Penn State Summer Start Required?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be no 'shocked' anymore in regards to anything college admissions related. High stats does not guarantee a thing.

OP - I think I am shocked because there are so many College Confidential posts with Fall acceptances and the stats are well below his. But yes, I agree there should be no “shocked” anymore.

Could it be his app was much later than these you are seeing on CC?

OP - I assume this may be a factor, but not sure. Scrolling through an FB college post on this topic shows that a number of higher stat kids encountered this during an earlier round of acceptances. It appears most, like my kid, clicked the optional summer start button (we didn’t know about the internship then and had no idea PSU would turn the option into a requirement). Some parents said it’s a way for PSU to make extra money, rather than “ease” certain kids into college.

This is your answer right here...you clicked the optional Summer start date and they jumped on it.

Live and learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 14 APS and AP Calc II isn’t enough rigor for Penn State? Good lord college admissions is insane.

But let’s be honest, a 1380 SAT doesn’t really match a 3.9 UW GPA. The SAT should be much higher.

Sure it does. That's 93rd percentile. Plus the "reported" SAT scores of a lot of these schools are very inflated now since only kids who did better than average sent their scores. A 1380 still puts him above the 50th percentile of the kids who sent scores and his GPA is at the 75%. That plus 14 APs makes it a bit surprising.

We can agree to disagree. I suspect that GPA is highly inflated.

[Anonymous]

Why not call them and explain the situation? Maybe they would switch you to fall start.

[Anonymous]

If this were accurate, there would be a lot more 1500 plus scores.

But that's exactly what we're seeing and why more kids in the 1350-1450 (which is 90-96%) are going TO. Students didn't suddenly get smarter during the pandemic. Yet, in the last 2 years, all the T30 schools have been reporting these high test scores which continue to tick up, and I'm sure as other studies have shown, we can find the clear correlation to resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 14 APS and AP Calc II isn’t enough rigor for Penn State? Good lord college admissions is insane.

But let’s be honest, a 1380 SAT doesn’t really match a 3.9 UW GPA. The SAT should be much higher.

Sure it does. That's 93rd percentile. Plus the "reported" SAT scores of a lot of these schools are very inflated now since only kids who did better than average sent their scores. A 1380 still puts him above the 50th percentile of the kids who sent scores and his GPA is at the 75%. That plus 14 APs makes it a bit surprising.

We can agree to disagree. I suspect that GPA is highly inflated.

Once you're smart enough to understand the material (and any kid scoring at the 93rd percentile obviously is) high GPA is driven mostly by being conscientious and organized. To some extent I agree with you; with all the grade inflation and retakes available now _all_ grades are highly inflated. Even with highly inflated grades the kid was at the 75% for grades and probably at 75% for SAT score if the TO kids were considered. Before TO PSU had an average SAT of around 1260.

I image that TO has the effect of artificially increasing both SAT averages and GPA averages reported at the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC refused to check the summer start button and said he absolutely wouldn’t go if he had to go in the summer. He got lucky and was accepted for the main campus fall start. I think if your son really wants Penn State, he should cancel his internship and accept. It is only January, not a big deal to cancel an internship 5 months in advance.

This. Crazy talk to take an internship over school. I would also call school and bring up internship in case they would change their mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 14 APS and AP Calc II isn’t enough rigor for Penn State? Good lord college admissions is insane.

But let’s be honest, a 1380 SAT doesn’t really match a 3.9 UW GPA. The SAT should be much higher.

Sure it does. That's 93rd percentile. Plus the "reported" SAT scores of a lot of these schools are very inflated now since only kids who did better than average sent their scores. A 1380 still puts him above the 50th percentile of the kids who sent scores and his GPA is at the 75%. That plus 14 APs makes it a bit surprising.

We can agree to disagree. I suspect that GPA is highly inflated.

OP here. My kid is in the in the top 5%. Sorry his situation doesn’t fit into your narrative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC refused to check the summer start button and said he absolutely wouldn’t go if he had to go in the summer. He got lucky and was accepted for the main campus fall start. I think if your son really wants Penn State, he should cancel his internship and accept. It is only January, not a big deal to cancel an internship 5 months in advance.

This. Crazy talk to take an internship over school. I would also call school and bring up internship in case they would change their mind.

Op here - I mentioned this is subsequent posts but the summer program is also costly, so that is another factor. The internship is not with a business, so pulling out may be a big deal long term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be no 'shocked' anymore in regards to anything college admissions related. High stats does not guarantee a thing.

OP - I think I am shocked because there are so many College Confidential posts with Fall acceptances and the stats are well below his. But yes, I agree there should be no “shocked” anymore.

Could it be his app was much later than these you are seeing on CC?

OP - I assume this may be a factor, but not sure. Scrolling through an FB college post on this topic shows that a number of higher stat kids encountered this during an earlier round of acceptances. It appears most, like my kid, clicked the optional summer start button (we didn’t know about the internship then and had no idea PSU would turn the option into a requirement). Some parents said it’s a way for PSU to make extra money, rather than “ease” certain kids into college.

This is your answer right here...you clicked the optional Summer start date and they jumped on it.

Live and learn.

I think this is right.

[Anonymous]

OP here - it doesn’t matter. First choice acceptance just arrived, much earlier than expected! Super happy and relieved.

[Anonymous]

This happened to my son last year. It had nothing to do with the way they applied. We were told that with so many applicants wanting to be on the main campus, the school was able to basically weed people out by requiring this summer start if you wanted their main campus vs the regional ones. They said it was also a way for them to get all the kids any remedial help they might need, which seemed strange in our case because he was an honors student. For us, it was a no-go as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened to my son last year. It had nothing to do with the way they applied. We were told that with so many applicants wanting to be on the main campus, the school was able to basically weed people out by requiring this summer start if you wanted their main campus vs the regional ones. They said it was also a way for them to get all the kids any remedial help they might need, which seemed strange in our case because he was an honors student. For us, it was a no-go as well.

Thanks for this insight PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not call them and explain the situation? Maybe they would switch you to fall start.

Penn State is clear on this, you have to start summer session if that’s when you’re accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - it doesn’t matter. First choice acceptance just arrived, much earlier than expected! Super happy and relieved.

Congrats, which school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - it doesn’t matter. First choice acceptance just arrived, much earlier than expected! Super happy and relieved.

Congrats, which school?

W&M!