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@ashley41:
The problem is not with admissions, but with surviving the weedout.
Having taken calculus will help with Calc 140 (she should take the “general” 140, not the Bio 140 sections which are filled with cutthroat premeds).
Her English and Psych credits will allow her to skip English 15/30+ Gen Ed 1st semester, which she can replace with CAS 100; With Chem 1110-111, Math 140, PSU 16, and CAS 100 she’ll have her plate full. She could also add French 201 or take it instead of CAS100 because with an AP+IB background, the class should be an easy A for her and she can “boost” her GPA with it (its counts as one of the Gen eds since it’s a post FR3 class.)
2nd semester, she can afford to take Microbio 201-202, Chem 112-113, Math 141, and just one easy gend ed credit, CAS100 if she’s not taken it in the Fall, and/or the phys ed class on top of this.
That schedule would kind of cushion the transition, but there’s no cushioning the 2nd year, which is really brutal. If she can focus on just these 3 difficult courses+labs each semester and get the highest grade she can (using tutors and going to office hours every single week, no excuse), she can probably “pad” her GPA so that the brutal 2nd year doesn’t weed her out - she isn’t “in” the major until she’s taken and succeeded in the 1st and 2nd year courses. She has to get a specific grade in each “entrance to major” course and keep a certain GPA.
She should try to work independently with Khan academy on basic physics over the summer, or she might want to do Summer Start (LEAP I think?) and take an intro Physics course then, when she’s with only 24 kids instead of a huge lecture hall, so that when she takes Physics 211 she has the basics all down.

For Admissions it won’t make a difference which major she requests and her having a very strong Biochem background should actually help her, so imho she doesn’t need to change her major. You can indicate willingness to start in the summer if you can afford it (it’s not cheap but @jlhpsu can attest that it’s a great experience for students). Summer start generally helps borderline applicants.

Better link: (click on Biochem, UP)
https://bulletins.psu.edu/undergraduate/colleges/eberly-science/biochemistry-molecular-biology-bs/#suggestedacademicplantext

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@ml2025: Summer start is less competitive so if your GPA is below 3.5 and/or if you have fewer than 10-12 honors or AP/IB/dual enrollement classes, it’s a good choice, BUT it’s also quite expensive. If your parents can afford it, it’s worth it - as far as I know, all students who went through summer start think it’s the best decision they made because they have two courses done in a smaller setting, make friends, discover the campus/the area, so that when Fall semester starts and the other freshmen wander about and get used to college, they hit the ground running. The big downside, thus, is its cost.

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@STEM2017: Don’t change it for now, but look into the specifics of each major and each concentration with IST, so that if he’s denied, he can call immediately and ask for the IST major/concentration that matches his interests best.
(In my opinion, IST is “better” for someone who wants technical skills but isn’t necessarily interested in heavy duty math, physics, and engineering. The 1st and 2nd year programming courses are similar, depending on the concentration.)

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@MYOS1634: Thanks again for the excellent information. You’ve been very helpful.

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@MYOS1634 Thanks for the info. S21 was originally considering Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations in IST for the reasons you listed (less math/physics heavy).

Although I think Cybersecurity will always be in high demand, I wonder if a pure CS major/degree would still be more valuable for him.

IST is also housed in the beautiful new science building and they have a Special Living Option (SLO). I’m a big fan of SLO/LLCs. S19’s Earth and Mineral Science SLO has been pretty awesome. S17’s Engineering LLC at Virginia Tech was great, too.

I’m going to recommend he switch his App to Cybersecurity in IST.