Students Denied Admission
We know and understand that being denied admission to the Schreyer Honors College can be disappointing for our applicants. The strength of our applicant pool and the limitation of our entering class size inevitably results in a very competitive selection process. Each year, we must tell many very strong students that we cannot admit them into the Schreyer Honors College. An average acceptance rate for the Schreyer Honors College is between 19-25 percent.
We receive many inquiries every year from families and counselors of applicants denied admission. Here is what we recommend:
- Encourage the applicants to contact us if they would like feedback on their application. We would prefer to speak directly to the student instead of a parent or counselor. We can possibly explain where the application fell short or how they could have improved their application. This conversation can be very useful to applicants as they move into their college years.
- We cannot discuss other applicants' decisions including why some got in and others did not. We can discuss an application with the student who submitted it, but will not compare with other applications.
- We do not accept late materials for consideration or appeals of our final decisions. We will politely decline if requested.
- We invite all applicants who did not receive admission to the Schreyer Honors College to enroll at Penn State and consider applying to the Honors College once they are a Penn State student. This entry point is available to currently enrolled Penn State students in their sophomore or junior years. Criteria for selection will be performance in Penn State coursework.
- Over the past five years, approximately 34 percent of those who did not receive admission to Schreyer Honors College still chose to attend Penn State for all the benefits and advantages of a Penn State education.