Smeal College of Business and the College of Engineering have modified components of their entrance to major requirements to accommodate the university’s remote learning period.

Entrance to major course GPA requirements won’t be required for Smeal’s nine offered majors. In the College of Engineering, the changes apply to all majors.

Earlier this spring, Smeal lowered cumulative GPA requirements for its corporate innovation and entrepreneurship (CIENT), management (MGMT), management information systems (MIS), marketing (MKTG), and risk management (RM) majors.

Smeal’s changes, which are summarized in the chart below, will only apply to students admitted to Penn State in summer 2018, fall 2018, or spring 2019 semesters (read: sophomores).

Entrance to major GPA requirements will remain unchanged for all other Smeal majors.

Additionally, Smeal has modified its credit window for applying to enter one of its majors. A minimum of 40 credits (down from 44) and a maximum of 59 cumulative credits are now needed to apply.

The College of Engineering, on the other hand, has also updated its entrance to major requirements to reflect the difficulties of remote learning and Penn State’s modified grading system for the spring semester.

Students who are conditionally accepted into their majors who earn an A, B, C, or SAT grade in their final entrance to major course will still satisfy requirements. Those who earn a D, F, V, Z, or late drop will be granted an additional semester to complete the entrance to major courses they were taking this spring. Students who opt for the latter will remain conditionally accepted to their major and need to earn a C or better the following semester and maintain required cumulative GPAs.

Students who will enter their required credit window following the spring semester will also see modified requirements. Earning an A, B, C, or SAT grade will satisfy entrance to major requirements. If a D, F, V, Z, or late drop grade is earned, students can repeat next semester and conditionally declare their major if their GPA is up to standard and they schedule the repeated course for the fall.

SAT grades will satisfy requirements for students who aren’t yet in the credit window to enter their major. They’ll be eligible to repeat courses that result in a D, F, V, Z, or late drop next semester and be provided an additional semester to meet entrance to major requirements.

“During this unprecedented crisis, certain aspects of Entrance to Major (ETM) requirements may be causing you excessive stress,” College of Engineering Dean Justin Schwartz wrote in an email to students. “We are working to alleviate some of the anxiety you may be experiencing about the potential negative impacts the current semester might have on your access to College of Engineering (COE) majors.”

While the College of Engineering’s updated policies may seem a bit tricky, it constructed a frequently asked questions page on its website to alleviate any concerns relating to its policy changes. Smeal created a similar page, which can be found here.

Students in both Smeal and the College of Engineering are still heavily advised to contact their academic advisors to go over these changes before making any decisions.