Penn State University Park is a public research university with an acceptance rate of 49%. Located in State College, Pennsylvania, Penn State is the flagship campus of the 24 campuses that make up the state university system in Pennsylvania. With over 47,000 undergraduate and graduate students, it is also by far the largest. Penn State's 275 majors provide a wealth of academic opportunities for students with diverse interests.
The undergraduate programs in engineering and business are noteworthy, and general strengths in the liberal arts and sciences won the school a chapter ofPhi Beta Kappa. The Penn State Nittany Lions compete in the NCAA Division IBig Ten Conference. Two-thirds of the decision is based on a student's academic transcript, e.g. The remaining third is based on test scores, essays, activities, and special talents.
Penn State looks at the best ACT with writing or SAT score for a single sitting; they do not super score either test! Penn State also offers a fall or summer session admission option for incoming freshman. For students on the border, it behooves them to check off that they would consider a summer admission. While University Park is the main campus, Penn State has 23 other campuses that are considerably less select and students can easily transfer after two years to the main campus.
While Penn State does meet full demonstrated need, the majority of the financial aid comes in the form of loans. They offer a small number of merit scholarships for freshmen, but say that there is the possibility of more money as a student proves himself as a student. Socially Penn State has a wide offering of activities, but football, Greek Life, movies, concerts, and drinking rank high among the social life. With so many students in one place, there is always something going on.
Approximately 40% of the students come from out of state on the main campus. Our tour guide, Dave, was in a musical fraternity; so Greek life can be varied. The Creamery is a hot spot on campus where fresh, homemade ice cream is abundant and hordes of people line up to get a gigantic cone or take home a ½ gallon stored in dried ice. Penn State is one of the more competitive public colleges or universities in the US, with a 56.40% acceptance rate, an average of 1195 on the SAT, an average of 27 on the ACT and an rough average unweighted GPA of 3.7 .
In order to feel secure when applying to this school, it is incredibly useful to to score higher than 75% or more of US test-takers, above a 1195 on the SAT or a 27 on the ACT. It is beautifully manicured and maintained and while it is considered a rural location, you feel like you are in your own world. University Park, the town that surrounds Penn State, has everything a college student could want from cute shops, to Starbucks, to bars, to a self-serve yogurt store (with 20 flavors!), to 5 Guys. All of the colleges are within walking distance from each other , but there is also a free shuttle bus that runs continuously to take students around campus and town.
We had the opportunity to visit several of the colleges during our stay, however, given the number of programs, it was hard to see everything. Penn State is filled with opportunity and while they have a good academic advising system to guide students, it's important for students to take initiative in taking advantage of them. I visited the Smeal College of Business and spoke with some students there for the summer running the Nittany Lion Fund. This is a student run mutual fun of approximately $4.6 million dollars of alumni money.
Around students manage the fund every year and each one focuses on a different financial sector. Smeal has a trading floor available for students to get more real-world experience. Students can transfer into Smeal at the end of freshman year provided their GPA meets the requirements. Finance requires a 3.5 GPA and the other business majors require a 3.3 GPA. Students in Smeal seemed buttoned up, professional, and very focused. With an acceptance rate of 52%, Penn State is one of the nation's more competitive state universities.
According to the University's website, admissions officials base two-thirds of their decision on a student's high school GPA. The remaining third is left to other factors, including standardized test scores, class rank, personal statement, recommendations, extracurricular activities, and rigor of high school courses. Penn State requires that students take either the SAT or ACT, and while they only consider the highest score for each section, admissions officials strongly recommend that a student submit all scores for all tests. In 2012, nearly 50,000 high school students applied to Penn State University's main campus ; 25,772 of these students were admitted and roughly 8,000 enrolled as first-time, degree seeking students. The university's admission page states that no minimum GPA or test score is used for admission, rather a combination of multiple factors determines admission decisions.
The factors most valuable to PSU's admissions committee are high school GPA, test scores, class rank, personal statements and activity lists. Additionally, alumni relations and recommendations can help improve students' chances of acceptance. Getting into Pennsylvania State University isn't easy with the "more selective" acceptance rate of 51 percent in Fall 2015. Applying for online bachelor's programs requires being a high school graduate or GED holder. Prepping for college with four units of English and three units each of math, science, and social studies is essential.
