<p>just a note about legacies: there is about a 50% acceptance rate for legacies in ED, in case anyone was curious.</p>
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<p>More like mid-to-high 40s, but close enough. 
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<p><a href=“http://thepenngazette.com/five-is-four-cs- and-the-right-road-to-college/”>http://thepenngazette.com/five-is-four-cs- and-the-right-road-to-college/</a></p>
<p>1) Do you know anything about the racial demographics at Wharton? I can’t seem to find any solid numbers online. I’m a black female just wondering how much of Wharton is made up of under-represented minorities.
2) What is one thing you know about Wharton now, that you couldn’t have gathered (from the website, admissions presentations, etc.) before you enrolled?
3) Is the environment stuffy and intimidating? Are students collaborative and friendly?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>1) No official stats but I can tell you that Wharton (and Penn in general) have excellent ethnic diversity and you’ll definitely find a niche group here.</p>
<p>2) Well, while I’m not a Wharton student myself, I have taken a few classes in the school and many of my friends are Whartonites so I’ll go ahead and answer: basically, the one important thing to know about the school is having a Wharton degree will <em>not</em> get you a job in and of itself. Too many people come to Penn expecting to have an easy ride and get an amazing i-banking internship at a bulge bracket bank, party too much, fail classes, and then struggle to find decent employment (by Penn’s high standards, at least) after graduation. There are certainly amazing opportunities at Wharton but you do need to work hard to attain them.</p>
<p>3) Definitely not stuffy or intimidating. Everyone gets along well and collaborates when studying, despite the fact that most classes are curved. One exception: freshman are, by far, the most obnoxious people on campus to work with, especially freshman Whartonites! Many of them are still basking in the glory of their acceptance letter and think they are god’s gift to campus…reality usually sets in after the first set of midterms ;)</p>
<p>Think about your question. Why in the world would a student know about Admissions. I have interviewed for Penn for over 15 years, am fairly smart, and still cannot figure out how Admissions goes abut evaluating an applicant. I have seen an applicant get rejected but accepted at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. I have luckily interviewed many applicants who were accepted, but many who were not.</p>
Has anyone been accepted to M&T without a Likely letter? I ask this because in the last 2 years results thread I could not find any admit to M&T who had not received a likely letter.
Hey,
- Whats fraternity life like at Upenn? Is there anything like the typical state-school frat?
- Is there a dedicated week in week out party group?
- How would you rank girl/guys on looks and personality?
What grade are you in?
@Bored1997 Im also interested in finding more information concerning M&T. I have talked to a few M&T '17, some had a likely letter and some not. On CC not much information about recent M&T
Fraternity life is popular at Penn but not too popular so that it is all over campus, although there are several houses in the heart of campus that you’ll pass by everyday. I can’t say that most of them are like state school frats though
…Taking a break from the chance-me-esque posts I see here, I have some questions about experiences at Penn. Not sure if this thread is still going, but worth a shot asking some questions!
I’m currently looking into housing, and have read older posts but just want to hear current opinions in case anything changed. Can anyone tell me about the Quad or FreshEx? I’d love some insight! Or anything in general with regard to other housing.
What’s the ideal number of clubs to join? I don’t want to overwhelm myself but am looking forward to participating in some!
Is it generally easy to make friends in classes or elsewhere? Penn’s called the Social Ivy but I just wanted to reaffirm this.
Thanks, I’m an incoming freshman next fall and really excited!
The optimal number of clubs is different for every person. For people who do more time intensive clubs – like a performing arts group that rehearses 4 times a week or an outdoor adventure group that has them going on trips every few weeks – that may be their only club; same with people who are in “professional” frats or active community service groups as they take up a lot of free time and are large enough that you have enough friends there and don’t “need” to be in other groups. Then there are people who treat it like HS – they want a good number of clubs on their resume, so they pick clubs related to their majors etc. that may have a hr long meeting once a month and maybe one event a semester. If you go down that road, you can easily join 5-6.
From the perspective of making friends, it’s better to have deeper involved in 2-3 groups bc you’ll see the same people over and over and become friends, rather than being in 10 clubs where you got to a meeting in a lecture hall and leave when it’s over.
People at Penn are friendly for the most part, but it can be cliquey – often based on wealth; the rich internationals tend to hang together by country, same with the NYC prep school types, people in the same sororities etc. That being said I made friends in class through group projects and just bc often you end up on the same “rotation” of classes with the same people in your school for an entire semester – it’s hard not to make friends when you’re all going from FNCE 101 to STAT 101 to a quick coffee break to ACCT 101 – there’s ample time to chat just like HS.
I have a slightly different answer than aj725, but I would suggest that it depends on what is right for you.
I would suggest joining a few more clubs initially and then trimming it down as your become more involved. Some of the clubs may not be quite what you thought at first. Some may be worse and some may be better. Additionally, you may feel that you fit better with one group than another. To me it is worth joining several and then narrowing it down over time to a few that are more meaningful and beneficial to you.
As aj725 points out, how much time you have can depend on a lot of factors. How many credits are you taking? Are you in time consuming science, engineering or CS courses? What does “good grades” mean to you? Do you participate in a sport? Do you have a job? Are you a research assistant? Are you pledging a frat or sorority? Each of those can have a significant impact on what makes sense for you.
Wow, thank you both for such quick replies! I’ll try narrowing down a list of clubs after I find which ones I like. It’s nice to know it’s not difficult to make friends 
@Much2learn, I’m actually going to be a nursing student. I’m not planning so far to take any courses at SEAS but want to take some science courses in CAS (I heard the intro classes were difficult, but I’m not sure??? Any information on that would be great!) Taking your questions in consideration, I can see how it’s actually really different for everybody.
Also, I have another question. What is Spring Fling like, and how were Quaker Days? I only know generally the gist that students sleep over in the dorms and each individual program on the first day hosts a presentation for its students.
@PennHurrah19 Everyone’s Fling experience is going to vary to some degree, but I can outline the basic events organized and available for everyone to attend. Every annual Spring Fling begins with a live performance hosted on Franklin Field and is organized by the Social Planning and Events Committee. Past performers include Lupe Fiasco, Passion Pit, David Guetta, Snoop Dogg, Gym Class Heroes, Tyga, Flo Rida, Kid Cudi; this year’s performers will by Kygo and Kesha.
On Saturday there are two carnivals - one that happens in the Quad and includes a bunch of carnival games and a ton of food; performing arts groups around the Penn community and local musicians perform on smaller stages in the Upper and Lower Quad. Another happens in the evening on College Green where there is a ton of free food (and games? I can’t remember). The remainder of the two days is more YMMV.
Is there grade inflation in penn? How competitive is it?
It seems to me that the Penn does a good job of balance in grading overall. My understanding is that the average gpa is about 3.5 in The College and about 3.0 - 3.1 in SEAS.
Considering that the average student coming into Penn had a 3.9 gpa in high school, I think the curve is fair in SEAS and a bit generous in The College, but students don’t feel like it is generous because almost all of them are working harder than they ever have before to get lower grades than they ever have before. I don’t know how the curve is in Wharton, but I suspect that it is closer to The College.
To some old timers, this will appear to reflect a good deal of grade inflation. However, you have to remember that 1/2 the students are getting grades below these average levels. That means that there are high number of 4.0 high school students, especially in Engineering, who are wrapping up their freshmen year right now with a gpa of 2.x. That can be a significant adjustment for a lot of 19 year olds, both mentally and emotionally.
Hi there! Could you tell me if Poli-Sci is a popular major at Penn?
It is a reasonably popular major, and they have been expanding that department in the last few years.