<p>Congratulations on your acceptance! I am one of several International Student Ambassadors for Penn. If any international students for the class of 2011 have any questions about Penn–academics, student life, diversity, housing etc. I can help answer them on this forum.
Also, there will be online chats on the Penn website (details will be sent to you) on the following dates:
Tuesday, April 10th from 10 am to 1pm </p>
<p>Hi, k_twin and I are 2 Int'ls accepted. (SEAS)... </p>
<p>We've got a few questions. (Not sure if we're enrolling yet), but we'll wait for a bit to see if we can find them on the site and then post here. :)</p>
<p>Basically, it comes to down to the following situation. We've been accepted to Duke, JHU, Rice, Berkeley and Penn. (These are the school's we're actively considering)</p>
<p>Now as prospective students at Penn, (We applied to M&T, but weren't accepted to the program), we're still looking into the prospect of a double degree with Wharton. Is this a frequent situation outside of Jerome Fisher?</p>
<p>Also, how feasible is it to cross register at Wharton/CAS?</p>
<p>Also, how competitive is the Engineering program at Penn in general. (I'm asking not for the USNWR rankings or anything like that, which are known to be inaccurate, but for the general level of undergraduate research opportunities at SEAS, the number of students who go on to top grad schools for engineering and the like.)</p>
<p>(If statistics aren't available, then just your views, as a student of Penn.)</p>
<p>Penn has a 'one-university' concept where no matter which undergraduate school you are admitted to you automatically have access to the other 3 as well as to Penn's 12 graduate schools. You can take as many classes in the CAS or in Wharton as you want (and a certain no. of these will even count towards your degree); and with special permission (or if you are qualified to) can enroll in classes in the graduate schools. As far as dual-degrees are concerned, many people do pursue them but your ability to do so is limited by the no. of available spots in the school. Wharton is very small at the undergrad level (around 500 students), so pursuing a dual degree there is harder and applicants are accepted solely on the basis of their GPA. CAS is much larger (about 2/3 of the undergrads are enrolled at CAS) so it is slightly easier to get a dual degree from there--but your GPA would still need to be competitive (since spots are still limited and also you need to demonstrate that you are capable of handling the workload of 2 seperate degrees).
As far as the Jerome Fisher (M&T) Program is concerned, around 40 students are enrolled in the freshman round, but the program is designed to allow qualified SEAS or Wharton students to transfer into the program at the end of the first year (around 5-10 spots are available depending on matriculation). If you do not qualify for this program at the end of your first year but do for a regular dual-degree, you can design a similar program for yourself and therefore get a similar experience.
Also, there tends to be a misperception that you must get a 'degree' from Wharton or CAS to truly benefit from them when it comes to employment. However, all classes that you take are recorded on your transcript--and so even if you do not get a dual-degree but have the right combinations of business and liberal-arts classes that your employer is interested in--your job-application may be as strong as someone who holds a dual-degree.
I am not enrolled in SEAS so cannot tell you anything specific about the classes there but I have a lot of friends there and the workload seems to be very intense. The students in the Engineering school seem to be working a lot harder and their classes seem to be a lot more intense than those at CAS or Wharton. The Bioengineering dept. at Penn is extremely well-regarded and also very highly ranked. The opportunities for engineers who are interested in the life-sciences, bioengineering, or medical fields are especially strong. (Penn is #2 in the nation for reciept of National Institute of Health funds and Penn's Medical School is ranked #3 in the nation). Penn has also been at the forefront of Nanotechnology and is considered to be at the top of the field. Many students I know are involved in research (and they are freshman), so I assume it is fairly easy to get involved. There are also opportunities for submatriculation into the graduate school (if you have a high enough GPA by the end of your second or third year) you can get an undergraduate as well as a Masters degree in engineering in 4-6 years (depending on how you plan it).
I do have links for the statistics for grad-school placement and employment for engineers as well as other undergrad opportunities such as the Weiss Tech House, which I will post shortly.</p>
<p>I had the same link as the one abhim posted. This gives you a good general picture, but of course keep in mind that obviously many students will pursue graduate degrees after employment for a few years and this only shows the immediate grad-school placement. Also, the salary-ranges for single-degree SEAS students by major and dual-degree SEAS/WH and SEAS/CAS are available and there doesn't appear to be a significant difference in the range. I'm mentioning this to point out that many single-degree students do take non-engineering classes and it is not essential to get a dual-degree in order to get a high-income upon graduation from SEAS--while of course other factors such as the type of major/job, research/work experience etc. come into play. (I know all this is fairly obvious from the data but just thought i'd point it out :) ) </p>
<p>I am not affiliated with Penn Admissions and am not absolutely certain of admissions policies. But I am fairly sure that international students are evaluated in a seperate pool from domestic applications. Regarding financial aid, domestic students are given priority and recieve need-blind aid whereas a fairly limited amount of financial aid is available for international students.
