Ask current Penn students anything!

<p>Work-study jobs are very easy. Most involve very, very little work (and, in fairness, comparably little pay). When I had my campus job, it was pretty easy for me to do homework and the like during down time.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>111-112 is for students in the College.</p>

<p>AP Stat gives STAT 111 credit but counts as the STAT 101 requirement. (You still have to do STAT 102, which you can’t AP out of.) If you want to dual-degree with engineering, you have to do the 430-431 sequence or ESE 301-ESE 302 (or any combo, like STAT 430-ESE 302 or ESE 301-STAT 431). You can’t take 100-level STAT as an engineer, so AP Stat doesn’t count toward the stat requirement for engineers.</p>

<p>“I wouldn’t take more than 5.5 in a semester. I did 6 one semester, and it was a real pain. My semesters went … Fall '07 - 4 …”</p>

<p>If you took 4 a semester, how long did it take you to graduate? If someone wants to graduate in 3 years, doesn’t he need to take 5-7 a semester?</p>

<p>I graduated in seven semesters. The College’s standard curriculum is basically that an average of four classes per semester will let you graduate in four years. That’s why a lot of people double major or graduate early! Do the math if you want to figure out how long it will take you to graduate… if you do a 32 course curriculum, you will have 4 courses first semester freshman year, which means you would have five semesters to do 28 courses. You could do summer school one year and take three courses and then average five a semester for the school year.</p>

<p>If you aren’t doing really really well, I would suggest avoiding 6+ credit semesters. They’re brutal.</p>

<p>I’m trying to figure out my schedule for advanced registration and I still need to decide on a writing seminar. Are there any writing seminars that you would recommend? Do you know anything about prof. Kristina Baumli or Susanna J. Fry? I’m in the nursing school btw!</p>

<p>How many students do you think graduate as fifth year seniors?</p>

<p>@mandypandy: The writing seminars that are most popular/seem to receive the most rave reviews are “Gotta dance”, “Will & Grace”, and basically any film-related one. People have told me that those writ sems require slightly less work b/c instead of reading, you get to watch movies. However, just be warned that those are EXTREMELY hard to get into. I took “Pride and Prejudice” and I would only recommend it if you’re genuinely interested in Jane Austen/feminism. I did not particularly enjoy it b/c the class was almost all girls, there was nonstop (and VERY lengthy) discussions about feminism, and in my opinion, the book was overanalyzed. </p>

<p>I have never heard anything about Fry but I know that Baumli a few of my friends had Baumli for “Apocalypse Now”. I have heard many great things about her…she does not give very much work and almost everyone ends up with an A in her class:)</p>

<p>How is UPenn’s Econ Department & Math Department? I am thinking about Wharton or CAS Econ/Math. I initially was so sure about Wharton, but after having worked at an investment firm as an intern, I found out that undergrad business is not preferred here.</p>

<p>

Penn’s Econ Department is consistently ranked among the top 10 or so in the country.</p>

<p>In terms of undergrad business for investment firms, you should be aware that Wharton undergrad is in a class all its own. Among the leading financial firms (investment banking, hedge funds, private equity, etc.) and consulting firms, Wharton undergrad is generally a top recruiting target school along with a very few of the ultra-elite liberal arts programs (Harvard, etc.). So with respect to recruiting and hiring at that group of investment firms, at least, you can’t lump Wharton in with the average undergrad business program. I think you’d find that also to be generally true at most investment firms in the country, as well as much of the rest of the world. Wharton undergrad’s reputation is really unparalleled.</p>

<p>But my recommendation would be that you learn as much as you can about the general curricula of both Wharton and Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences (home of the Econ Department), and determine which would interest you more, and in which you’d feel you’d thrive the best. The rest will take care of itself.</p>

<p>@GoldOwl: Thank you so much for your help! I didn’t even notice the “Pride and Prejudice” writing seminar…and I am a huge Jane Austen fan! :)</p>

<p>How many intro classes do you recommend? I originally had a schedule of Math 114/Phys 150/CIS 110/Writ Sem but I was told by my advisor that having three intro classes are a pain to deal with. Should I go with just two and begin fulfilling my language requirements or stick with the original plan?</p>

