<p>for an econ major, do you think it is wise to choose upenn over northwestern, jhu, dartmouth, and cornell?</p>
<p>What is dining like at Penn? Are the cafeterias unlimited/buffet or do you pay each time? And generally, how would you rate the food scene at Penn? </p>
<p>And this is gonna sound stupid, but… is Penn a Coke school or a Pepsi school? LOL, it’s not a dealbreaker or anything but I would like to know.</p>
<p>“Hey, i applied intially for the mnt programme and was accepted to engineering. I couldnt find anything on the website that states i was rejected for the jerome fisher programme though. is that just assumed? and how hard is it to transfer into it? What do you like best about engineering at penn?”</p>
<p>It says explicitly that you were accepted into M&T if you were. I’m in the same boat as you, and as such, am wondering about the two subsequent questions as well.</p>
<p>@nicteow: I found this statement on Penn’s M&T website at [THE</a> JEROME FISHER PROGRAM IN MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGY | ADMISSIONS](<a href=“Home - Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology”>Home - Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology) :
Please note that because of the selective nature of the M&T Program, students who are applying may also elect a single degree choice on their application as a secondary choice to the Program. This single degree choice will only be considered after all opportunities for placement in the M&T Program have been exhausted.</p>
<p>So yes, I’m afraid you were rejected from M&T. But not to worry! If M&T is your dream, you can apply to transfer to the M&T program at the end of your freshman year. You just need to take certain classes while you are a freshman and maintain at least a 3.4 GPA. Check out [THE</a> JEROME FISHER PROGRAM IN MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGY | ADMISSIONS](<a href=“Home - Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology”>Home - Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology) and click on Transfer Students for all of the details and the application.</p>
<p>There’s no one thing I like best about Penn Engineering. I love Penngineering (no one actually calls it that, I just think it sounds fun) as a whole. However, I realize how wimpy an answer that is, so here are a couple of my favorite things about Penn Engineering: beautiful buildings (including an amazing new bioengineering building, Skirkanich Hall), fun and interesting classes (check out ESE 112, read first page for what I have to say about that), awesome professors, and tons and tons of free stuff! I’ll say one thing about the free stuff; at info fairs for Penn Engineering there are tons of free stuff to grab like staplers, flash drives, lanyards, t shirts, etc. that all say “Penn Engineering” on them. As far as I know, the other schools (Wharton, CAS, Nursing) don’t have nearly as much free stuff as Engineering does. Just an added bonus, haha. </p>
<p>@anjuved: You’re welcome! I’m glad I’ve been able to help you out. I have indeed heard of the BFS program; however, I do not have much information about it. I’m going to point you to this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/677604-benjamin-franklin-scholar-program.html?highlight=franklin+scholars[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/677604-benjamin-franklin-scholar-program.html?highlight=franklin+scholars</a>. They have some pretty good info on it that I trust. If you’d rather read up on it from a more reliable source, check out the official site for BFS at [Center</a> for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships | Benjamin Franklin Scholars](<a href=“Penn CURF”>Penn CURF). I would check both of those places out for an opinion of the program. I don’t want to steer you wrong, because honestly I don’t know whether to recommend it or not.</p>
<p>I am very excited that you’re thinking about living in Stouffer! Trust me, you are going to make so many friends (both freshman and upperclassmen) you won’t know what to do with all of them! There are about 90 freshmen in Stouffer each year. If you live in Mayer Hall (where I live), you will be placed on either the 5th floor or the 6th floor. Each of those two floors are comprised of only freshmen, except for about 6 upperclassmen rooms (6 on each floor). This actually better serves freshman interests because it means you’ll have some really cool, really knowledgeable students on your floor that can help you out with anything you need. In Mayer, you’ll be surrounded by freshmen on all sides. </p>
<p>If you decide to live in Stouffer Hall, you’ll live in a “section.” There are 6 sections: A section, B section, C section, …, F section. There are lots of freshmen scattered across all of the sections. So to sum everything up: If you live in Stouffer, you’ll make tons of friends because everyone is very nice and social. If you’re looking to make freshman friends in particular, I would recommend living in Mayer Hall because I guarantee you’ll be put on one of the two freshman floors where you’ll be surrounded by freshmen, as well as upper classmen. I can’t say the same thing for Stouffer Hall, but I know you would enjoy living there as well. Please let me know if you have any more questions about Stouffer!</p>
<p>For your econ question, please see my response to callmemc below:</p>
<p>@Humna: Absolutely! I encourage all Penn 2013 admits to join the facebook group at [UPenn</a> Class of 2013 | Facebook](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■.com/penn2013]UPenn”>Facebook). And if you’re coming to Penn and want an awesome upperclassmen friend, feel free to add me as a friend on facebook: [Kevin</a> Conley - Sacramento, CA | Facebook](<a href=“http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1401120356&ref=profile]Kevin”>http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1401120356&ref=profile)</p>
