<p>Congratualations to the Penn Class of 2016 admits! I figured that it's probably the right time to start up a new "ask current students" thread, as I'm sure that some of you have some burning questions in regards to Penn.</p>
<p>A bit of background on myself - I'm an M&T student, I'm in an a capella group, I'm working on a start-up, and I'm a teaching assistant. I should be able to answer just about any question you have though, as I have some good friends in all areas of the school.</p>
<p>Other Penn students, feel free to answer anything as well! It's always great to have multiple opinions on these questions.</p>
<p>Oh sweet, was looking for something like this. Hiiii! I’m currently a junior and would really like to attend the Wharton Business School. One of my main selling points to these schools (asides from the regular asian gpa, sat scores, blah blah), is the fact that I have placed 1st in Nationals for Business Professionals of America, and was a runner up at DECA internationals. I was just wondering how much weight these sorts of organizations had on Ivy Colleges? Are they a big influence or not? Thanks!</p>
<p>Hi! I was accepted to Wharton for '16. I really want to go as I think is a great (crucially, very well rounded) school. My father however keeps telling me Wharton kids are super competitive - to the point where they won’t share notes, or even talk much or form close friendships. I think that’s a fairly gross generalisation and don’t anticipate it would be anything as extreme as that, but any light you could shed on the situation would be most appreciated. </p>
<p>Apart from that, any tips for all the incoming freshmen? Is there a specific housing plan to apply for, etc.? In particular, would you have any advice for an international student?</p>
<p>A hypothetical question: say I want to transfer from SAS to SEAS. I know you need the 3.0 GPA to do so but Penn also suggests taking 1 Chem class, 2 Physics classes, 1 computer programming class, 2 Calculus classes, and 2 humanities/social sciences classes. If a student were to not take one of these classes freshman year, what could be the potential impact going forward? Would graduating in four years still be feasible? Also, what classes would you recommend to a student like this?</p>
<p>At SEAS, how difficult would it be to get higher than a 3.0 GPA, and what GPA is ideal for an advantage in job opportunities straight out of college?</p>
<p>It’s hard to say what Wharton looks for in students. I, for one, I had no business extracurriculars whatsoever. From what it looks like you’ve done extremely well in these competitions, and I do know that a good number of my peers did DECA/FBLA. That definitely sounds like something that can only help you!</p>
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<p>Completely false and based on rumor, fortunately! I’ve found a very collaborative environment here at Penn. My MGMT 100 group didn’t try to screw anyone over with the reviews. In fact, collaboration and teamwork gets you the best grades in that class. My MGMT 100 professor actually called our class the “class of love” because everybody got along so well.</p>
<p>Trust me, you’ll want to work on problem sets and study with your classmates. Some Wharton classes allow you to complete problem sets in groups, and others actually require you to do so.</p>
<p>Moreover, there are a good number of group projects in Wharton classes - this is a business school, after all - so teamwork and cooperation is inherently valued over competition. You’ll find that while classes are curved, working with your peers will benefit all of you. There are enough students who are too busy going out five or six nights a week that the “Wharton curve” isn’t really anything damaging.</p>
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<p>I applied for the Quad and got my first choice college house, Fisher-Hassenfeld, without applying for a residential program. For sophomore year, I applied for the Arts House residential program in Harnwell, and I got in as well. I highly recommend living in either the Quad or in Hill for your first year. It’s an experience you don’t want to miss out on.</p>
<p>I think that just asking for tips in general is a bit too vague for me to come up with anything off the top of my head. Don’t forget to have fun, but don’t forget to study and work hard! It’s very easy to do too much of one or the other.</p>
<p>Be prepared to not do so amazingly on your first set of midterms. It happens to everyone. Even at the most rigorous high schools, you don’t really learn how to study properly. It’s just one of those things you will automatically pick up by trial and error in college.</p>
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<p>From my sophomore and junior friends who are non-M&T Wharton/SEAS dual degree students, it’s not incredibly hard to get into. Just keep a good GPA (I don’t think it has to be at the 3.9 level, like it does to transfer to M&T), and you’ll be golden. Bear in mind that there are a few requirements, and that you should only get the Wharton degree if you’re absolutely dead-set on studying business as well as engineering. I find that a lot of engineers go for the Wharton degree for the brand name prestige and then complain about the extra classes / about how their classes don’t interest them.</p>
<p>Keasbey Nights - Thank you for detailed and extremely informative reply! That definitely helps a lot - I think I’ll definitely be at Penn next year.</p>
<p>I was waitlisted. Do you know any fellow students that were waitlisted and later got in? If so, what can I do to improve my chances of getting in? Is it possible to send an additional/updated teacher rec?</p>
<p>I honestly can’t answer the first part of this question. I definitely think it would still be possible to graduate in four years, but I’m not sure what the potential impact would be in regards to transferring from SAS to SEAS.</p>
<p>Which AP classes have you taken? I’d definitely recommend starting at the highest math you can. If you’ve taken calc BC (MATH 104), take multivar (MATH 114). If you’ve taken multivar (MATH 114), take linear algebra (MATH 240). Even if you don’t get a 5 in BC, taking the higher class gives you credit for the lower one as well. I got a 5 in BC, studied multivar on my own, took MATH 240, and got credit for both MATH 114 and MATH 240 in one semester.</p>
<p>Take the next CIS course you can - CIS 110 if you’ve never programmed before, CIS 120 if you have. Both CIS classes are **excellent<a href=“I%20myself%20am%20a%20CIS%20120%20teaching%20assistant”>/b</a>. The professors for both are really, really great teachers, and the homeworks are engaging and interesting. I looked forward to doing my CIS 120 homework when I took it.</p>
