<p>OK so let me say something. I attended the Penn Summer Science Academy over teh summer and looking today, I am yet to see someone from the summer program get defered or rejected via ED. Everyone got accepted and so far the number is growing with every hour. </p>
<p>This convinces me that it helps your resume for Penn alot, esp since EVERYONE got in. If your willing to shell out 5,000 bucks and go if you are accepted to the program then go (its not that hard to get in) b/c from what I see the NEW ADCOM seems to like these PSSAers.</p>
<p>Compare the number of decisions you've seen with how big the program is and how many students were admitted ED. You have an incredibly small sample size. Plus there's response bias because not everyone posts stats. And FWIW I know people who stayed at Penn over the summer and didn't get in early/regular last year.</p>
<p>No im not basing my data off this forum im basing it off people who i talked to/know about from the biomed program. nearly everyone who applied from the pssa biomed go in. no joke.</p>
<p>
[quote]
OK so let me say something. I attended the Penn Summer Science Academy over teh summer and looking today, I am yet to see someone from the summer program get defered or rejected via ED. Everyone got accepted and so far the number is growing with every hour.</p>
<p>This convinces me that it helps your resume for Penn alot, esp since EVERYONE got in. If your willing to shell out 5,000 bucks and go if you are accepted to the program then go (its not that hard to get in) b/c from what I see the NEW ADCOM seems to like these PSSAers.</p>
<p>Any thoughts?
[/quote]
I've also heard that this really helps. </p>
<p>I went to PSSA last year? were you in biomedical science?</p>
<p>I was a RC for the precollege and other summer programs a couple years ago. You don't get any boost from Penn admissions for attending the programs at Penn. Sure it looks nice to be doing something like that, but doing it at Penn as opposed to another school doesn't help, and I personally think you'd be better served by doing something more unique with your summer and spending a less insane fee to do so. Also, kids in the precollege program have a tendency to screw up their GPA before they even get to college, which doesn't help matters down the road.</p>
<p>Finally, keep in mind that in general the people who participate in such programs are high achievers to begin with, so your observations is much more likely correlation than causation.</p>
<p>precollege kids take regular summer session classes with current undergrads. In most cases, this isn't a problem, as the precollege kids generally take history or english or something in that vein. However, should they opt for a class that is graded on a curve, like a math or bio/chem/physics class, they can really get screwed. Summer session courses are in general much easier than their full semester counterparts, both in terms of the depth of material covered and curving, but it still poses a significant risk to a high schooler who has never taken a college course before. The transcript from precollege is a legit college transcript, and will follow you when you go to college proper (if you come to Penn, this will happen automatically). If you plan on applying to grad school, most programs mandate that you submit grades from ALL college coursework taken (this includes community college classes, summer session programs in something like the precollege program, etc.) and you cannot suppress anything (grad schools, especially professional schools, take this VERY seriously, if admitted and caught later on, you will likely be expelled). As such, more than a couple rah-rah high schoolers who decide to take bio 101 and math 104 or something of that ilk during the precollege program end up in a big GPA hole before they even get to college.</p>
<p>Again, it really depends on what you take. When I was an RC, we were given a 0.5CU tuition remission to take a summer session course, which is mainly why I signed up to do it because I wanted to get a general requirement out of the way over the summer. I took the second half of european history, which had several precollege kids in it, and I feel like most of them did perfectly fine, as most everyone in the class did very well and there was no curve.</p>
<p>One thing I feel I should also point out about the precollege program that bothers some people once they get there: most of the courses are taught by TA's or grad students because it's a summer session course offered through CGS.</p>
<p>What about an intro to microeconomics? Do you know anything about that? I talked to the program director and he said it was fine for me to take a class and work in a lab (outside of the program). Do you know anything about that course?</p>
<p>well a penn representative came to our school. the biggest myth she talked about was that people think they are gonna get in automatically if they dish thousands to do summer prgm to put in on there transcipts. i t doesnt help as muc has ppl think because frankly not everyone has the money todo it. they want to see how you spend you summers meaningully to you. Whether thats goping to INdia after 10 yearsm which is what i did, or just having a job. Do it if you relaly want to and are trully passionate, but knowing that many people also do it as a transcript booster which is not the best way.</p>
<p>there's an application that gets circulated through CGS and there are a few info sessions that are advertised in those emails from the dean and whatnot that one normally just deletes. The best way is to know someone who did it the previous year (i did it two years ago so I can't help you), because the program management encourages them to evangelize being an RC. You fill out the application, which is not too hard, and they interview most of the people who apply. They don't let you know until the last second whether you get it or not, so if they put you on a waitlist for the job at first don't worry about it too much, as a lot of the people they first pick already have other things lined up by the time they let you know.</p>
<p>While it's a great way to get free housing/meals plus decent money over the summer, the program management is inept to put it kindly and is not very enjoyable to work with, so keep that in mind if you apply, and the job is a lot more work than one might think at first glance. That said, overall the pros probably outweigh the cons so it's definitely something to pursue if you can manage to figure out the proper channels to go through.</p>