Penn State Early Action for Fall 2025 Admissions

nope

ECs don’t factor much into it. For Psych they’ll check to see if you took math through precalculus and stats (AP or honors if offered) as well as Biology (AP or honors if offered) plus solid grades in English and social science. Do you have that?
Your GPA and rigor will be 2/3 of the decision. Everything else will come into the decision for 1/3, so solid ECs can only help but can’t make up for GPA×Rigor.
I’d say you definitely have a chance, especially since you applied Priority. You just have to be patient and in the meantime look through other majors (perhaps Organizational Leadership or something in HHD??) in case you need to ask for reconsideration - Penn State offers you a second chance by checking whether you’d meet their guidelines for another major and or summer so you can while away time by checking through all possible majors and deciding on one - if you’re in, :tada: no harm no foul it just kept you occupied
 but if you are “branched” and want UP (which is only natural from Oos) being able to immediately pivot will make a difference.
I do think you have a shot so don’t stress out too much. :grinning:

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Question about rigor
 I know they get school reports but how aware are the AOs of the way things progress in each school? For example here in NY, accelerated kids can take regents algebra 1 and regents earth science in 8th grade. This “accelerates” them through the math and science sequence, but the classes are “regular” not honors. She was just a 9th grader in 10th grade classes and so on


This is pretty common (8th graders taking 9th grade classes) and they know Regents classes. The GC should have provided a basic school profile to help them evaluate the transcript, which is the most important part of the evaluation.

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Does anyone have any insight on what they are looking for in prospective engineering students? What classes? Test scores? We are trying to figure out why our kid was overlooked in comparison to other students at their school. 3.95 uw gpa. 4.22 w, she’s taken 7 out of 7 classes for all 4 years. Mostly honors classes for the core classes with regular level classes for electives. Since junior year ap calc bc, apush, comp sci then this year multivariable calc, ap physics c etc. she’s at a smaller school that doesn’t offer that many blocks of the higher level classes so that has constrained her ability to take more rigorous courses sometimes. What do they look for in the first cut of accepted applicants?

I’m really sorry to hear that your daughter went through such significant losses, but wow, that really shows resilience. Congratulations on all the acceptances. Honestly, it sounds like any school would be lucky to have her.

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Did she submit test scores? I think those who went Test Optional Engineering are waiting for decisions. I think most of the engineering decisions so far have been with test scores. We are also waiting - high GPA, high rigor but went TO. Good luck!!

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could you determine what chance I have for psych?
3.76 uw oos, 4.38 w, 1260 sat, legacy, many psych related courses, honors stat senior year, reg precalc junior year, ap psych, As in English classes
applied ea and still havent’ heard back yet

I think for Engineering they’ve processed high GPA+high test scores first. However the order of decisions is really random, could just be 
 where she landed in the “pile” (line up).
It’s not first come first served - they promise to give a decision by Dec 22 and you really can’t read anything from not having heard. I know it’s hard. :hugs:

Do you want horror and panic? The 1st year they went on CommonApp, they hadn’t planned they’d get so many applications so they didn’t manage to get through the Priority applications on time and couldn’t deliver decisions before Christmas. :exploding_head::rage::sob: They’ve adjusted since :grin::face_holding_back_tears:

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That looks good to me. (Note that I am NOT in Admissions I’m just using past results).
Your profile is just what they’d want to see.
Don’t worry.

They have till Dec 22 to give you a decision.

The fact you haven’t heard doesn’t mean anything, it’s not first come first served, it truly is totally random for 95% applicants (exception: the 4.0/10 APs/1500 SAT/won Olympiad kids who apply to PSU as their safety in case they don’t get into Duke, Yale, or Bowdoin :grin::grin:.)

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Thank you so much for your swift response! It’s frustrating not knowing yet but the fact that it’s random is reassuring. And yes, you can tell who those people are when they say their stats and it’s Ivy League level, definitely not the kind to be going to PSU seriously.

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She did. We figured her 33 on the ACT was a strong enough score for her to submit.

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Thank you, you’ve ben so generous with your time here to all of us!

Shoot – I have not taken stats, but have A’s in Honors (10th) and AP English (11th) and am now taking AP Calc AB and AP Psych. I got an A in Biology Honors in 10th grade. I also took a DE Psych class at a Calfornia college and got an A; hopefully that helps, but it sounds like I should be looking at a fallback plan and I will start on that. Again, thank you.

Awe thank you!! đŸ«¶đŸ»

She’s been a cheerleader since she was 4 and cheering a White Out Game is her dream so I think that’s why she’s so anxious for this one haha. Already talking to coaches but need the acceptance to move forward :pray:t2:

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I applied for Biomedical Engineering on the 31st😆. I do IB so starts are a bit different but I’m at a predicted 37/45 and I take Biology, Chemistry and Psychology HL with English, Spanish B and Math AA SL. I also was on a few student council committees, played soccer all 4 years and was head of a club. Don’t know if anyone will understand the IB stats but if you do please let me know my chances.

You wouldn’t be turned down just because you didn’t take stats :hugs: Your academic profile looks consistent with your choice of major :+1:

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37 with relevant HLs and SL Math AA should be sufficient, however Biomedical engineering is one of the hardest Engineering majors because it’s so requested this more competitive.

Your easy pivots if you’re branched to Behrend and you want to be “reconsidered” for another major are Bioengineering in Ag (if interested in Engineering) or another Biology or Chemistry based major in Eberly, HHD or Ag such as Infectious Diseases (if interested in the medical aspect).

Honestly, I’m taking it as a premed. I didn’t want to go the typical premed majors because then like what if I change my mind and don’t want to do medicine? Then I would be put into a box and not be able to do much without a Masters.

How long after an acceptance on line do you get the packet on the mail?

Anyone given 2+2? Every seems to be getting UP

I am an OOS student w a 3.45UW 4.23W (had bad grades freshman+sophomore and got 4.0 Junior year) , 1360 Sat, and was in a biomedical sciences magnet program. I applied to biology early action and have taken and passed AP Bio, AP Lang, AP Gov, and AP Calc AB. What do we think my chances are?