Penn State Early Action for Fall 2025 Admissions

In state

You don’t know when your app reached each step though - if they still follow this model, I imagine one or two steps took longer or got ā€œstuckā€.
Really, you can’t read anything into some hearing first and you not having heard. I know it’s frustrating and doesn’t make sense if you’re waiting but there’s really no reason to explain.
:hugs:
We, as humans, really want meaning - randomness is almost unfathomable, it feels wrong, right?
I sympathize and know it’s very hard (although I really can’t do anything about it). That’s why I decided to be Forum Champion when @jlhpsu had to take a break, because there are so many of you with so many questions, facing a process that generally makes sense in its dĆ©cisions but not in its timing. :hugs:

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Just noticed it disappeared on ours too.

Same. I checked with a friend who did get a decision last week and said theirs was there when they got a decision so don’t think it means anything…maybe they are cleaning up the system?

where was the button before it disappeared?

The left panel ā€œapplication toolā€ where the TO button is - I think it was above the ā€transfer credit toolā€ button.

oh wow!! good to know. did she email through her portal?

Oh then I don’t have mine anymore

Just for some added randomness perspective, my son applied mid August and was accepted yesterday. Large in state public school. His buddy who attends a very small adjacent boro public school also was accepted yesterday and applied mid October. His mom said his sister, who is a soph at Univ Park, had twins in her class who were both accepted and attend, but heard over a month apart. Similar profile. Same school. Same house. Totally random. Hang tough as you wait. Pitt is truly rolling and spoiled us. The wait has stressful, but worth it. I hope for the same for all of you too.

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Thanks. Yes - it does feel wrong. But I am learning patience.

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Thank you SO much for your response! He’s in AP Stats now, so no Calc:-/. 5 years of a language though. His HS doesn’t use/publish UW on their transcripts, but I imagine I could calculate it. I think we’d go to DUS vs Econ. My gut tells me he’ll get 2+2, based on what I’ve seen from others. But who knows…there’s so much we don’t know! I’m inclined to let it roll…and then ask for reconsideration for DUS and possibly add summer. It sounds like based on your ā€œconveyor beltā€ post, he could easily be in some step of the process at this point (app submitted 10/8), and perhaps get kicked to the beginning again. And another thought - if we switch to DUS now, and he still gets 2+2, not sure what next step we’d take for reconsideration at that point…

Thank you for your insight!

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Just a story - my daughter went TO. She has been conflicted about submitting her ACT score since October. Sitting down at dinner on Tuesday (around 5:45) I asked her one last time if she was sure she didn’t want to submit her score. She said yes she was good because she didn’t want to risk getting thrown to the back of whatever pile there is since it was already December. Just over 1 hour later she found out she was accepted! I have no idea what would have happened if she had decided to change submitting her score!

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DD also just heard two days ago. DUS and from NJ.

All Priority apps must be at some point in the review process.
So close to a decision, it’s probably best to wait and keep your fingers crossed, keeping expectations in check. You can ask him if he’d be willing to start in the Summer, whether he prefers DUS or Economics. This way, if need be, he can immediately pivot and ask for reconsideration.
(Choosing Economics would mean getting As/Bs in and switching at the end of the 1st semester to DUS - he’d take Freshman English (Eng15), Calculus (Math 110, 111, or 140), Macro Econ (Econ 104 -*-), Foreign Language 003, and a Gen Ed. These classes are common to 1st semester Econ and Smeal premajor/DUS so he wouldn’t be behind.)

(*: Econ 102 is weedout, so to avoid a stumble 1st semester, it’s best to take Either Econ 102 OR Calc+Econ 104, switching the rest to the other semester since they can be taken in either order.)

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Between DUS and Econ, which is more competitive or more difficult to get accepted into?

Curious if anyone has insights to the summer session threshold and devision. A classmate received acceptance to DUS with required summer session and GPA was weighted 4.2. While I don’t know any other specifics, and its only one example, it seemed high for getting summer based on the common data set and definitely higher than my son’s GPA. So our hope for UP with summer has switched to conversations about reconsideration majors and the positives of 2+2 just in case…while we keep waiting!

The DUS major is a competitive one because many high stats kids who really want Smeal or other more competitive majors and are worried they won’t get into those for UP can only enter through DUS so the talent pool is higher.

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I’d say DUS.
The difficulty with Econ is switching to DUS at the end of 1st semester (it’s also possible to ask&switch at Orientation but since you need As&Bs to have a shot at Smeal from DUS, it makes more sense to switch to DUS after 1st semester if you make the grades and stick to Economics if you don’t, rather than switching at Orientation, not making the grades, and having to switch back :smiling_face:).

CLA also has a Human Resources&Labor major
https://bulletins.psu.edu/undergraduate/colleges/liberal-arts/labor-human-resources-bs/
For which the basic 1st semester courses I listed above would work too.
Econ and Human Resources&Labor can be complementary (major/minor, double major…)

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Awesome! Congrats to you all!

Got it, thank you for the intel! Super helpful!

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