<p>is it bad that i havent sent any information in yet for ED apps?</p>
<p>How badly do you want to get into Penn? Well anyway, the deadline is not here yet so put all effort into making your app memorable and such.</p>
<p>me too. actually i just started my why penn essay tonight. not done. havent done the optional essay either. im using the common app. need to write the two short answer too.</p>
<p>i really really want to go to penn. really. im just so busy.</p>
<p>its october 20...not nov 1, so i think youre ok?</p>
<p>i havent sent it in yet either</p>
<p>i thought i was the only one. whew</p>
<p>there are people in school who sent it in like during the first week of school
.......</p>
<p>i thought i was the only one. whew</p>
<p>there are people in school who sent it in like during the first week of school
.......</p>
<p>are you guys finished with all your essays though?</p>
<p>im almost done with revising "why penn." and i need to write short answers still.</p>
<p>for my autobiography, i have 1000 words. but i fudged with the margins......sigh....</p>
<p>I am done with the first experience essay, and short answers. I did write a draft for Why Penn but I am completely revamping it. </p>
<p>My first experience essay is 730 words.</p>
<p>1,000 words? I think that's a little overboard.
Mine was originally 900-something, but I cut it down to ~650.</p>
<p>I finished my personal essay a few weeks ago, and just got done touching it up... Did most of my Why Penn essay this weekend, but still have to edit it.</p>
<p>Also have to write those two short answer questions, but thankfully I already found the professor whom I'm gonna mention.</p>
<p>the short answers took like 1 min, i dont even think they matter 1%</p>
<p>yeah those answers are really really stupid. especially because they're 30 characters? even the why Penn essay is so dumb because everybody is going to write the same thing and they've just put it in the app to make sure that the applicant actually LOOKED at the university and isn't applying for the hell of it because it's common app :(</p>
<p>rohan2k6- WRONG on all accounts!</p>
<p>1) The question existed before the Common App</p>
<p>2) No, the people who get into Penn don't write the same thing as everyone else. If you don't reveal anything about yourself in the question, I'd say the essay is not going to help you. It may even hurt you.</p>
<p>3) Actually, those questions are pretty important if you are on the borderline. They don't look at those questions if you are well within Penn's range though.</p>
<p>.........so what did you guys put for the "Why Penn" essay?..........</p>
<p>The "Why Penn" essay may be the most important. You basically say what you want to major in and why Penn is the place you want to do it at. I talked about why I wanted to major in X and why Penn's program is kickass. </p>
<p>The two shorter essays are jsut to see two things.
1. You have a life of some sort
2. You have an interst in research and are smart enough to surf the Penn website and find one professor teaching in your prospective major that is doing something you are intersted in.</p>
<p>These essays are important unless you have no shot or are a shoe in.</p>
<p>Does the professor have to be in your prospective major? I am majoring in finance but am going to list a professor of chemistry, because in terms of research, I find chemistry more interesting...would that be all right?</p>
<p>i guess that should be fine so long as you either took ap chem or interned at a lab. just dont make the name seem like you randomly picked it.</p>
<p>BONGO: Chill out</p>
<p>1). I knew that this question existed before the common app. I never said it didn't.</p>
<p>2). Think rationally. Every year, over 20,000 people apply to Penn. That means that there must be at least 20,000 reasons people have for wanting to come there. Pretty much every reason is exhausted. Also, if you've done any research, you'll see that a lot of people have complained about the 30 char questions. "Name a Penn professor?" "What do you like to do for fun?" I mean, yeah, be thorough and creative, but you have SUCH little room to do so...therefore, you might ask, how much weight do those REALLY carry? </p>
<p>3). Lastly, I never said that you should, "half-ass" these essays because they are going to be reviewed like every other component of the application. My statement merely expressed my dislike of these questions because I really don't see them as tools that can draw a face within a crowd of bright candidates. I think that the optional essays are really good, though. Good luck.</p>
<p>Rohan2k6,</p>
<p>1) Thank you for wishing me good luck but I'm afraid I don't need it. You see, I got into Penn last year and I learned a lot from the experience from
a) Applying myself
b) Talking to other people who were accepted here at Penn
c) Talking to my regional director before AND after being accepted</p>
<p>2) No, I'm pretty confident everyone I talked to had a different essay here at Penn. Most people talked about their majors and why they wanted to study that major and what they think Penn could offer them personally. The people I've met here at Penn so far come from so many different backgrounds that I highly doubt they bored the admissions officers by sounding like a brochure</p>
<p>3) Good luck yourself!</p>