Ask (almost) anything about Penn here

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Current Wharton Junior</p>

<p>Hello. I am procrastinating for some midterm studying and would like to waste some time helping out some prospective students. So ask me any questions you have about Penn/Wharton (academic, social, etc). </p>

<p>Background: I am from Southern California and I'm studying Operations & Information Management in Wharton and might pursue a second concentration in Statistics. Outside of class, I'm a tour guide, research assistant, and am involved in several other Wharton clubs. Post graduation, I plan to enter into consulting. I am also in a sorority. </p>

<p>MODERATOR'S NOTE: Any Penn student/alum/friend/parent is free to answer questions here.</p>

2

<p>Hi I am a high school senior and I am applying to Wharton for fall 2015. I have a few questions regarding the school.</p>

<ol>
<li>Is the surrounding neighborhood safe? Is the campus safe?</li>
<li>What kind of dining areas are nearby? Malls? </li>
<li>Overall how are classes? Difficulty? Homework load? Is it manageable?</li>
<li>What is your honest opinion about the students and teachers?</li>
<li>What do you do on weekends or free time in general?</li>
</ol>

<p>If you have time in your busy schedule to answer, that would be great!</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

3

<p>Hi there! I’m happy to answer all of your questions. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>I always feel safe on Penn’s campus. As a girl, I always take some sort of precaution by having my phone on me and trying to avoid walking home alone super late. That being said, I don’t feel uncomfortable walking from the library (36th st) to home (40th st) at 12 am. There are Penn police guards at almost every other block, and Penn also offers Penn Walk and Penn Ride where a police officer will escort you home at any time of the night. I know Penn gets a bad reputation for being in West Philadelphia, but it’s relatively safe. Sometimes there are robberies on or near campus and when that happens you get an immediate alert and are advised to stay clear of the area but other than I’m never worried.</p></li>
<li><p>There are plenty of dining options on campus, including restaurants such as White Dog, Pod, Tap House, Baby Blues, etc. There are also a lot of grab and go type food like Chipotle, HipCityVeg, Greek Lady, Cosi, and more. Im not going to lie – as a junior, I am pretty sick of the food options. But Penn is always adding in new places. Next semester, we are getting a cool healthy place called Pure Fare, a new pizza restaurant, and a new sandwich shop. As you move off campus, you’ll also likely cook a lot of your meals so I wouldn’t be too worried. If you have questions about dining halls/plans (only required freshmen year and I don’t know one person who continued to buy one sophomore year), I can respond to that as well.</p></li>
<li><p>I would say classes are absolutely manageable. However you do have to be smart about what you take or you will probably have a few weeks in a semester where you are extremely stressed out and stay up later every night. For example, I wouldn’t recommend taking BEPP 250, OPIM 101, STAT 101/102, MKTG 101, and FNCE 101 in a single semester. That would really suck. I also enjoy the semesters where I get to take four classes much more (as a Wharton student, you can double concentrate and minor and still manage to take four classes a few semester). But overall, the workload isn’t terrible. The hardest semester is probably first semester freshman year when you don’t know how much you individually need to study. As a junior, I have perfected my method for preparing for exams and can pretty much expect to beat the curve (I have around a 3.8 GPA).</p></li>
<li><p>There’s a huge mix when it comes to professors. You really have to research your courses on Penn Course Review to ensure you get good professors. Which I would really recommend because it really determines how well you understand the material. Intro classes generally have poor professors (a lot of reasons why this is), so classes become more interesting as you take more electives. Students are pretty competitive (everyone wants that A) and are usually over eager to participate only when participation counts for the grade (in my MKTG 101 recitation, people raise their hands 4-5 times per class whereas with my FNCE 100 class, there would be many times where nobody would answer the question b/c participation wasn’t graded at all). Generally, I always study in groups and people are willing to help. There’s no sense that one person doing well is going to ruin your grade b/c of the curve so I wouldn’t worry about that. </p></li>
<li><p>On a given Saturday or Sunday, I will probably spend four to five hours doing work (non midterm week). I might also take a yoga class at the gym. I will also probably have a few meetings, including chapter for my sorority, meetings for group projects, or even a coffee chat/networking event with a company or an MBA mentor. I also sleep in a lot because I am usually very tired from the week.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Let me know if you need me to clarify anything!</p>

