.
Thank you for all of your advice!
Questions - she opened Common app tonight and it seems like there is only a drop choice of Fall OR Summer for PSU. We are not seeing where to choose both. And the essay says that if she has a common app essay then it will upload that instead of the optional Personal Statement. Is that the same as years prior? Should she remove the common app essay for PSU so that she can complete a Personal Statement specific for PSU? Appreciate your help!
As far as the essay goesā¦ Itās definitely different this year. Last year you could submit the common app essay plus the supplement about Penn state. But this is what it says now:
That is what we see and itās different than what was recommended in this thread about the statement being about why PSU is a good match for the student, etc. Not sure what to do - the common app essay has nothing to do with PSU specifically.
Thanks for the screen capture. 
Commonapp has changed its look to āmake it more intuitiveā (sic) so it looks a bit different to me too on top of the " CommonApp essay" being substituted for, rather than added to, the PSU āpersonal statementā.
If you can remove the CommonApp essay from the PSU app and replace it without altering your CommonApp in the new app (I havenāt tested it yet), it could benefit you imho compared to the general essay meant to show your personality and writing ability.
For the Fall plus Summer selection, you would select āFall 2026ā as your preferred start term under the āApplication Setupā tab, then you would select āYesā to the Summer Term at University Park option near the bottom of the āAcademics and Interestsā tab after you have selected Majors and Campus options.
I emailed Penn State to ask and just got back this response:
Great question! For this yearās application cycle, we actually removed the previously-utilized āPenn State personal essayā that had been different and separate from the Common App essay. It is up to you what youāll want submitted to Penn State when submitting the Common App component to us; but please know that most applicants will simply submit just their standard Common App essay to us, similar to the one essay they have access to submitting within our own MyPennState application portal. We do not and will not look for a Penn State-focused piece from you to increase your chances of admission or to demonstrate strong interest.
Thank you for reporting back here! 
I find the wording interesting: the way I see it, the CommonApp essay is perfectly fine to demonstrate good writing skills (and at highly selective colleges, to make your application more personal, help it stand outā¦) So for strong applicants itās 100% fine to reuse it.
In the āPSU appā the statement can be anything - itās not already there like on CommonApp.
But if you canāt be admitted slam dunk on stats only, a PSU-specific essay would be useful to highlight why youāre a great fit for your chosen major at PSU ā¦ so imho the point isnāt to āshow interestā* (as colleges such as Dickinson or Lafayette would so) but rather to help your case 
.
Iāll check the CDS but AFAIK PSU doesnāt consider interest in its decision.
Note that Schreyer requires specific essays. The topics are posted on the Schreyer website. If you have strong grades and rigor, especially if youāre a strong writer, itās worth it to apply. Schreyer is among the top 5 Honors colleges in the country for the opportunities, perks, and support it offers. In addition, acceptance comes with a 5k merit scholarship, which isnāt much.. but better than nothing.
thank you so much for this!!
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for this!
As promised upthread, I checked the PSU UP CDS, category C7.
The most important criterion, rated āvery importantā, is academic GPA. Next, academic rigor. (So far, there should be no surprise: that checks out with everything written upthread.)
Next, low importance but equal weight are Talent/ability (Are you a recruited athlete? Did your portfolio blow away the BFA team?), geographical location, state residency, test scores.
According to that chart, nothing else is considered.
So, demonstrated interest is not factored in (which makes sense due to the number of applications they have to process and is the norm at public universities.)
But this would also mean the essay isnāt considered (not read), legacy doesnāt matter, etc. So the CDS probably paints with broad strokes.
Some personal remarks:
We know from official documents that the math test scores matter quite a bit for STEM colleges (Eberly, EMS, Engineering, IST) and Smeal.
We also know that the personal statement/essay doesnāt really matter if the stats make admission a slam dunk and it absolutely wonāt save you if your stats donāt meet their thresholdā¦ but it is read and considered if youāre not in either situation.
Finally, we all have a pretty good idea that being a superstar quarterback or elite fencer does not carry the same weight for admission as ābeing instateā or āhaving a 1470 SATā.
So the CDS gives a broad picture but thereās definitely some nuances it doesnāt capture.
Thank you for this information.
I get the impression that Penn State wonāt be reading the essays at all. I wish they would just say that then though. I find their process to be more opaque than most they seem to leave a lot of vaguery. One of the many things my daughter likes about Penn State after attending SASD was that as a true āundecidedā DUS seems to offer more guidance and opportunities to narrow things down while still keeping things on track for an on time graduation. It would be great if there was somewhere she could state that which may get seen by the admissions committee. I think she has strong stats for admittance (3.71 core UW core GPA in all honors and AP classes except two from a very competitive OOS HS sending over 97% of their students on to 4 year colleges, 1470 SAT), but I really donāt know what constitutes a slam dunk and she loves Penn State so she would like to do everything possible to strengthen her application for admittance. So sheās just going to spend time writing a Penn State specific essay for what seems like no reason.
Ok, sorry for the venting, as my screen name indicates, Iām a bit anxious about this process. Lucky for me, my child is not and has it all under control. I wish I were more like her.
Truer words were never spoken. 
And parents are typically very anxious and sometimes even upset on behalf of their children because of it. Once upon a time in the long before times, there was a bubble chart crossing GPA and test scores on x/y axes, then bam you had a fairly good idea of tour chances. That was before PSU became so popular.
General advice:
You have to steel yourself because itās going to be a long 4 months. 
Iāll try my best to keep things informative and positive on this forum. Iād tou need to rant you can start your post with RANT 
. Just donāt take it on anyone (this has been done some years and itās just nor right.)
Hopefully this can become a sort of parent support group.
Small mercy: Typically the kids seem to weather the wait much better than the adults 
.
The essay has a minuscule role in the decision.
They wouldnāt request it if they didnāt read it ever but as part of the remaining 1/3 alongside test scores and ECs, itās likely much less important than test scores. So if GPAĆrigor + test scores mean Admission to UP Fall or Summerā¦ or if GPAĆrigor + test scores fall below their thresholds for UP and mean Branch campus, the essay isnāt going to change things.
My impression, which I havenāt official confirmation for, is that they only read it if the decision is not clear and could go either way.
OTOH, the decision for Schreyer rests almost entirely on the essays (as well as gradesĆrigor as a baseline, plus college choice and recommendation).
The PSU app shows two options - Rolling and EA. Can someone tell me whatās the difference if the student is planning to apply before Nov 1st?