Penn State acceptance

[Anonymous]

It’s very hard to get into engineering programs. He should be proud he got in at all.

[Anonymous]

Penn State is organized differently from some other state universities. If you go to any Penn State campus your degree says Penn State. Contrast this to the California system where your degree will say UCLA, Berkeley, UCSD, etc.

It is historically very, very common for students to do "2+2" in Pennsylvania. It is a feature of how the system was designed. Many students can live at home for the first two years and knock out Math, Physics, lower level engineering classes, etc. Then on to University Park for junior and senior years.

To be fair, if he didn't have the stats to go straight to University Park, a couple years in a smaller class environment might be helpful to him to get his footing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC applied to engineering at University Park. Admission was offered…to the Erie campus for the Behrend College. To say DC is disappointed (and embarrassed) to not get into the main campus is an understatement. My wife and I are confused. Is this a usual tactic for Penn State? We didn’t read anywhere that offers to a different campus are an option.

Not only Penn State many large flagships do this.

Incorrect. NEU offers it in order to continue making offers to the highest stat kids (who arrive in September) whereas the legacies, URMs and others with lower stats go "abroad" "san francisco", etc. It is a racket used by second rate schools to try and boost their ratings on USNWR

[Anonymous]

This happened to my daughter, but with her second choice campus (which she chose randomly b/c she wasn’t going to go if not UP). She wasn’t too bummed because it wasn’t her top choice, but the way they worded the letter made you think you were in to the main campus - they don’t slip in the minor campus detail until further down the page. She was all “yahoo I’m in! *keeps reading further* oh wait, not so much…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Penn State is organized differently from some other state universities. If you go to any Penn State campus your degree says Penn State. Contrast this to the California system where your degree will say UCLA, Berkeley, UCSD, etc.

It is historically very, very common for students to do "2+2" in Pennsylvania. It is a feature of how the system was designed. Many students can live at home for the first two years and knock out Math, Physics, lower level engineering classes, etc. Then on to University Park for junior and senior years.

To be fair, if he didn't have the stats to go straight to University Park, a couple years in a smaller class environment might be helpful to him to get his footing.

Yes, we live in PA, and one of our neighbors is doing this for engineering. His parents say it's going very well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not worth it to pay out of state fees for a Penn State branch campus. If in-state and on a budget, Behrend is an excellent choice. I think it was an independent college at one point, so it has a real campus and isn't just commuters like many of the other branches.

OP here: agree that it isn’t worth the OOS tuition for not not-University Park. Just so disappointing.

Thank you, everyone, for the feedback. This is our oldest child, so very new at this college process.

Did you visit? I felt the tour and info session covered this pretty well. My DS is very interested and will be applying next year but would only attend if main campus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC applied to engineering at University Park. Admission was offered…to the Erie campus for the Behrend College. To say DC is disappointed (and embarrassed) to not get into the main campus is an understatement. My wife and I are confused. Is this a usual tactic for Penn State? We didn’t read anywhere that offers to a different campus are an option.

Yes, this happens all the time. Penn State says all their students are Penn State. But no, it's not the same. Who has the 100,000 people at a football stadium on Saturdays in the fall? Only 1 campus.

[Anonymous]

My DS got into Penn State for engineering at University Park but didn’t go two years ago.
I know a lot of people who get accepted and don’t go because of the cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is disappointing, I didn't realize they did that. I hope has some other acceptances to other schools he would be excited to attend.

We also got rejected to Smeal UP and got the 2:2 offer.

Honestly, very surprised you didn't know this. PSU constantly tries to sell it at every admissions event. Over and over and over...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened to my daughter, but with her second choice campus (which she chose randomly b/c she wasn’t going to go if not UP). She wasn’t too bummed because it wasn’t her top choice, but the way they worded the letter made you think you were in to the main campus - they don’t slip in the minor campus detail until further down the page. She was all “yahoo I’m in! *keeps reading further* oh wait, not so much…

Same thing happened to us! Got a crazy excited call from DS, then minutes later, disappointment.

He did seek reconsideration for DUS/summer start at UP and got in!

[Anonymous]

OP here: when we went to an admission event, we got the message PSU was pushing their many other campuses, but did not hear mention that acceptance could be to a campus the student didn’t apply for. Maybe we missed that in the information overload. 🤔

DC also had the experience of elation upon reading the decision in the portal, and then confusion followed by disappointment after reading further down the message.

[Anonymous]

I thought the Penn State application asked if the student was willing to be considered at a branch campus? And, then asked which campuses. I believe Behrend is the largest of all of the Penn State branches and offers 4 year degrees of some majors. Summer start might be an option for the OP to look into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happened to my daughter, but with her second choice campus (which she chose randomly b/c she wasn’t going to go if not UP). She wasn’t too bummed because it wasn’t her top choice, but the way they worded the letter made you think you were in to the main campus - they don’t slip in the minor campus detail until further down the page. She was all “yahoo I’m in! *keeps reading further* oh wait, not so much…

Same thing happened to us! Got a crazy excited call from DS, then minutes later, disappointment.

He did seek reconsideration for DUS/summer start at UP and got in!

This! Ask for reconsideration to DUS and say you’re willing to do Leap or summer start - much better chance to get in at main campus. Then take the pre-engineering classes to declare the major in Sophomore year. No one is technically in the engineering school until they meet the ETM requirements and GPA cut off for the major they want to declare anyway - just like the Smeal business school.

[Anonymous]

Penn State does not “ask” if you want a second campus. You are prompted to pick a second campus and have to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happened to my daughter, but with her second choice campus (which she chose randomly b/c she wasn’t going to go if not UP). She wasn’t too bummed because it wasn’t her top choice, but the way they worded the letter made you think you were in to the main campus - they don’t slip in the minor campus detail until further down the page. She was all “yahoo I’m in! *keeps reading further* oh wait, not so much…

Same thing happened to us! Got a crazy excited call from DS, then minutes later, disappointment.

He did seek reconsideration for DUS/summer start at UP and got in!

This! Ask for reconsideration to DUS and say you’re willing to do Leap or summer start - much better chance to get in at main campus. Then take the pre-engineering classes to declare the major in Sophomore year. No one is technically in the engineering school until they meet the ETM requirements and GPA cut off for the major they want to declare anyway - just like the Smeal business school.

Thank you for this tip!