"Academic Community"

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>U Penn's required supplemental essay question is: </p>

<p>Benjamin Franklin established the Union Fire Company, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, Pennsylvania
Hospital, and, ofcourse, the charity school that evolved into the University of Pennsylvania. As they served the larger community of Philadelphia, each institution in turn formed its own community. Which of the academic communities and social communities that now comprise the University of Pennsylvania are most interesting to you and how will you contribute to them and to the larger Penn community? </p>

<p>I was wondering if anyone had an idea of what an academic community was. Do they mean your major and the school in general? Or do they mean clubs such as pre-med & pre-law societies?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>wow they changed it up. And they made it harder! Good luck with that one.</p>

<p>Basically, the prompt restated reads something like this:</p>

<p>“Why should we consider you?”</p>

3

<p>^ or…“What clubs would you join? what particular niche will you fill?” Interesting but difficult q. Is this replacing the professor q or adding to it?</p>

4

<p>This just seems like a different wording of the “why penn?” question, just now, with an emphasis on how it plays to your strengths/areas of interest.</p>

5

<p>****, I already wrote the why penn essay. this one explicitly asks for communities and how you can contribute. lol, give me two hours and I can modify my old one to fit.</p>

6

<p>It doesn’t matter. Basically, just talk about how if you went to Penn, you would be part of the community because… They care a lot about that. My essay was a bunch of BS and it’s didn’t matter. Also, I think they need to make sure that you can be part of a community because there aren’t interviews for everyone. It’s almost like screening, or at least that’s how I interpreted it, so I wanted them to know that I would be social (you don’t want them to think that you’re anti-social) but of course study etc. etc.</p>

7

<p>thanks! yeah i won’t worry too much about it.
i actually like this essay, i think its easy.
i just looked up a list of clubs & organizations that i’d be interested in.</p>

8

<p>by the way this replaces the professor question.
this is the only required one.
and then there is an optional one (your autobiography page 217)</p>

<p>i’m so glad it replaces the prof one though… ehh too much research.</p>

9

<p>This is one limited to like 100 characters or whatever? Then it’s pretty easy. Just say you want to continue X club when you get to Penn and you want to look into Y club that wasn’t available in high school.</p>

10

<p>^ this essay replaces both the professor and why penn questions. it asks to limit yourself to one page. single spaced, that’s roughly 600 words.</p>

11

<p>i’m thinking you could interpret academic community as one of the schools or departments or majors etc. or the clubs that relate to them
and social community i take as all the other clubs that aren’t academically related to anything and all the other just-for-fun stuff</p>

12

<p>haha one essay instead of 2? That means Upenn is trying to boost applicant numbers to maintain high exclusiveness in a depressed economy.</p>

13

<p>

</p>

<p>Whatever works…since they don’t seem to be able to do as effective a marketing job as a handful of amateurs on CC…</p>

14

<p>did you find this on the upenn website?</p>

<p>i just went on commonapp and it told me that the supplement is still unavailable >_<</p>

15

<p>^ See the link under “Download Application Forms”:</p>

<p>[Penn</a> Admissions: Apply Online or Download Application Forms](<a href=“http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/applying/incoming.php]Penn”>http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/applying/incoming.php)</p>

16

<p>Yeah advice for all. Check on the colleges own websites for applications before going to common app. Usually they’re up a bit earlier. (Or A LOT earlier). Checking out the questions from the years before is always nice, (but may kind of backfire such as in this case) :))</p>

17

<p>are study abroad programs appropriate for “academic community”?</p>

18

<p>i wouldn’t think a study abroad program could count</p>

<p>you’re not at penn… and you may be the only penn student in a given program</p>

<p>if your answer to this question is something you could access if you went to another school, it’s not a very effective response</p>

19

<p>I’m kind of having trouble with exactly understanding the term “academic community”. Would that be like the school youre applying to or like an academic club? Could anyone help me find all the lists of the clubs at upenn?</p>

20

<p>bump 10 char. i have the same questions too.</p>