<p>@callmemc: Penn has an excellent Econ program. I mean, we have the Wharton school after all. That being said, I encourage you to look at other ways you might fit in at Penn. Don’t get me wrong, your major is definitely important, as is the school you go to for that major (AKA name recognition). But Penn is terrific for that. Penn will open doors for you that you can’t even imagine. I know those other schools can do that as well. Therefore, do some research and see if maybe Penn has a club or organization that you’d like to join that maybe those other schools don’t offer. Or a sport. Or a type of dorm. To answer anjuved’s question: Yes, I believe Penn is a fantastic choice for Economics. In fact, you’ll have a hard time doing much better. For you, callmemc, I say the same thing. But because it sounds like you have not decided on a college yet, I suggest you scour the websites of each college for distinct characteristics that attract you to each college.</p>
<p>@blu_g8orade: Dining at Penn consists of three components: residential dining halls, retail dining halls, and regular restaurants around campus. The connection between residential and retail dining halls is that you use your Penn Card to eat at those places. Residential dining halls are the “unlimited buffet” you have in mind, where you swipe in at the front (one “meal” is deducted from your meal account; you get a certain number of meals for the year) and then you can eat as much food as you want until you leave (after which you would have to swipe in again and use another “meal”). Retail dining halls are more like regular restaurants, but instead of using real dollars to pay for food, you use your Penn “dining dollars” to make purchases (like “meals”, you get a certain amount of “dining dollars” for the entire year based on the meal plan you choose). You can use “dining dollars” at the Starbucks, Subway, Jamba Juice, and many other restaurants on campus. Yet not all restaurants on campus accept “dining dollars.” These regular restaurants are not affiliated with the University, and you will have to use real money/credit cards/debit cards to pay for food there.</p>
<p>I like the food at Penn. It satisfies my needs for food. I believe your opinion of the Penn dining halls will be greatly influenced by what you are used to eating. So if you are used to being served four-course dinners by private chefs at your boarding school, yes, you’re going to think Penn dining sucks. However, if you went to a public high school and have been eating school cafeteria food all of your life, Penn should definitely be acceptable to you. You might even find it a step above what you are used to. Personally, I am going to continue having a meal plan as a sophomore next year (which is optional). I enjoy the convenience of not having to cook my own meals, and I like the quality of the food just fine.</p>
<p>Your final question is not stupid at all. Myself being a major Diet Pepsi fan, I too was curious as to what kind of soda school Penn was. To answer your question, Penn is a Pepsi school. The residential dining halls (see above paragraph) only have Pepsi products for soda (unlimited refills too). However, the retail dining hall in the basement of Houston Hall (known as Houston Market) sells both bottled Pepsi and bottled Coke products.</p>
<p>Whew! Lots of questions asked today, but I know that’s to be expected on the day after admissions decisions were released. Congratulations to everyone who was accepted!</p>
<p>The JWS: worth it or not? Perks? Added commitment approximation? </p>
<p>I’m sorry for asking this but how exclusive is this? Is this an opportunity for a few or a trap for the unwary?</p>
<p>Hi!</p>
<p>I hear from a lot of people that the class sizes are huge at Penn and that many professors aren’t accessible and that some classes aren’t even taught by professors! Is that true? I really need to be able to ask profs for help outside of class and be in smaller classes. Is Penn a bad place for me? (BTW–I’m going to be in the College, Econ major and was invited to the Ben Franklin Scholar program)</p>
<p>If I’m in the College with an economics major, can I take a finance minor from Wharton?</p>
<p>@necrophiliac: Please see [Program</a> Information](<a href=“http://www.dolphin.upenn.edu/jwss/jwss_page0001.htm]Program”>http://www.dolphin.upenn.edu/jwss/jwss_page0001.htm) for info about the Joseph Wharton Scholars program. I have actually not heard of JWS before, but then again, I am in Engineering and that is a Wharton program. Based on what I saw at that website, though, I would only recommend you do it if 1) you want to take some really cool classes and be a part of a group of really smart students and 2) if you want to do research. It appears that JWS does not guarantee you research, but I bet if you wanted to do research and you were in JWS it would be easier to get professors to let you work with them than if you were not in JWS. I do not know how selective the program is, but the website says you can apply into the program after your freshman year, so it must not be too incredibly selective. If you wanted to pass on the program now, you could probably pick it up after your freshman year if you wanted to get into it.</p>
<p>@anjuved: Please see the first page of this thread for the answers to most of your questions (look for my first really long post).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there is no Finance minor at Wharton. If you want a straight-up Wharton minor, your only option is Statistics (see [Minor</a> in Statistics at Penn](<a href=“http://www-stat.wharton.upenn.edu/statweb/Program/statminor.htm]Minor”>http://www-stat.wharton.upenn.edu/statweb/Program/statminor.htm)). You can also do a few minors called “University Minors” (check out [The</a> Wharton School - Undergraduate Division](<a href=“http://undergrad.wharton.upenn.edu/academic_options/minors.cfm#university]The”>http://undergrad.wharton.upenn.edu/academic_options/minors.cfm#university)). For a University Minor that has a focus related to Wharton you’ll definitely take some Wharton classes, but Wharton is usually very picky about not letting students from SAS, SEAS, and Nursing take Wharton classes.</p>
<p>For the rest of you with questions, please read this entire thread before asking a question. There is a very good chance that I have already answered your question. For general information about certain programs, majors, minors, and departments, please do a Google search and attempt to find the information yourself first. I’m more than happy to help you find hard-to-find websites, but when I do a Google search and the requested information is the first item at the top of the list, it kind of just shows me that you’re too lazy to look up the information yourself.</p>
<p>what is your impression of the Huntsman Program?
