<p>can i choose a professor outside of my intended major? do Penn students actually conduct research with profs outside their major?</p>
<p>Yes you can pick whomever you want, as long as you tell WHY you would want to study with them. I don't know about the second question, but this paragraph isn't really a commitment to conduct research at Penn. I don't plan on actually working with the professor I talked about. It's more for the Penn adcoms to see you actually care enough to do a little research as well as see what interests you.</p>
<p>I wrote about two thirds of my paragraph introducing my professor and talking about a paper he had published, and the last three sentences on the actual research.</p>
<p>This question is basically a way to 1) show that you have at least looked at the website of an academic department and 2) see what you are interested in intellectually. It is probably not a good idea to talk about your professor too much. The more important part of your answer is why you find the professor's work interesting enough to want to help them continue exploring a topic.</p>
<p>How long are your short essays? Mine is like 170 words, but on the actual application there is only room for like four lines.</p>
<p>i think this short essay is 250 words... not positive though.</p>
<p>you're not doing the common app online? all the word limits for the supplements can be found there.</p>
<p>the Penn rep that came to my school said not to spend too much time on this essay. Like the other posts in this forum, it's just to show Penn you've done some research. Don't worry too much about it.</p>
<p>Put your time into the why Penn? essay and the other "optional" essay.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>