I am a rising junior and the LSM program seems very appealing to me. I want to go into business or go to medical school and LSM provides the opportunity to have a science background in business and/or have the pre med requirements for med school. Are people that go into the LSM program typically undecided as I am? Will it hurt me if I am not sure if I want to go to med school or go into business? How often to LSM students go to med school? Any tips on getting into LSM?
Thanks
Also wondering this. How is LSM for premed? How is the workload? How flexible is it?
@vkrish LSM is an amazing program. Yes typically people are undecided between med school and a career in business. I have heard that going in a lot of people are planning to go to pre-med but many end up choosing the business route, but of course a good number ends up going to med school. Lsm is a very intense program and the workload is heavy. You will be challenged like you have never been in your life before. If you want to go to med school and see that as an LSM student you cannot keep your GPA in the 3.6-4.0 range that is necessary for med school ( and trust me 3.6 for science, emgineering, and even econ, business majors at Penn is no easy feat, let alone science and businesss together) then you can always switch out of LSM. Lsm is a super difficult program to get in. LSM students tend to be the most legit, impressive students at Penn even more so in my opinion than M&T kids. It is a very small program, only accepting about 25 kids every year and most of the kids have been accepted to and turned down pretty much every schooll they applied to, even Stanford, Harvard in many cases and pretty much always Princeton, amd /or MIT and/or Yale. Also just to give you an idea of thr quality of students, the average SAT of LSM incoming class was over 2310 ( so the median was prob around 2330-2340). Just to compare the median SAT at Harvard is around 2250 and the median SAT at Penn is 2230. So it goes without saying you need to be beyond impressive to get in, like literally perfect or near perfect academics as well as meaningful/impressive research, internship, start a non-profit or firm etc. you need someing very unique.
I am also thinking about applying for the LSM or M&T program, so your info is really helpful. Thx a lot! But I am having a hard time deciding which one of these two programs I should apply for? I noticed that the M&T program admits twice as many students as the LSM one. Does it mean it’s relatively easier to get into the M&T one? Are there any other differences between the two besides the fact that one is more science orientated and one engineering? Thank you so much! (BTW I’m NOT thinking about going to med school)
“I noticed that the M&T program admits twice as many students as the LSM one. Does it mean it’s relatively easier to get into the M&T one? Are there any other differences between the two besides the fact that one is more science orientated and one engineering?”
It doesn’t mean that M&T is easier to get into because more students apply to M&T.
In deciding which program is better for you, you need to think about what your goals are. A dual degree is a big undertaking if you don’t know exactly why you want to do it. Many students who think they want a dual degree would be better off choosing one path or the other and doing more extensive coursework in that area instead of two degrees with more limited coursework for each.
If you want to do business OR med school, then applying to Wharton and doing premed requirements may be easier than doing LSM. If you go the med school route having a Wharton background would stand out, and all that’s required is completing the premed requirements; if you go the business route you would have a Wharton degree.
If you want to integrate biomedical science AND business, regardless of whether you end up going to medical school, then LSM is the most unique program around to do that. The above would be a good backup option if you don’t get in.
Thx a lot! I ultimately decide to choose LSM over M&T, since I would have more subject options in the School of Arts&Science than in the School of Engineering, were I not admitted to these programs. Thank you so much for the info tho