Current Penn Freshman Taking Questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
301

<p>To the above few questions:
Financial Aid @penn is definitely lenient, esp. if any of your parents lose their job in this economy. You can be sure that even if you didnt get all the papers in, if you go to the financial aid office, they will sit down and talk to you and try to get you a plan that works. At least, thats what they did for me.</p>

<p>How hard is it to get an A? Unless you take courses in the College, it is usually pretty hard. There is little to no grade inflation here. They say 30-30-30-10, meaning thats that % breakdown of A,B,C,D and generally professors follow that rule. Some push it to 35-35-20-10 and some push it down to 25-35-30-10. It is very very competitive, so getting an A means you are above a standard deviation of most tests.</p>

302

<p>I would like to warn students in engineering that you will have to be on-top of your game to receive an A in most intro science/math classes. It was a shock to me. Engineering Chem 101 claims that only 5-10 students (approx) will receive an A out of over 100. I recommend strongly that you take the chem placement to place out of Chem 101 and place into 102 or Orgo.<br>
Good luck 2014ers! :)</p>

303

<p>^ ^ yes, I agree, it was very shocking. It’s tough, especially if you didn’t come from a strong high school. You will have to work MUCH harder than others.</p>

304

<p>Intro Math classes generally follow 30-30-30-10 curves; Intro hard science classes tend to be more of weeder classes wit a 25-35-30-10 curve; Economics classes are not put on hard curves… they do grade scales instead, which generally means that an 80% average or better will be close to an A.</p>

<p>The Wharton curve is 30-40-20-10, I believe, and ALL Wharton core courses follow the Wharton curve. Upper level Wharton classes do NOT follow this curve necessarily, and generally if you put the work in, you will get a B+ or an A. </p>

<p>Engineering courses are tough, but many of your upper level classes are going to be more based on projects, research and applications, giving you more control over your grade (these classes are not curved).</p>

<p>College classes are generally easier to get As in, provided you do the work WELL. That said, my reading load for my two political science classes this semester was roughly 500 pages a week (not each… 500 combined), and I read roughly 400 pages of German for an upper level German department course. Last semester (Spring, '09), I read roughly 1100ish pages per week (three political science courses, two legal studies courses and a German course). Typically average work will get you a B, and you actually do need to produce exceptional work to get an A. That said, most people are capable of producing exceptional work, making an A a little easier to come by. The average GPA in the College is a 3.3 or 3.4, or so (different majors have different GPAs… PSCI had a 3.1 average last I saw)</p>

305

<p>Disclaimer: I’m a freshman.</p>

<p>Is PoliSci really that low? One of my PoliSci class this year had a B+ curve, and I can’t see my other one being much lower than that (130 and 271).</p>

<p>Anyway, besides my Econ class having a 30-30-40 curve (minimum standards regarding the first two percentages), the information above is good.</p>

<p>I’m also in the college and I certainly have a different kind of workload than my roommates from other schools. In my experience, it is a lot harder to recover from falling behind in reading material than lecture material (say, from a PoliSci class than from an Econ class). I know I can’t get away with skipping the reading material here like I was able to do in high school. I find, not so surprisingly considering my PoliSci and History schedule, that I have a lot more readings to read and papers to write than people from other schools. The joke goes that only 4 out of 5 Wharton grads know how to read. Then again, they work their asses off too, especially with the freshman management project.</p>

<p>From my experience, engineering kids work the hardest and the longest out of anyone , with considerable more amounts of class time due to labs (not counting Junior nursing students with clinical stuff). They are also the most stressed out ones when it comes to exams, particularly when they find out where they are on the curve.</p>

306

<p>I mean, John DiIulio always curves to a B+ in his classes… I was really close to taking PSCI271 but decided I wanted to take PSCI498 instead… was 271 any good? It seemed interesting enough. What are you taking next semester?</p>

307

<p>Yeah, Prof. Smith REALLY knows his stuff. And you can get away not having to take an exam all semester, which is why I’m looking for ways to procrastinate writing my final paper. I’m definitely taking his Civil Rights and Civil Liberties class in the Spring '11 term, just thought I needed a break before I took another one of his classes. Honestly 130 was my favorite class though. Fantastic lecturer. </p>

<p>I’m on the right-side of DiIulio’s “Religion and Public Policy” seminar. At least he tells me that he takes the first five off the waitlist no matter if people end up dropping or not. Besides that, I’m trying to knock down requirements (Writing Seminar, Big Bang) while continuing Econ and starting upper level Spanish. </p>

<p>What courses do you recommend? I’m definitely thinking of doing a PoliSci major.</p>

308

<p>Ah yeah, I did my writing seminar first semester freshman year… spent second semester doing requirements (language, math, astronomy)… I took ASTR001 (Survey of the Universe) which was pretty easy, but I’ve heard that ASTR007 is UNBELIEVABLY hard… you might want to reconsider that one. Second semester I’d recommend doing exactly what you’re doing… Get a bunch of your requirements out of the way so you can do more things you like in the future. If you’re interested in Polisci, I would definitely recommend taking a special seminar in the field… not necessarily next semester, but definitely sophomore year. Just look for any class ending in 98. They are a LOT of work (hundreds and hundreds of pages of reading) but they are also the best, most interesting and most useful courses offered by the department.</p>

