My daughter received it too.
Disregard. Itās not an interview. They have a virtual or in person presentation. Only 50 students are selected so Iām guessing in person would benefit
just got accepted into pennstate for fall 2026, university park campus
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Congratulations ! 
Could you list your GPA/SAT (if any) and major?
intl stud, my school does percentages, i had a 95 (predicted) no sat scores, pre med major
Thank you 
And congratulations 
As you can see from this thread youāre in good company 
You should have an orientation close to the start of Fall semester, in August, and at that point you should switch your major because
1/ internationals canāt get into a US med school (most US med schools wonāt even let them apply and the few that remain open to āinternationalsā tend to mean āCanadiansā)
2/ even for US students the shortcut āpremed majorā has the WORST outcomes for med school admissions, because med schools want to be sure students can handle med school intensity and the way they do that is by checking students complete a real, full major AND their premed pre-reqs (with mostly As). Music, math, and Humanities majors do well since they have to be top of their class both in science and in a very different field but most applicants are science majors.
If youāre interested in medical-related subjects, you have Neuroscience Systems and BBH in College of HHD; or the very interesting majors Immunology&Infectious Diseases, or Pharmacology in College of Ag; plus the usual majors in Eberly like Data Sciences applied to Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnologyā¦
oh.. so you mean if i chose a bio major for example, it is considered better than pre med? or is a pre med major just a big no overall??
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also, doesnt a pre med major already cover subs like biology, biochem, physiology etc??
I mean that as an international itās pointless to be premed since you canāt apply to US med schools but if your plan is to apply to Graduate Entry in Canada or Ireland based on your US undergraduate degree (valid plan) then the majors I listed are better for that purpose.
US Med schools want students who can manage basic pre-reqs as well as a major. Some overlap is okay but they really donāt like students who consider pre-reqs their majorās core (āpremed majorsā have the worst outcome in admissions).
It means handling a lot of tough, weedout courses as well as specialized, advanced courses in a specific subject, plus all sorts of other activities.
i thought as long as i cleared the mcat and have a bachelors degree from the U.S i could study medicine there .. guess nott ?
thanks a lott for the info, i never wouldāve considered this
There are lots of careers where you can use biotech, health care, etc in the US, outside medicine (PA graduate programs for instance).
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Hi! My student (accepted UP fall Smeal) is planning to apply to the Sapphire Leadership program. We noticed that there is an in-person visitation day in late Jan and a virtual one in Feb. Does anyone know if attending in-person is viewed more favorably than attending virtually and factored at all into the admissions decision? Thanks.
Iām told there is an interview at some point so I imagine it might help but I wouldnāt bet on it by buying plane tickets or cutting school for it. Virtual is on Prez weekend so luckily many can sign up for that. The in person one is really soon so I cannot imagine they are expecting many.
Good points! I think weāll do the virtual one as making a trip to campus might be hard to swing. We would likely try to go in-person it if it was ārecommendedā to enhance their application but wonāt if thatās not the case.
Typically the in-person day is for students within a reasonable driving distance and the virtual day is for students who live more than 4-6 hours away.
Good luck to all!
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For any admits that applied for reconsideration for a different major, have you heard back? Admissions told me end of January
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I just came here to ask the same thing! No we are still waiting. Applied for reconsideration in early December.
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What were your original stats and major requested, what did you ask for reconsideration?
I applied test optional with a 4.3 W GPA and 3.97 UW GPA. I was accepted into PR/Advertising, but I asked to be reconsidered for marketing. I applied for reconsideration on November 18th.
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Original application was for summer, forensic science. Weighted GPA 3.6, SAT 1310 (submitted). Offered 2+2 at Harrisburg. Applied for reconsideration for undecided.
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