On average, PSU Nittany Lions achieved a cumulative secondary GPA of 3.6. Freshmen also report a mean SAT score of 1270 and ACT score of 27. Transferring undergrads should have finished 27+ credits from accredited colleges with a minimum 2.5 GPA. While there is no minimum GPA used for admission to PSU, the school does note that high school GPAs account for approximately two-thirds of the admission decision.
For the fall 2013 semester, the middle 50 percent of students admitted to the main University Park campus applied with a 3.25 to 3.97 GPA (on a 4.0 scale); students attending all other campuses applied with 2.94 to 3.46 GPAs. Only 4 percent of incoming freshman were accepted to the main campus in 2013 with a GPA below 3.0, according to the College Board website. In addition, universities will un-weight the GPA all students receive from their high schools.
Some high schools use exaggerated weighting systems and colleges want to remove this distortion. Universities also consider course difficulty and high school prestige as important factors in the admissions process. For each university, we will lay out the "ceiling" GPA and "floor" GPA. Most students will fall between them, and we will show if a representative student will be admitted based on differences in their SAT score.
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Student loans – You may need to take up a loan in case grants fail to meet your expenses at Penn State. However, it is advised to not take up a huge debt that's difficult to pay back later. It is in your best interest to look for loan options that have a low rate of interest. Federal Direct Loans for undergraduates applying for Penn State include Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans and the PLUS loan for parents of undergraduate students . Federal direct loans and financial aid programs are the safest options if you ever need a loan to pay your college expenses. You also have the option to apply for a private loan or a university loan.
The remaining one-third of PSU's admission decision is primarily based upon standardized test scores, class rank, the personal statement and activity lists. Most recently, the percentage of first-time freshmen who submitted SAT scores was 78 percent; only 13 percent submitted ACT scores. For the fall 2013 term, the middle 50 percent of applicants scored between 1730 and 1980 on the SAT for admission to PSU's main campus and between 1450 and 1680 for admission to all other Penn State campuses. Yet, the 2000s saw PSU shift from a solid flagship university ably serving its residents to a desirable destination for out-of-staters and even international students. To that point, in 1990, seventy-seven of undergraduates were in-staters and under 5% were international students. By 2015, just 56% were homegrown and 15% were international students.
Undergraduate student aid funding at Penn State include options like grants, university scholarships, private scholarships, loans, and work-study programs. Applying for financial aid at Penn State requires interested applicants to submit their Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA. This applies even to those who are applying for merit-based scholarships. Pennsylvania State University has over 7.000 international students from over 130 countries- about 10% of the undergraduate population. Penn State offers more than 275 majors, with 4 years of baccalaureate degrees in all 20 undergraduate campuses.
At present, the university holds students for undergraduate courses. Applicants can contact Penn State undergraduate admissions for detailed information. A public university in Ruston, LA with 7850 undergraduate students, is one of the more competitive schools in the US; the average admitted student has around a 3.1 GPA and a 1090 on the SAT or 24 on the ACT. A public university in Kennesaw, GA with undergraduate students, is one of the more competitive schools in the US; the average admitted student has around a 3.1 GPA and a 1090 on the SAT or 24 on the ACT.
A public university in Springfield, MO with undergraduate students, is one of the more competitive schools in the US; the average admitted student has around a 3.1 GPA and a 1092 on the SAT or 24 on the ACT. A public university in Boulder, CO with undergraduate students, Colorado is one of the more competitive schools in the US; the average admitted student has around a 3.7 GPA and a 1190 on the SAT or 28 on the ACT. A public university in Davis, CA with undergraduate students, UC Davis is one of the more competitive schools in the US; the average admitted student has around a 3.7 GPA and a 1190 on the SAT or 28 on the ACT. Penn State admitted 40,031 of the 73,861 freshman applicants who sought admission into the Class of 2024. While the university does not release statistics on in-state versus out-of-state acceptance rates, an audit from 2017 did reveal that out-of-state students were consistently accepted a higher rate than PA residents.
The audit revealed that the university relies heavily on the higher tuition rates paid by non-residents for funding. But above that minimum, it was students' SAT scores that determined admission or rejection. The increasing demand led to the formation of seven schools within Penn State. Perhaps most importantly, it also shifted the burden of administration from the president's office onto the deans. Louis Reber became the first dean of the School of engineering, which exercised authority over the civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering departments.
