@Ae8474. You are likely right it was your GPA because everything else is very solid. That’s strange that you could not get a class rank which might shed light on the GPA. During a campus tour at MIT they explained they don’t look at GPA since it is calculated so differently at every school. They use class rank instead. Penn State Engineering is solid. My BSME is from there and it prepared me well. University Park is amazing and congrats for that acceptance. Hopefully you scored some financial aid to make it comparable. My son didn’t apply there but was accepted at a few other comparable eng schools and the financial aid incentives made it comparable to in-state VT (especially when you factor in 9 or 10 semesters of tuition and NPV of a later career start).
I had read at the VT website that ENGE1215 would be offered to non-GE students with 3.0 on first come basis. I hadn’t heard that cc equivalents would no longer be accepted by VT.
I recommend you call admissions and not US. good luck.