4

<p>Oh and malls – There aren’t any malls nearby but there is tons of shopping in Center City (Penn is located at 30th-40th St. and downtown is around 1st-27th st.)</p>

5

<p>Thank you for responding so quickly!</p>

<p>I assume that you were once a freshman and had to dorm on campus. How are the dorms? And you also mentioned the meal plan, how does that work?</p>

<p>I am from Hawaii so I’m not really used to experiencing all four seasons but how is the weather? </p>

6

<p>Also is it easy to get internships? What internships are offered? Is there some kind of program on campus that focuses on career planning? </p>

7

<p>I know this is a common question about admission, I hope you can answer it. Penn requires all scores from both SAT and ACT. If I have low SAT but high SAT and ACT, should I still apply?</p>

8

<p>pnish, my S is a soph, the dorms, well he lived in Hill, I wasn’t happy when I left BUT he had the time of his life, he made unbelievable friends etc. Which respect to the weather…Good luck trying to compare our weather to Hawaii. I am not going to try. Buy some warm clothes lol. I am very jealous. My S got his own internship after freshman year so I cannot talk about career planning yet but I can tell you that he got the internship that usually took only rising Juniors even though he was a rising Sophomore because he attended Penn so take that for what it is worth. Good Luck to You. </p>

9

<p>Hi!!! Can I send you my Wharton essay, I would like some feedback and a current student seems like a great resource</p>

10

<ol>
<li>Is it hard to double major if you are not in a coordinated dual degree program? What I mean by “hard” is the wordload</li>
<li>What is your favorite thing and least favorite thing about Penn?</li>
<li>Do you have any advice for applicants?</li>
<li>Could you tell us about your high school stats if you don’t mind?</li>
</ol>

11

<ol>
<li>What does Penn really look for in its students? What kind of qualities do they want? What is their “fit”?</li>
</ol>

12

<p>@candy54321 “If I have low SAT but high SAT and ACT, should I still apply?”</p>

<p>Yes, they look at the better one. </p>

<p>@aguileon “What is your favorite thing and least favorite thing about Penn?”</p>

<p>DD likes the people and the amazing opportunities that they offer. For example, Tuesday night she was going to hear an executive speaker from /Square. She said that there were five different things happening on campus that night that she wanted to attend, but could only choose one. She said it is like that all of the time. She also participates in about 5 clubs and is on the Board of 2 of them as a Freshman. There is more to do than you can possibly do.</p>

<p>The thing that she dislikes the most is the Dining Hall food in the Quad. She eats there just enough to use up the required meals on the smallest meal plan. Even then, we hear about it all the time. It has been her only consistent complaint.</p>

<p>@‌ aguileon “Do you have any advice for applicants?”</p>

<ol>
<li>Polish those essays. Have teachers and parents comment on them and do some redrafts. It is worth the time.</li>
<li>Penn really does consider the entire application, so all of it matters. One particular weakness will not kill your application by itself.</li>
<li>I think that for the “Why Penn?” essay it is important to write as clearly and specifically as possible. They really want to know why you think that what they offer at Penn is right for you.</li>
<li>No matter how accomplished you are, do not come off as arrogant. They will probably reject you if you do this.</li>
<li>Test scores are important, but probably not as important as many people think they are. </li>
</ol>

<p>In my D’s case, she had no hooks and no one thing about her application that is incredible. Her application was fairly strong in all areas, but lacked that one thing to point to that would clearly get her accepted at a top 10 school, and she is not a legacy, top athlete or URM. However, Penn they really did look at the aggregate of her application and achievements which, in her case, is more impressive than any of her accomplishments individually. </p>

<p>JMHO</p>

13

<p>@‌ermar101 “Hi!!! Can I send you my Wharton essay, I would like some feedback and a current student seems like a great resource” You can send it to me. I will read over it and tell you if it’s generally good but don’t really have the time to go into more detail than that.</p>

<ol>
<li>Is it hard to double major if you are not in a coordinated dual degree program? What I mean by “hard” is the wordload</li>
</ol>

<p>It is not very hard to double major (for example, major in both history and economics). However, it is difficult to dual degree if you are not in a coordinated program. If you want to do an uncoordinated dual degree program, I recommend planning it out as early as possible. My friend decided her sophomore year to dual degree between Wharton and engineering but then had to drop Wharton because it was literally too many classes (as in taking more than 6 a semester). So it is doable, you just have to plan as early as possible. </p>

