<p>I was accepted!! but now… I kinda regret applying to CAS rather than Wharton. Wharton seems too much cool to be true :P</p>
<p>I was invited to join as well! Does anyone here have any personal experience/knowledge of the program? Also, the letter says that I was selected from the top 20% of students admitted to Penn, but I was wondering exactly how selective it is.</p>
<p>No I wasnt invited to the program :p, I just got accepted to Penn!</p>
<p>Haha was your letter online? Cuz my online decision letter says nothing about vagelos. :[</p>
<p>Oh, no - I got my big package in the mail today, and there were two letters. One congratulating me on regular undergraduate admissions, and another inviting me to join the Vagelos Program. I wonder how many people got them? It sounds like a great opportunity.</p>
<p>Congratulations to you on being accepted to UPenn nonetheless! Maybe your package will have more info, I didn't see anything about Vagelos online either.</p>
<p>Also, is the program as intense and cutthroat as I hear it is? I'm interested in going into medicine, and this program really appeals to me, but I don't know if it's the wisest choice.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Also, the letter says that I was selected from the top 20% of students admitted to Penn, but I was wondering exactly how selective it is.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I thought the Vagelos program allows you to take the Wharton degree as well as part of it. Or are there two Vagelos programs?</p>
<p>Anyway, I've talked to the Vagelos people. You should feel extremely, I mean extremely proud. I've seen profiles of the students in that program, and you are among the elite of the elite. As I understand they turn down folks with perfect SATs. etc. and that</p>
<p>There are two - Vagelos Life Science & Management, and Vagelos Molecular Life Sciences. You have to apply for the first, but for the second, there's no application, and the college simply selects you. I was accepted into the second.</p>
<p>Also, thank you! The website says that about 30 incoming freshmen are chosen; at the moment, I really can't quite understand why they picked me, but I'm certainly happy.</p>
<p>Hoping myself for that program, wrote about in my essay, so congrats, and here's hoping there's an additional letter in the package.</p>
<p>Echoing pinstriped's question too though, how would this be for pre-med, considering an almost certain GPA hit</p>
<p>The Vagelos Biochem program (which is what the Molecular one really is) is the single most intense program at Penn, bar none. The course schedule is absolutely insane, and the few kids who don't drop out of the program are among the best students at Penn (I know a couple who take 9+ c.u. a semester). As a premed, I would actually discourage you from doing the program, as there is no benefit to your med school application for doing well with a degree of difficulty. However, there are certain advantages to the program, like opening doors more easily for research, good advising (though the prof who does it absolutely hates premeds), but I don't think they outweigh the problems with difficulty. It is very much a pre-Ph.D. program.</p>
<p>How many drop out?</p>
<p>But 21 out of 50 graduates in the first X years went on to get MDs and a few more did MD/PhD's.</p>
<p>?</p>
<p>according to the site
[quote]
We are admitting approximately thirty from each freshman class into the Vagelos Seminar course, Chemistry 22. With normal attrition, there will be about ten from each class with summer stipends after their respective sophomore and junior years.
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</p>
<p>That's a 66% attrition rate. I want to get invited to it because a significant portion of my essay was devoted to this program, but am not really sure if I'm up for the challenge.</p>
<p>chronicidal: because the people who make it through the program are among the best students at penn. It's a selected group: the ones whose grades get too badly hurt to apply to med school don't make it through</p>
<p>I was really thrilled when I got the letter, but now I'm mostly scared, ahaha. </p>
<p>The program does sound extremely, extremely intense - but, like chronocidal said, a good percentage of the graduates do end up getting MDs or PhD/MD degrees, so I don't know what to think? I have to say that getting this letter has definitely made choosing a college much more complicated. Good luck to everyone else, too - I hope other CCers will get the news as well. And I've read elsewhere too that the prof. hates premeds, that doesn't exactly bode well, does it.</p>
<p>um, read above</p>
<p>Sorry, I was still typing when you posted and didn't see it until after - that certainly makes sense. I keep swinging back and forth about how I feel wrt: the program, hopefully the additional info they send helps.</p>
<p>I would recommend giving it a shot and then just dropping out if it doesn't work out. If i remember correctly, the Vagelos site has sample curriculums depending on how intense you want your schedule to be; I'd just stick with one of the slightly less crazy ones if you're unsure.</p>
<p>best of luck with the decision pinstriped!
Looks like the graduates of the program have a quite a track record... 43/60 I believe are pursuing some kind of MD, others are pursuing PhDs... Looks like if you can survive, med school is quite possible</p>
<p>I also received invitation for this program... I plan to accept it. It does sound intense, but really awesome at the same time. I wonder how much free time Vagelos scholars have...</p>
<p>Were all you guys RDers?</p>