First Year Student FAQs

Most Penn State students begin at a Commonwealth Campus, taking part in the popular to finish their last two years of study at University Park or another campus location. Transfer students typically need 2 years of coursework prior to studying at the University Park campus within available programs.

New Student Orientation, or NSO, is a required program hosted at the campus you were offered that introduces you to Penn State. Review our for more information on planning for NSO.

First-year students are required to provide both a first-choice and an alternate-choice campus on their application, regardless of the application method used. Including an alternate-choice campus allows us to efficiently review a student’s application for admission to Penn State, should they not be admissible to their first-choice campus.

We always review a student’s application for their first-choice campus first. If we are unable to offer admission to that campus, we then review the application for summer session (if the student applied to University Park and selected the summer option in their application) or for admission to the alternate-choice campus. If the student receives admission to the alternative campus, this decision means we were unable to offer admission to the first campus. Students may then choose to remain at their offered campus for four years if their program is available, or they may opt to participate in our by completing two years at that campus and their final two years at another campus.

Find helpful tips and instructions for filling out the Self-Reported Academic Record by visiting the .

Students interested in the Schreyer Honors College may use the supplemental Schreyer Honors College application that can be accessed through the Penn State application in the Common App or MyPennState. All first-year students applying to any Penn State campus and major (with the exception of students accepted to a few programs) can apply for admission to the Honors College. For more on information on the undergraduate application process, review our pages.

Students may apply to Penn State using either the MyPennState application, or through the Common App. Penn State holds no preference between the two methods and encourages students to use the method which works best for them. You can find more information on admissions requirements and steps to apply by reviewing our information.

Dual Enrollment at Penn State prior to high school graduation is available by application. Students having outside dual enrollment course work earned from another college or university will be able to submit for possible Penn State credit after enrollment. Review our for application instructions.

As part of the reported , Penn State provides a middle 50-percent range for both GPA and test scores of the current first year class to be used for estimating purposes.

First Year students are required to live on campus at University Park, Behrend, and Schuylkill campuses. For more information on campus housing options please explore your .

Students may apply to Penn State with a High School Equivalency Degree (HSED) or General Equivalency Degree (GED). Please note that students still must satisfy the High School requirements for Penn State programs. Please review the .

Possibly! By applying before the Early Action deadline, you will be among the first students to be considered for admission to Penn State, when we have more flexibility in our decisions. Admission to Penn State becomes more competitive as the year progresses, which is why we encourage students to submit a complete application prior to the Early Action deadline.

Students interested in attending the University Park campus all four years and would like to increase their chances of admission to that campus have the option of indicating interest in the summer session. Students can select this option when completing the application.

We review students’ applications for their chosen semester of enrollment first, which is typically the fall semester. If we are unable to offer fall admission, and a student indicates that the summer session is an option, we then review the application for admission to the summer session. Admission to this session is slightly less competitive than fall admission. If a student initially applied for the fall semester but is admitted to the summer session at the University Park campus, it is mandatory to attend the summer session to study at the University Park campus.

Penn State typically reviews applications for admissibility to the chosen campus, rather than a particular program (except for a few majors, like Nursing or many programs in our College of Arts and Architecture). As a result, changing the major on your application typically does not change your admission decision – often, an application review for a different major will lead to the same decision regarding the campus to which you have been admitted.

When evaluating applications, we look at the standardized test and academic performance in math more closely for admission to our math and science programs. Additionally, some of our programs like Nursing or Architecture, are more competitive for admission than other programs due to enrollment limitations.

Please visit the Aurora Program's website for information on Penn State's Outdoor Orientation Program for in-coming first-year students.

The Learning Edge Academic Program (LEAP) is for incoming First Year students held during the summer term (Summer Session II). Students wishing to participate in LEAP will need to have accepted an offer to attend the summer semester at University Park and register separately by any posted deadline.

Penn State has a limited number of seats for our incoming first-year class and demand is high. It is possible that your application will be evaluated and may meet admissions requirements, but we do not have seats available at the time of evaluation. In this case, you would be invited to join the waitlist and may receive an offer of admission if space becomes available.

New Student Orientation (NSO) is a program takes place at the campus of admission prior to a student beginning their first semester at Penn State. Students will schedule a time to attend NSO typically during late spring or early summer.

Students having applied to begin in either the summer or fall semester have until May 1 to accept their offer of admission to Penn State.

The deadline for accelerated the Accelerated Premedical-Medical Program is October 15th. Please review the admission requirements for the Accelerated Premedical-Medical Program under the Eberly College of Science interdisciplinary-program information.

Students who have applied for a program that is eligible for early action, and have not already received an admission decision, will receive their application decision no later than December 24th.

The early action deadline is November 1st. All application materials must be delivered by this date.