Is there any way that I can speak to a current student?</p>
<p>Hello =]
As a future SEAS Chemical Engineering, how hard would you say (in general) the engineering classes are? I’m expecting them to be brutal, but I’d like your opinion. I also plan on majoring/minoring in Environmental Studies … which I’m hoping is doable. </p>
<p>Also, do you know anything about how we (as incoming freshman) apply for work-study? I have my eye on a job on the Student Employment website. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>@adesa: I don’t have much of an impression of the Huntsman Program (other than that it is very prestigious and selective) because I don’t know any current Huntsman students (there are only 50 of them in each year). But I encourage you to email the Huntsman office at <a href=“mailto:huntsman.isb@wharton.upenn.edu”>huntsman.isb@wharton.upenn.edu</a> and ask them if they can get you in touch with a current student.</p>
<p>@waddlelikeaducky: Welcome to SEAS! In my personal experience, if the engineering classes you take are aligned with your personal engineering interests, the classes will seem very easy and fun to you. So for example: I love computers, programming, circuitry, and the like, so my ESE 112 class where we programmed robots and soldered circuits was very interesting to me and I did not think that the work was very hard because I enjoyed it. The work load is probably about the same for all of the engineering classes anyway. I don’t hear any horror stories about “really hard” engineering classes. I would walk into the classroom expecting an average amount of work for a college class.</p>
<p>So to sum all of this up: you’ll work hard (it’s college, after all), but you’ll be all right. Penn would not have accepted you if they thought that you wouldn’t be able to do the work. And if you do have trouble, there are tons of free resources for students to use to get up to speed in classes (tutors, professor’s office hours, advisors, etc.).</p>
<p>I do know a bit about work-study because I am on it myself. You will automatically be considered for work-study when you receive your financial aid award after you fill out your financial aid application (and send Penn your FAFSA, College Board CSS Profile, tax forms, blah blah blah). You are then eligible to apply for work-study jobs that Penn offers. For example, I work as an Information Technology Advisor for my dorm, Stouffer. That’s a fancy title for “Computer Tech Guy.” I help everyone in Stouffer with their computers when they get viruses, need to update software/drivers, or don’t know how to do something in a software program. It’s a great job and I really enjoy it, plus it’s a work-study job. For ITA I applied during the summer in July, I think. For the jobs you see on the Student Employment website, feel free to send the contact person your resume and let them know that you expect to receive work-study. If they are interested in hiring you, they will contact you and let you know.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Dear Kevin,</p>
<p>Thank you for taking your busy time to share your thoughts and experiences with us.