<ol>
<li>What is your favorite thing and least favorite thing about Penn?</li>
</ol>

<p>I have two favorite things about Penn. The first is the location – I love being on a college campus but at the same time being close to a city. It really feels like the best of both worlds. My second favorite thing is how social the students are. At Penn, everyone is high achieving but also very involved in extracurricular activities and just generally social people. From what I’ve heard, it’s not like that at other Ivy League universities. I’m also going to add the sheer amount of resources, programs, funding at your disposal. At Penn, you can do anything you want because the university has so much money to spend. It’s actually quite amazing. Least favorite thing…hmm… probably the dining plan your freshmen year (terrible). I’m sure there is something worse so let me think about it and I’ll add later.</p>

<ol>
<li>Do you have any advice for applicants?</li>
</ol>

<p>Pretty much agree with everything @much2learn said. I would just add that within your application, try to create a story of who you are. Don’t be all over the place. Tell them what makes you unique, what are you really truly passionate about, etc. </p>

<ol>
<li>Could you tell us about your high school stats if you don’t mind?</li>
</ol>

<p>My high school stats:
SAT – 2190
ACT – 32
SAT II: US History (760), Math II (710)
Rank - top 1% (didn’t rank beyond that)
GPA was something like 4.6/4.0
AP: mostly 5s and a few 4s in Statistics, AB, Microecon (self studied), US History, Psychology, Language…I think I’m forgetting some.
My essays were very well written and unique
First generation college student, low income
I had a part time job outside of school, was involved in leadership, and was president of red cross club, among other things.
I literally had NO business background or was involved in anything to do with business
I’m probably forgetting some things…</p>

<p>Career planning/internships</p>

<p>Yes, there is a department of career services. Most people go through OCR (on campus recruiting) during their junior year and most get internships that way. Companies really love Penn students so they love recruiting here. You can also go through OCR during your freshmen/sophomore year but most people either find internships on their own or study abroad during the summer.</p>

<p>Typed very fast so I apologize for any grammar errors!</p>

14

<p>@accordingtome; Did you apply for ED or RD? How accurate is net price calculator?</p>

<p>My SAT, GPA and Ranking is similar to yours (2130, 4.0. 10/555, three perfect SAT subject test)? I am confused should I go for ED or RD. </p>

<p>I am I risking going ED with high SAT application scores?</p>

15

<p>What do you mean risking going ED with high SAT scores?</p>

<p>You should go ED if you really want to go to Penn. There is a slight increase in admits even for non-legacy non-athletic recruit applicants ED.</p>

<p>Penn weather: Philly tends towards not too much snow, but lots of rain. Last year was probably an exception in terms of more snow than usual. Have some decent shoes, maybe even light boots, for the end of fall semester and beginning of spring semester. Dorms are pretty close to classes, so people don’t take buses to class at all.</p>

<p>I swear, when I was there, it rained every Tuesday and Thursday in the spring semester, which is when most of the engineering classes were. A small umbrella is a good idea.</p>

16

<p>What do you mean risking going ED with high SAT scores? - I have read in CC that ED applicants will have strong SAT scores, compared to RD applicants.</p>

17

<p>Penn favours ED applicants I heard. I mean, I think Penn admits like quarter to half of their class through early admissions.</p>

18

<p>I applied ED. I agree with rhandco. If you really like Penn, you have a slightly better chance getting in ED. Since admissions are generally a crapshoot in general, I decided to go ED because I wanted all the help I could get. </p>

19

<p>I think the stats of admitted RD applicants are a bit higher than the stats of the average ED applicant. If you want to improve your odds and you are ready to commit to Penn, I would apply ED.</p>

20

<p>

</p>

<p>Actually, from what I’ve read over the years, the average stats–SATs, GPAs, etc.–of admitted ED applicants are generally comparable to those of admitted RD applicants. In other words, Penn doesn’t lower its statistical standards for ED applicants. Of course, the applicant pool is much larger during the RD round and, accordingly, the RD acceptance rate is significantly lower than the ED acceptance rate. But again, from everything I’ve read–including Admissions Office reports contained in meeting minutes of the Trustees, articles in The Daily Pennsylvanian, etc.–the average stats of the ED admits are generally the same as those of the RD admits.</p>