Penn State Early Action for Fall 2024 Admissions

@ lucy_van_pelt will respond to your question. I didn’t mean to circumvent your question to her, I just was wanted to convey what has been expressed here before you sent any changes to admissions requesting a harder to get into major.

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Anyone that asked for reconsideration in another major, like DUS, hear back yet?

@pats21 @Luvmykids1 I would not switch to DUS. I am hearing that DUS is the 3rd most competitive major to get into (after Smeal and Eng) - just as described above. (sidenote: Nursing is probably more competitive because it is smaller and direct entry, so a little different animal).

I do not know if they look major-specific or only college-specific (both in Lib. Arts). If you were to change to a different major, I have some recommendations … DM me.

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He did already get a response saying poly sci and sociology/criminology where in the same college so that wouldn’t help but the summer option would. I’ll DM you for other major suggestions. Thanks

We will not be able to do summer as he has a internship lined up that goes until Aug 1st.
It was his 2nd choice (we won’t hear from 1st choice for awhile), but currently it’s moving down on his list due to this scenario.
No he does not want to switch out of engineering at this time.

He did submit his SAT scores (1580), he has taken 8 AP’s between sophomore and junior year (one 4 in Spanish, rest 5’s), he is currently enrolled in 6 AP classes as a senior.

He is in Physics C and Cal 3.

Thank you for reaching out! We went through this process last year with my daughter and all the schools reponded timely so its just been frustrating.

There are Engineering majors in other colleges (Mineral sciences - which is the original Mining&Engineering college before they split - and to a lesser extent Agriculture). They’re less competitive because most students don’t look at all the majors offered but they’re as demanding and ABET accredited.

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OOS in WA (Maternal Grandparents both went to PSU for grad school). CS. 1460 SAT. 3.83 UW GPA. AP 5’s for Calc, US and CS. AP 4’s for Micro Econ, Macro Econ and Euro. Varsity Golf and Baseball, DECA, youth group, job and other EC’s.

  • UP or bust.
  • No on Summer.
  • Not interested in DUS.
  • PSU is dropping like a rock down his list.

(Just for information, DUS is exactly the same as CS for freshmen, they take the exact same classes etc. It makes perfect sense to prefer a direct-entry program over a 2-step system with admission to the major depending on Cs in specific classes and a specific overall GPA sophomore year. With direct entry, instead of proving yourself, you’re in unless you get kicked out. And if you’re not in, you know where you stand.
The worst is the competitive secondary admission system, where all students who got specific grades compete against one another for spots in each major, like at TAMU. :sleepy:)

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@Parent19767 He certainly seems like a strong candidate and frankly, I am surprised you haven’t heard. I’ve lost track of who is who, but are you definitely sure he was EA ? Did he receive any answer (i.e. deferral) or just nothing by the December deadline? If he heard nothing, I would encourage a call to Admissions to make sure he wasn’t lost in the process.

If it is his 2nd choice, then maybe you don’t sweat it out? (unless the 1st choice is a stretch?)

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On 12/19 it was posted that PSU didn’t receive this student’s SAT scores until 11/3.

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Hi all, question for all the PSU experts. My son was accepted to UP DUS for summer start. PSU is one of his top choices but he is really hesitant about starting in the Summer. I have read the posts and are aware of the many advantages of a Summer start but at the end of the day, this is his decision as much as ours. My question is, any other majors in the liberal arts/social science realm recommended if we request reconsideration for a fall 2024 start? TIA.

@kidzncatz Thanks for confirmation. I’ve lost track of all the whos in whoville.

@Parent19767 sounds like he was pushed to RD. So I would expect an answer sometime this month.

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What are his interests? Highest math/foreign language completed? Any specific strength apparent in the HS transcript?

Anthropological Science (in Liberal Arts college) might be one less popular major, but there are many others. Look through the list of majors in Liberal Arts, Agriculture, and Health and Human Development. Keep in mind that it may be a bit more difficult to enter an engineering or business major if not starting from DUS. Would have to first change to DUS.

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Sort of - we were deferred, but have not received an actual decision yet.
OOS, applied end of August, DUS

Is there a rolling admissions thread for people who got deferred? Just wanna know when decisions start to come in as they said BY January 31

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we havent received yet!

Not that I am aware of.

Hi All! Congrats to everyone who has been accepted already and good luck to those waiting!

Just wondering if anyone knows how competitive the Computer Science program is for admissions?

thank you!

Daughter received BArch decision this morning … hopefully that means the remaining EA decisions are coming soon.

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