<p>@Excavalier: I think that 3 intro classes can be somewhat difficult but definitely doable. In my first sem freshmen year, I took Math 114, Phys 150, Chem 241 and 2 other classes. I can tell you that if you have some AP Physics background, 150 shouldn’t be a problem for you. I took AP Physics B but I did not do very well in the class and I still managed to pull off an A relatively easily in 150. Even people who hadn’t had AP background (just regular/general high school physics) were able to do pretty well. The curve is pretty generous (about 40% of our class got some sort of an A) and it really is not that difficult. Math 114 may be slightly more difficult only in the sense that the content/material may not be as familiar to you. The syllabus starts off with some vector calc, which was a challenge for some people. However, even though it is an intro course, the curve was VERY generous (50% of our class got some form of an A). If you want to maximize your chances of doing well in that class, I would recommend signing up for Prof Powers’ section. He is not a very good lecturer by any means but his tests are significantly easier than those give by the other professors. Although he gives 4 midterms while most other profs only give 2, he does not give weekly quizzes (like many other profs do) and he allows you to drop your lowest midterm grade in favor of the final.</p>

<p>@Goldowl (or anyone): How would you compare MEAM 110 & 147 vs Physics 150 for a CIS intended major who learns best by seeing and doing rather than by lectures? Is similar Physics/Mechanics taught? Similar difficulty in courses (for someone who took a not-so-well taught AP Physics B course in high school)?</p>

<p>@DDHM: Unfortunately, I have never taken MEAM 110 & 147 so I can’t say much about those. I can however, tell you my experience with phys 150. Phys 150 is a fairly large lecture class. However, it does involve a decent number of in-class demos, powerpoints/visuals, and a lab component so perhaps those will suit your learning style? I would say that phys 150 is very comparable to AP Physics B. Although it is technically calculus-based mechanics, there is minimal calculus involved. My professor occasionally used calculus to derive formulas and made occasional mention of vectors or gradients but we NEVER had to use any calculus on quizzes, midterms, or the final (phys 151 is a different situation though- that class involves a decent amount of calc). I think you will be fine with your background-I had a very unqualified AP Physics teacher; she hardly lectured/taught and basically left us to do problems/learn on our own while she was on Facebook. A good portion of our class ended up getting 2s on the AP exam. However, even with this poor teaching, I was still able to get an A relatively easily in 150.</p>

<p>Hey I’m an incoming Wharton student, I took AP Stats junior year and got a 5 as well as a 5 on Calc BC…should I take Stat102 first semester or repeat stat101, as I have obviously forgotten a lot of stats material from my junior year. I don’t really want to take math114 so thats why I am trying to decide between repeated stat101 and taking stat102…any suggestions?</p>

<p>^ AP Stats is almost nothing like Stat 101 especially now with the syllabus revision. Take 101.</p>

<p>hey guys! can anybody tell me what craft of prose writing seminar is generally about? like what are the topics we will be writing about in this seminar?</p>

<p>@Yxinny: craft of prose is generally for international students/students who are not very good at english and writing. From what I’ve heard, it doesn’t focus on a particular topic (unlike many of the other writing seminars) since the goal of it is essentially to improve students’ writing abilities. In terms of the essays, the types of essays you will be writing are the same for ALL the writing seminars. You will be doing justificatory reasoning, explanatory reasoning, complex synthesis, etc. However, unlike other writing seminars, you will not be focused on a particular topic throughout the entirely to of the course.</p>

<p>I’m currently self-studying the math 240 topics in hope of placing out of the course. I’m thinking of buying the textbook Penn uses in the course, but I’m hesitant to make the purchase: online reviews say the book isn’t too great. Would you guys recommend the book Penn uses, or would you advise buying another book? If the latter, what do you recommend?</p>

<p>It is a pretty bad book, it basically just consists of plugging numbers, there are no explanations of concepts. I would recommend you look on amazon for a good math book aimed at physicists or engineers, they’ll all probably have the material covered</p>