My son got into Vagelos Scholars Program in the Molecular Life Sciences(CAS). Could you explain more details about this program or any helpful websites?</p>
<p>@ whetdreamweaver</p>
<p>[Vagelos</a> Scholars Program in Molecular Life Sciences](<a href=“http://www.sas.upenn.edu/biochem/vspmls.html]Vagelos”>http://www.sas.upenn.edu/biochem/vspmls.html)</p>
<p>it’s the hardest program offered by cas; basically you’re looking to get a master’s degree in something biochemistry/chemistry/biophysics/physics/math related in four years. or you can double major for a bachelor’s degree in two science related fields. basically students in this program are required to take 5+ cu worth of credits every semester regardless of what classes they place in to or how many credits they have coming into penn so it’s a pretty intense load.</p>
<p>i’m a current vagelos freshman and all i can say is that if you aren’t serious about science, this program isn’t really for you.</p>
<p>if you want to know any more information about the program from a student’s perspective, please feel free to send me a private message. (:</p>
<p>Thanks illegiblyclear! Whoever you might be. ;)</p>
<p>I second everything she said. I have many friends in Vagelos, and they are definitely busier than any other Penn students I know. The benefits of the program are tremendous, though, so I would definitely check out the website and give it some serious thought. Tell your son I said, “Congratulations!” It is a HUGE honor to be accepted into the Vagelos program at Penn.</p>
<p>hahahaha – i’m trying to remember all the kevin’s i might know but none of them live in stouffer. xD in fact i’m pretty surprised that you live in stouffer–i still have no clue where that building even is despite the fact that one of my vagelos friends lives there. ):</p>
<p>i hear it’s really nice though.</p>
<p>also word of advice to any prefrosh looking at this: the quad is completely overrated. :/</p>
<p>what do you mean it’s over-rated? and what are some other good dorms to consider that are of central location?</p>
<p>what are your stats? and do you know much about the M&T program? half of it is electrical engineering, so i figured you’d have some idea.</p>
<p>@sleepingbeauty: In case illegiblyclear doesn’t get back to you, I believe the Quad is overrated because, although its exterior architecture is very beautiful, almost all of the rooms inside are extremely small. Some students don’t mind this, but I personally wanted a good-sized room when I came to Penn. Applying for housing in the Quad is very much a “luck of the draw” kind of deal. By that I mean that whether you get a very small room or one of the slightly larger rooms is completely random. On the other hand, the rooms in the high rises and other dorms are very “standard.” Almost everyone gets the same reasonably-sized room. I don’t know, the average opinion I hear from “Quadlings” (as we so affectionately call them) is that they wish they hadn’t sacrificed the comfort of their room for a chance at the famed “freshman experience in the Quad” at Penn.</p>
<p>Other dorms you definitely need to consider based on central location are Stouffer-Mayer Hall (where I live), Stouffer-Stouffer Hall (the other building in my college house), Hill, the High Rises (Harnwell and Harrison), and Kings Court/English House.</p>
<p>@melissa114: I hope you’ll understand that I am reluctant to post my stats for all the world to see. That being said, I will tell you that my total SAT score was 2060 and that my GPA was 4.3 in high school. You might notice those stats are somewhat lower than the “norm” of accepted students. I think it is important that perspective students realize that it is very possible to be admitted to Penn and other selective schools even if your stats are a bit lower than normal. You just need to emphasize your uniqueness in your essays.</p>
<p>Please see my previous post in this thread regarding the M&T program. I do not fully understand what you mean by “half of it is electrical engineering.” On the one hand, I think you might mean that half of the required classes for M&T are electrical engineering classes. This is completely false, as you may already know. M&T lets you choose whatever engineering major you like, and you are definitely not limited to electrical engineering. The second interpretation of that statement is that half of the students in the program pursue a degree in electrical engineering. This is somewhat closer to the truth, but still relatively false. Many M&T students pursue Systems Engineering as their engineering degree. This is related to electrical engineering, and systems students take many of the same classes as electrical engineering students. However, I want to stress the fact that systems engineering is not electrical engineering. For a better idea of what systems engineering is, please check out [The</a> Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE) at the University of Pennsylvania // Systems Science and Engineering Program](<a href=“Undergraduate”>Systems Science and Engineering Major). </p>
<p>The general opinion I have encountered at Penn is that systems engineering is a bit of a “wishy-washy” major, as in it is slightly easier than most of the other majors. This makes it attractive to M&T students who are looking to get both the Wharton degree and the Engineering degree without putting in all of the work of pursuing two degrees. This is just what I have heard, though; I would not necessarily say that it is true.</p>
<p>Hi! Thanks for taking questions! I applied for and was accepted into CAS, but between the time that I submitted my application and now, my interests have changed a bit, and I’m starting to think that I might be more into Engineering (either Computer and Information Science or Electrical and Systems Engineering). How easy is it to transfer from CAS to SEAS, and what is the process? What are the requirements, and during which semester may I transfer? (I’ve already tried looking on Penn’s website for info, but couldn’t find exactly what I wanted.) Thank you!</p>
<p>What dining plan is the best–Quaker, red, blue or liberty? If you eat in the dining halls a lot, it seems that quaker is cheapest, but is that the case with most Penn students? Or do they seem to use the dining dollars more often, because then liberty seems better.</p>