Penn State out-of-state acceptance rate?

Hey everyone, I'm thinking about applying to Penn State, but I'm an out-of-state applicant. I've heard that public universities tend to favor in-state students, so does anyone know what the out-of-state acceptance rate is at Penn State? Trying to gauge my chances. Thanks!

You're correct that some public universities may favor in-state applicants, but Penn State is one of the public universities which tend to attract a good number of out-of-state students as well. While the acceptance rate for out-of-state students isn't released publicly, the overall acceptance rate for Penn State University is around 56% (as of the most recent data).

Just as an estimation, the out-of-state acceptance rate may be somewhere in the 40s, but that is just a guess. Rather than focusing too much on your residency status, I'd concentrate on meeting or exceeding the academic profile of accepted students.

For Penn State, the middle 50% of accepted students tend to have an SAT score between 1320-1480, or an ACT composite between 29-33. Your GPA should ideally be competitive as well - strong applicants typically have a GPA around 3.7 or higher.

Also make sure you have a strong overall application, which includes meaningful extracurricular accomplishments and well-crafted essays, in addition to impressive academic credentials. For tips on how to strengthen these more subjective elements of your application, check out this blog post from CollegeVine, which breaks down how to tackle Penn State's school-specific supplemental essays: https://blog.collegevine.com/how-to-write-the-penn-state-essays

Good luck!