Penn State Early Action for Fall 2025 Admissions

The normal freshman class intake used to be 8,000. Recently they moved to 9,000 and with new dorms/renovations/triples can probably have a class of 10,000, which would mean ~45,000 students would be admitted. (See post up thread with CDS).

In an online admissions session last night (12/12), they said that Penn State has received more than 120,000 applications so far this year, and also repeated that 10,000 admits for UP is the goal.

There’s plenty of space in DUS so if your son meets their expectations he’ll get in, but it’s always a good idea to have a less competitive major at the ready in case you need to pivot. :hugs::muscle:

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She should request reconsideration for another major (I can help), or if you are instate and she likes the 2+2 make sure to visit& request Altoona/Harrisburg/Behrend since those are full-fledged campuses. :hugs:
(You can ask for reconsideration changing major/summer at UP, or ask for another branch campus if you’d checked whatever on your application).

DD got summer for criminolgy major last night. FYI her button never disappeared!
She is submitting a reconsideration as summer isn’t an option for us. We are doing DUS but wondering if I should add her 28 ACT?

Congrats! Would you mind sharing her stats?

Just wanted to share some stats to hopefully calm some nerves since a lot of what we see on here are high stats.

OOS, TO, 3.63W, 3.5UW.
Accepted to Agribusiness Management for summer start at UP. Originally applied Business Undecided but opted to switch the major a few weeks ago. First choice was fall but selected ā€œYesā€ to summer start.
Played sports, no varsity or leadership roles. Summer job, some volunteer work. I loved his essay and I thought it highlighted what a hard worker he is. My son has always worked really hard and takes school very seriously. He gets mostly A’s with the occasional B, nothing lower. 2 honors classes, 2 AP’s. I’m beyond proud of him and feel he’ll be successful wherever he chooses to attend.

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Thank you for this and congratulations to your son!

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My daughter’s portal is throwing an error saying ā€œSorry, we are unable to retrieve your application details. Please check back later as we are working to resolve this issueā€. She got an email at 12:30am and ran down the steps at 6am. Anyone else having this issue ?!

log in to lion path and the decision will be there. that happened to us this morning.

How do we do that?

OOS, 3.65UW, 4.1W, 1420 SAT, 2 APs last year with a 4 on the test and taking 2 APs this year. Also taking Calc, Stats and Physics this year. Lots of Honors Social Sciences including a 4 on APUSH. Poli Sci major and got 2+2 Harrisburg yesterday. Penn State was her number 1 choice and for obvious reasons wants UP since we are OOS. Lots of EC’s including same sport for all 4 years, schools clubs, over 150 hrs/each year of volunteer work, and worked part time since summer of Jr year.

Looking into submitting Summer reconsideration (Originally said No to summer due to work/travel plans). Should she also request change in her major to DUS or leave it as Poli Sci? Not sure how competitive Poli Sci is. Would greatly appreciate your advice.

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I will add to this. Accepted UP Fall 2025 Criminology, College of Liberal Arts. OOS - UW 3.4, W 4.17 - 4 AICE, 1 AP, 10+ Honors large and top, competitive HS in our state. Imagine core re-weighting is the 3.6-3.7 mark. Very well rounded with lots of ECs including 4 years of 2 HS sports, JV and Varsity captain, also played club sport during school year, leadership roles in club relating to her field of study, summer externship in her future field, lots of volunteer hours with different orgs, and works 20 hrs per week since junior year-year round. Essay we liked but no idea how that is judged by college admissions. We were thinking branch and maybe summer based on stats we have seen so far get UP and prepared her that she will land where she is meant to be. Be patient, keep the faith, use re-consideration if needed with an easier major choice and best of luck!

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Congrats to your son! Best of luck!

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Yes

Agribusiness Management is a really good major, with more support than a typical Smeal 1st year would get (though some courses will be the same as Smeal PreMajor: Accounting 211, Economics 104, Math 110, SCM 200, etc… - but they can replace the weedout Econ 102 with an applied, non weedout version), a closer knit group, and excellent job prospects. :muscle::tada:

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For those who have gotten your acceptance, did you receive an email or did you have to go looking for it in lions path? My daughter is still waiting (Criminology major) but I don’t know that she has tried logging into lions path and she assures me she’ll get an email when there is a decision.

Perhaps Global Studies rather than DUS

In email asking for reconsideration, highlight her social science/history&foreign language background (w/ AP score in relevant subjects when available) + adding she hopes to be a Paterno Fellow Aspirant.
Check ā€œFallā€ only, if she can’t do Summer. :crossed_fingers:
(If you check both Fall and Summer, they may offer Summer, and it may create a dilemma for her wrt your/her other plans??)

we had an email around midnight

Was this at the admitted students virtual session (which we missed unfortunately) or just an admissions session?