<p>I guess take PHYS 150 and/or CHEM 101, or whatever is next after the classes you’ve AP’d out of.</p>
<p>You will be contacted by an academic advisor over the summer to discuss these things with. :D</p>
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<p>It’s definitely not at all hard to get above a 3.0 in SEAS - at least, from what I can tell from freshman year. As for job opportunities, I can’t really say, as I’m still a freshman. Working at a start-up is pretty independent of GPA. If you want to work in finance, a 3.5 or higher will get your resume looked at, from what i’ve heard.</p>
<p>How much work is M&T? I know that this is really dependent on the type of person you are and your working style, but could you give an estimate (hrs/wk of homework)?</p>
<p>Further, how many students drop from dual-degree programs into single-degree programs, approximately?</p>
<p>It’s not as bad as one would think. I can’t go out six nights a week or anything, and I don’t get to sleep for ten hours a night, but I don’t ever have to pull all-nighters. You’ll find that the workload in college gets bad when you’re participating in a bunch of extracurriculars, whether it’s pledging, working on a start-up (hey, that’s me!), doing business plan competitions, etc. You’ll sink time into those, and then you’ll find yourself staying up to do homework and study. But that holds true for all students, not just M&Ts.</p>
<p>Of course, I say this while being awake at 2am working on a problem set on a Thursday night. But I had a midterm today, and I tend to really procrastinate after taking a midterm.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure what this figure is. I know that my M&T class has had one student drop so far. Students almost always drop a dual degree because they realize they’re not all that interested in one of the fields. A former M&T '14 dropped into Wharton because he knew he only wanted to do trading and saw no need for an engineering degree anymore.</p>
<p>Students don’t drop because the workload is too intense.</p>
<p>Hey! I just got accepted to M&T and am really excited Have you loved the program so far? Anything you want to share about your experience? Glad to hear the workload isn’t incredibly intense. I’m thinking of a computer science major for the engineering degree, do you know any people in CS and if so, how is it?</p>
<p>I’ll probably think of some better questions when it’s not late at night tho ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for making this thread, so excited to be a part of Penn next year! In terms of the social life, how dominant is the greek scene on campus? In terms of workload, how difficult is the Wharton school? I consider myself incredibly hardworking rather than just naturally super smart, and I’m wondering if I’ll survive at Wharton haha. Also…what are your favorite and least favorite things about Penn? Thanks for all your help, really appreciated!</p>
<p>I just wanted to clarify, if a CAS student wanted a dual degree with Wharton, they can just declare it and everything is awesome? And after 4 years they’ll get a Wharton degree as well? I’m asking because I don’t want just a business degree but would rather mix Finance with another major. One of the huge reasons I applied to Penn was for their interdisciplinary majors and I wanted to construct my own. </p>
<p>Tl;dr how easy is it to have dual degrees that span the different schools? Do you need to apply for it? How difficult would it be to change around your majors after declaring them?</p>
<p>Hey, congratulations on getting in! It’s really an amazing experience, given that you want to do business and engineering. I myself am a CIS major, and so are a lot of my friends. It’s an amazing program at Penn with an incredible selection of professors. Everything besides CIS 121 is a great class. CIS 121 is just generally poorly taught - the material is extremely riveting, but the professors generally have a hard time communicating it. What’s really cool is that a current CIS M&T sophomore is actually working to revamp the course. Not many other schools can say that they do things like that!</p>
<p>But don’t worry about that now! I highly recommend the CIS major. Do you have any programming experience, out of curiosity?</p>
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<p>Not a problem! The Greek community here is somewhat of a vocal minority, just because you’ll walk down Locust Walk and see houses like Phi Delt and Kappa Sig, and you might get the feeling that Greek life dominates social life. While frat parties are awesome, I myself decided not to pledge (I wanted to do a start-up instead), and I still have a great social life.</p>
<p>I find that I need to put more time into my engineering classes than my Wharton classes, if that says anything. Wharton classes don’t require a huge amount of work, besides the few days before a midterm or the few days before a project is due. (MGMT 100 status report will eat up an entire week of your life, unfortunately. But everyone goes through it - it’s sort of like Wharton’s pledge process.)</p>
<p>My favorite thing about Penn, and it’s really hard to pick just one, is the incredible balance here between student entrepreneurship and student desire to learn. I find that I can easily talk about rather esoteric academic subjects with my start-up partners. People often say that Penn is exclusively pre-professional, but it’s not at all true.</p>
<p>My least favorite thing about Penn is that there’s so much to do that weeks go by so quickly. Time just flies here, and it’s easy to get caught up in your studies. Moreover, 1920 Commons sucks.</p>
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<p>You have to apply for a dual degree in another school. I think that you need a pretty good GPA to get a dual degree with Wharton when you’re enrolled in CAS. But it’s definitely doable, and I know of a good number of students doing uncoordinated dual degrees between Wharton and another school or CAS and another school.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how difficult it is to change your major after declaring. I know one student in M&T who started out in mechanical engineering and decided to switch to comp sci during his sophomore year. He’s still going to graduate in four years. So it’s probably not too bad!</p>
Have you loved the program so far? Anything you want to share about your experience? Glad to hear the workload isn’t incredibly intense. I’m thinking of a computer science major for the engineering degree, do you know any people in CS and if so, how is it?</p>