<p>Also consider taking something random… again, not necessarily this semester since it’s good to get requirements done… but for example I’ve taken a few Legal Studies courses (was going to do the LGST and History minor but decided against it this year), and next semester I’m taking an Electrical and Systems Engineering course! ECON002 with Eudey is really good (at least I thought so) and if you understand Econ it isn’t that hard… and by understand econ I mean understand what she wants you to write on exams (I never quite got that… I knew macroecon VERY well… just not her style of teaching haha).</p>

<p>also participate in rush when you get back to school. Free food and an excuse to hang out with people on random nights!</p>

309

<p>I am still confused about Stouffer/Mayer. Triplle in Stouffer/Mayer means 3 people in the same room + bathroom and kitchenette, or 3 bedroom (1 person per bedroom) + bathroom and kitchenette?</p>

310

<p>Hey y’all seniors and college students,</p>

<p>Has anyone allowed an interview from DC or Maryland?</p>

<p>I am RD applicant but applied about 1 1/2 months ago, still has not received any notification about the interview</p>

<p>Thanks y’all for your thoughts and concerns :)</p>

311

<p>SpicyOrange, I applied from there. My penn interview was pretty late. Beginning of February if I’m not mistaken.</p>

312

<p>They don’t even look at RD applications before mid January, so don’t be surprised that you haven’t gotten an interview. The way interviews work is that Admissions gives people’s names to alumni in the region, and the alumni schedule interviews with people who they can, but there’s no guarantee that you will get an interview; they are very informal and more for you to learn more about Penn than for them to make a judgment of you.</p>

<p>As for Stouffer/Mayer, a triple is a triple apartment – three bedrooms, a common room and a kitchenette.</p>

313

<p>^wow chem 101/102 only gives out 5-10 A’s…if that was true, then i am lucky to have gotten A’s in both classes.</p>

314

<p>Do you know anything about BIOL121? I have AP credit for BIOL101 but I heard that the curves are harsh and that the material is much more difficult than in BIOL101. What would be some advantages of taking BIOL121 besides challenging myself?</p>

315

<p>Can anyone speak to the curves of College classes? I got accepted ED and saw all the stuff about how hard it is to get an A in Wharton and was wondering how hard it is to get an A in the College? I know it will differ per major, but what about the sector requirement classes?</p>

316

<p>It depends class by class.</p>

<p>My PoliSci Class was graded so that half the students will earn a B+ or higher. My Econ Class was graded so that at least 30% got As, at least 30% got Bs, and everyone else Cs or below. My History class had only ten people in it, so the grading is up to the discretion of the professor, which I feel is common. Sector requirements are spread out among so many majors and classes that you won’t find a pattern in curving. </p>

<p>Statistically speaking, it is easier to get an A in the College than in Engineering/Wharton.</p>

317

<p>I’m a sophomore in the college. I have heard that Bio 121 is difficult, but manageable. I took Bio 101/102 and received a C and an A, respectively. You are going to need to study very hard, regardless of whether you take 101 or 121. Both classes have tough curves - about a C+/B-. Pre med courses are typically curved lower than most college classes…generally to a B-. What this usually means is that 20-30% of students get As or A-s.</p>

318

<p>Is it easier to get a high GPA in math or finance?</p>

319

<p>I have a bike on campus, as do a lot of people. They are useful but you MUST get a U lock or it will be stolen.</p>

320

<ol>
<li>Anyone know how different the 8th and 9th editions of Microeconomics by Parkin are? I can get the 8th for $40 or less pretty easily but haven’t been able to find the 9th for less than $120.</li>
</ol>

<p>They are different enough that you will want the 9th edition. The book is not imperative for the course, however. I’m in it now. There are lots of extra problems in the book and it does a good job explaining, but the tests are all lecture based. I have the 9th edition. PM me if you are local and want it. I’m selling it for $95.</p>

<ol>
<li>How long does it take to get from David Rittenhouse to Huntsman? I have back-to-back math then MGMT twice a week, and it looks kind of far on the map.</li>
</ol>

<p>Run.</p>

<ol>
<li>How safe/unsafe would having an 1100 dollar bike outside be? Obviously I’d lock it up, but people could still technically steal parts/cut the lock. I have the bike anyway (for road cycling), I just have never used it for getting to class (at boarding school).</li>
</ol>

<p>I have an $800 bike and keep it in my room. Get a Kryptonite ULock (or two). Or just get a cheap bike off Craigslist.</p>

<ol>
<li>This is a premed question, and thanks so much in advance, some of these numbers might be ……what % get A’s in Orgo, Intro chem , calc 1 , cell bio ? I heard that a 3.3 gpa from Penn with B’s in orgo get into state schools ( approximately) would this be true? I know this is true for JHU…. how does this compare to Penn?</li>
</ol>

<p>All pre med classes are curved to B-/C+. This means about 20-30% of the class gets As, A-s. A 3.3 science GPA is about the lowest you can go for admission to a US medical school. If you browse the career services website, you will see that they discuss how the “Penn name” still does not make up for poor grades. </p>

<ol>
<li>Just curious whether you or any other posters have any insight about what kind of environment Penn is for gay guys. I am not overt or flamboyant, but don’t plan on hiding my orientation when I go to school. Any thoughts?</li>
</ol>

<p>Penn is a great school for LGBT students – and there are lots of gay men on campus. If you are not familiar with the LGBT Center, check out the website – it has four levels, study lounges, and full time staff. [LGBT</a> Center](<a href=“http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/lgbtc/]LGBT”>Home - LGBT Center at the University of Pennsylvania) Penn is actually ranked first in the country by The Advocate for gay friendliness. There are lots of clubs that you can join, and a big party scene.</p>