International Student Ambassadors are current students and not university officials, and so I would be able to give you a better response on questions regarding academics, student life, housing etc. than on admissions and financial aid policies. If you have questions about financial aid it's best that you contact Penn directly.</p>
<p>Hi, I'm an also an international student at Penn and an International Ambassador. I'm an engineer for all those of you who have engineering questions.</p>
<p>westcoastlove, do you mean applications for dual degrees? If so, yes, they are considered together.</p>
<p>I'm an international, got into CAS, wanna major in econ! yay haha..I'm way excited about going to penn ( already decided, I got into colgate, JHU and penn, so it was an easy pick for me). I was just wondering, how is the party life? I've heard some mixed reviews about this issue. I'm also really into electronic music, so how is the whole clubbing/electronic scene in philly? My best friend also got into wharton, and we were both wondering which house would be best for us to apply to? Any overall tips for our first days in Penn?</p>
<ol>
<li>The social life is decent, probably very good considering the level of the school. On-campus it is generally the clubs/campus organizations that throw parties (such as Penn Masala, Asian Students Association, EuroPenn, Penn Middle-Eastern bellydancing parties etc.) and these may be located on-campus or in a club downtown. The frat-scene is moderately big (around 30% of the student body is involved) and they throw a lot of parties as well--and they are usually not exclusive or anything so anyone can enter. There are a lot of clubs downtown--not like New York or anything--but a decent selection. People generally party on Thursdays and Saturdays (but you can rest assured that on these nights there are as many people out partying as there are studying in the library or their rooms). So, I'd say it's a good mix of social and not-so social people--you'll find out where you fit in. Philly Center City (which is very close) and Old City are both full of really good clubs and restaurants so any night out can be fun.</li>
<li>Philly has a lot of colleges so a lot of bands tend to come and perform here, so you'll find concerts on most of the year. If you like electronic/techno etc. we've had a lot of big names like Paul van dyke etc. come down this year. And you'd probably enjoy the EuroPenn parties they play a lot of that music.</li>
<li>Housing--The Quadrangle. No question about it. The Quad consists of Riepe, Ware and Fisher-Hassenfeld College Houses. Most freshman live in the Quad, most of the rooms are quite nice (although you could get unlucky and end up with a tiny room), and the buildings are aesthetically very impressive. The only disadvantage is that there is no dining hall, which is a bit of a hassle in the snowy winters where you have to trudge across campus to get food. But despite that it is still worth it and no other college house even comes close.
Some people will tell you to apply to Hill because it has a dining hall and a great social scene and sense of community. I was unfortunate enough to have been alotted Hill (my 4th choice) and believe me the social opportunities at the Quad are as good if not better. Hill 'appears' to be more social because you are forced into living at such close-quarters and since everything is so terrible about the place you are left with no choice but to get out and mingle with people. The rooms are tiny, the corridors are dungeon-like, the bathrooms are worse than public restrooms, and I don't think the building has ever been renovated (oh and there's no airconditioning). The only plus point is that you are well-located especially for engineering/math/humanities classes and there is a dining hall.
The high-rises are attractive because they have apartment-style living and you get your own bathroom, but there are not too many freshman (although the one's that are are alotted rooms close to each other so they dont feel segregated) and this is a better option for your sophomore year. Most of your class will be a in the Quad or in Hill. </li>
<li>As for the girls, fairly good i'd say. Not state-school quality, but beats harvard!</li>
</ol>
<p>Hi, I'm an international student and got accepted to the M&T Fisher Program. I am not sure I will attend though, I want to visit first. But apparently the campus is huge and not in the best part of Philadelphia. Also I read that the workload is really really heavy for M&T students. Do all M&T freshmen eventually graduate, and if not how many?</p>
<p>The workload for M&T students is definitely very challenging, however if you were accepted into the program then Penn is confident that you have the ability to handle that kind of workload. Admission to the program is extremely competitive and only around 40 students are offered a spot, and so the program is also very prestigious. M&T entails completing an Engineering and a Business degree so sometimes students may require an additional semester or two to complete the requirements and thus may graduate in 4.5-5 years instead of 4. This depends of course on how well you plan your schedules, and there is always the option of taking classes in the summer. I don't think there are statistics available for the no. of students that drop out of the program, but in my opinion it would be quite rare for someone to drop out as the M&T kids are all highly motivated and competitive.
The campus is big but is mostly contained in one area so it doesn't feel too spread out or anything. To give you an idea, you could probably walk from one extreme end of the campus to the other in less than 10-12 minutes.
The campus is in West Philly which is not the best of neighbourhoods. However Penn has made a huge effort over the past decade or two to make the area immediately around campus appealing for the students so there are a lot of restaurants, shops etc. and the area is also very safe. About 5-7 blocks west from the campus, however, the neighbourhood does get quite bad. Penn is not any more dangerous than any school in a big city.</p>