<p>DD and I spent the last 2 days at "Quaker Days," Penn's first attempt at allowing admitted students to stay over night on campus with a current student. They did an excellent job.</p>
<p>The event was well attended, and the campus was impressive, felt very safe, and was nicer than I had expected. The events were informative, and I appreciated that the administrators were willing to share more information than they write on the UPenn website or brochures. For the admits ("Little Quakers") I think the most important thing was the opportunity to spend time with, and ask questions of, current students. It was a great opportunity for them to get clear honest answers, and assess how well they thought they fit in with current and admitted students. Current students I spoke with were very positive and expressed that the courses are quite difficult, but not so overwhelming that it becomes detrimental and destructive. They were also pleased with their ability to balance academics with a social life and participate in many of the amazing extra curricular activities such as participation in research projects, internships, and experiences abroad. I was especially impressed with hearing so many positive things from current students when we were in a one-on-one settings where there was every opportunity to express anything they wanted to.</p>
<p>DD has a little more due diligence to complete before making a final decision yet, but this event has certainly put Penn at the top of the list. I would say maybe 1/2 of the students that I talked to, have decided to commit to Penn. Of the students who were still undecided, most of them were leaning toward Penn but still had another visit or two to go. </p>
<p>Impressively, in my opinion, a large percentage of the admitted students that I spoke with were selecting or leaning toward selecting Penn over acceptances they have received to HYPSM or Columbia. </p>
<p>Anyone else that attended have any thoughts on their experience?</p>
<p>Glad to hear that you both enjoyed it! From what I could tell following on Twitter, it seemed to provide a MUCH more comprehensive and enlightening experience than the single-day “Penn Previews” they used to have. And for what it’s worth, a current Penn student I know commented: “What??? They didn’t have a party for us at the Franklin Institute during Penn Previews!” And if she liked that, and decides to go to Penn, tell your daughter to look forward to the party for incoming freshmen at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Penn actually rents out the museum for the night), and the Toga Party for them at the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, both during New Student Orientation in August.</p>
<p>
It’s not uncommon for students to choose Penn over Columbia–these two schools are really comparable, and probably have been splitting accepted applicants with each other on a fairly even basis for quite some time (I’d put Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, Chicago, etc. in that same peer group of applicant preference). In fact, Penn has one of the highest regular decision yields–as well as one of the highest overall admissions yields–of all top schools other than HYPSM. It’s less common for students to choose Penn over HYPSM, but it does happen often enough (especially for Wharton students, and especially over YPSM–it seems to be more difficult to turn down the H brand 
).</p>
<p>I think they are reluctant to give up the brand, but one thing that I noticed, especially for the young ladies, is that some of the candidates are connected with many of the other candidates, and are discussing choices/reasons/rationale among themselves and conferring as issues/concerns arise. I have seen that in the past with athletes, but not as much with more academically talented students.</p>
<p>For example, during our final decision trip, DD met one of her best friend’s from her summer at MIT. She did this outside of one of the college visits. DD told her friend that she is leaning toward Penn, pending the events of the rest of our trip. Her friend said that she is also leaning toward Penn over her HYPM acceptances. DD was very happy the rest of the day. It is clear to me that DD’s friends decision has raised the bar even further for the competing schools that DD is considering. The internet and social networking is having an impact on this process too.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yep–lots of scholarly sociological, psychological, and anthropological treatises and articles to be written about that, and about their impact in general on this and future generations (and probably more than a few of them to be written at Penn).</p>
<p>Who knows? These very posts of ours might be the subject of a footnote or an appendix in some future Ph.D. dissertation. :)</p>
<p>Much2learn…and just so you know, it wasn’t really the schools first attempt. My daughter (Class of 2016) visited the school on a two night overnight visit for Penn Scholars. But, back then, they only did this kind of visit for a small number of students. Now, they are doing it with the whole admitted class. And, I think that this visit was the reason that my daughter chose Penn. As you said, the ability to visit with the students and get a feel for the kind of person that goes to school there is remarkable. My daughter much preferred the students at Penn to the students that she met at other schools. She’s smart but likes people with social skills too. I think Penn, with its class size bigger than many of the other choices, has the ability to give students a crowd that fits them. Whatever that crowd might be.</p>
sorry to resurect this thread but were there any ED students that went to quaker day?
“were there any ED students that went to quaker day?”
I would ask admissions.
I don’t remember how they did it when we went two years ago. I would think that they would want the ED admits there if they can manage the volume of students.
I heard that ED students are not allowed to go (I just assumed that Penn didn’t want to spend the marketing money on the sure things, i.e., binding decision kids). If you hear anything different, please let us know.