The mining engineering curriculum formed the core for the School of Mines, with Magnus Ihlseng named as dean. To be admitted to PSU for a graduate certificate, masters or doctoral program, applicants must satisfy University requirements and be accepted by the academic department in which the graduate study will occur. This admissions data tells us that most of Penn State's admitted students fall within the top 35% nationally on the SAT. For the evidence-based reading and writing section, 50% of students admitted to Penn State scored between 580 and 670, while 25% scored below 580 and 25% scored above 670.
On the math section, 50% of admitted students scored between 580 and 700, while 25% scored below 580 and 25% scored above 700. Applicants with a composite SAT score of 1370 or higher will have particularly competitive chances at Penn State University. A public college in College Station, TX with undergraduate students, Texas A & M is one of the more competitive schools in the US; the average admitted student has around a 3.7 GPA and a 1190 on the SAT or 27 on the ACT.
"There are many factors that determine acceptance at PSU such as high school performance, class rank, standardized test scores (i.e., SAT or ACT), personal statement, and activities list," the audit says. "I just knew they were the cheapest options for our state," said Gianna Ricci, 19, a cellular-biology major at Lock Haven who graduated 10th in her high school class with a 3.7 grade point average. Lock Haven is considered among the most affordable of state-supported colleges here, but federal data show that the University of Iowa and Purdue, both Big Ten schools, were more affordable for in-state students.
News, Penn State is the 50th best national university, 14th best public school, and 56th top high school counselor pick for 2017. In particular, the World Campus is acclaimed for America's eighth best online bachelor's, eighth best online MBA, and fourth best online graduate engineering degrees. On Niche, PSU stands as the 13th "Best Big College" with the 14th "Best Student Life" nationally. Forbes placed Pennsylvania State University as the 222nd best value and 38th top public college. Penn State was ranked the 12th best university for international students by the IIE.
Washington Monthly also crowned PSU the 84th best college for civic engagement. The Penn State College of Engineering offers bachelor's (B.S.), master's (M.S.), and doctorate (Ph.D.) degrees in several majors. Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) degrees are offered in certain subjects as a professional degree.
All majors listed below offer bachelor's degrees for their undergraduate programs. Degrees offered typically require research work culminating in a thesis (traditional M.S.), although some departments offer a non-thesis M.S. Several certificate options are also offered, including Engineering and Community Engagement; engineering design, housing, international engineering, nanotechnology; and space systems engineering. The SAT is an important factor in college admissions, but the process is multifaceted, such that it's difficult to tell how much the SAT influences an application. An SAT score can make or break a college application, so we took the time to study how much it factors in when it comes to acceptance into top colleges.
The NCES reports that 87 percent of beginning, full-time PSU World students earn financial aid at an average amount of $5,004. Online students with a minimum 2.5 GPA will receive the World Campus Scholarships. World Campus enrollment qualifies undergrads for the Federal Pell Grant, FSEOG Grant, or Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant. Locals from the "Keystone State" could claim the Pennsylvania State Grant for 9 to 11 credits. Off-campus Work-Study jobs provide $9.50 per hour for up to 20 hours weekly. Online tuition can also be lowered with Perkins, Stafford, and Grad PLUS loans.
Full-time students at PSU are traditionally charged $17,900 in-state or $32,382 out-of-state each year for tuition alone before the $12,230 for room and board. Fortunately, the World Campus gives online students a break from this sizeable total up to $47,612. Online undergrads can expect paying $542 per credit or $6,587 for flat-rate, full-time tuition each semester.
For nine or more credits, the information technology fee is $252. In Curriculum and Instruction bills students $821 per credit, while the M.Eng. The College of Engineering student body is relatively large, with a total of 8,166 undergraduate and 1,441 graduate students enrolled at University Park at the start of the Fall 2016 semester. The average class size for courses within the engineering majors is 25 students, and engineering students account for 21% of the total number of students in the Schreyer Honors College. Though ACT and SAT scores and your academic records are the primary parameters of acceptance at Penn State, the university believes in the holistic screening of applications.
What Is The Average Gpa For Penn State International students make up around 15.7% of the student body. The largest share of this percentage comprises those from China, India, and South Korea. The university is rapidly gaining popularity among international students. The international population of students on Penn State campus has consistently grown at an average rate of 9.5% over time.