<p>I transferred to Penn as a junior, and am now in my second semester here. If anyone would like advice about transferring, or would like to know what to expect at Penn, let me know. </p>
<p>I know that people here on CC really helped me a lot when I was applying, so I wanna give back as much as I can!</p>
<p>I'll do my best to answer any questions you might have. </p>
<p>Hit me up!</p>
<p>Hi Philgirl,</p>
<p>Thank you for your willingness to give back. I am an underrepresented minority applying to Penn as a transfer student. I was wondering if you could possibly give me any feedback on my essays. I have already sent them. However, I remember reading one of your posts and you said that the essays is probably the most important part. Please, let me know what you think. </p>
<p>-cordova1992</p>
<p>hi cordova! I’d love to look over your essays. I’ll send you a pm with my email address.</p>
<p>hey I’m applying as a transfer my junior year as well! would you be able to share your stats? i was rejected from upenn originally so I’m not sure how great of a shot I have.</p>
<p>Hey, philgirl! Thanks a lot for taking the time to help us out. I was wondering how the transferring of credit from your old school to Penn went? I heard Penn is really stingy and that they expect the syllabi from your old institution to match up with theirs. Is this correct, or have you had a different experience?</p>
<p>hi philligirl! I’m so happy your doing this! 
I was wondering how was it for you when you transferred over. Was it hard or easy to get to know people and the crowd. I’m also trying to transfer as a junior any input would be great. Also do you live on or off campus?</p>
<p>@hopestobeahoya
yeah i heard the same thing. that you need to make sure that you keep you old syllabi to make it easier and fight against to see if you can keep a lot of your college credit.</p>
<p>Hi philgirl! Like the above posts said, thank you so much for giving us your advice.
I was wondering what you might think about my transfer stats, and perhaps how they compare to yours. Any advice would be appreciated, to be honest!</p>
<p>College: CAS - Neuroscience
Entering as: Freshman
GPA: HS- 3.83/4.0 Unweighted, 5.45/4.0 Weighted; College- 3.82/4.0
SAT: 2210
Credits: 17 Semester 1, 72 including credits that transferred over
Credits in progress (Spring 2012 courses) : 19
ECs Listed on App: Member of Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Honors Society, Research for two semesters, PJAS Science Competition - 1st Place Perfect Score (2010), AP Scholar with Distinction, have performed Indian music in US and India, member of a cappella group on campus, member of AED premed honors society, President of Indian Youth Organization, volunteer at local hospital, and maybe a few others I am forgetting.
Job/Work Experience: 1 summer at software engineering company, currently employed as mobile app marketing intern
Letters of Recommendation: Two solid recs from Biology and English</p>
<p>Other:
Other schools applied to: Cornell and Georgetown
Comments: I applied to UPenn as a senior in HS and got rejected RD.</p>
<p>Hi philgirl! I think I saw your post last May! You said you transferred from Arizona State. Could you please take some time and read my transfer application essay? Thank you so much!</p>
<p>My stats:
HS GPA: 4.0
ACT Score: 31
Arizona State University GPA: 3.7
Essays: I had really strong essays and I think they were the most important part of my application.
Letters of Recommendation: I had three letters from professors I knew very, very well, who were all able to comment on my performance at both the undergrad level and the graduate level.
Coursework: My coursework for both my freshman and junior year were very strong: I took mostly upper-level courses along with eight graduate seminars.
Extracurriculars: My extracurricular activities weren’t all that strong compared to a lot of my peers, but I managed to get in regardless. </p>
<p>@HopesToBeAHoya: the transfer credit process at Penn is BRUTAL. The best way to ensure you get transfer credit is to make sure you can provide lots of documentation from your courses. All of my credits were accepted, but not until I provided syllabi, exams, papers, assignments, and course descriptions (I also bothered the department chairs about giving me credit until they did - I think this step is pretty essential). </p>
<p>@BlackRose21: adjusting to Penn has been a lot more difficult than I thought it would be - it’s been a bit difficult to get to know people. Most of the people I know are people I either met at transfer student orientation (which is pretty awesome) and in my classes. I live off-campus, which makes things a bit difficult, because I have to walk to campus, but the rent is cheaper than living on-campus. Finding housing was pretty hard, too, but Penn’s off-campus housing services are really helpful - they have a website with listings for apartments for rent, and that’s how I found mine, and I love my apartment. </p>
<p>@centwave: your stats look pretty solid. I think the large course load you’re taking this semester and the coursework from last semester will boost your chances. However, I think what’s going to get you in will depend on your letters of recommendation and your essays: Penn pays a lot of attention to those, and making sure you have those in good shape will make you a good contender, especially since transfer applicants tend to have strong stats, and the thing that sets them apart are the letters and essays. If you’d like me to look over your essays and give you tips, send me a pm and I’ll give you my email address. </p>
<p>@psiovana: I just sent you a pm :)</p>
<p>Sorry for the late reply, everyone - Penn midterms last weekend so I stayed away from the internet haha. </p>
<p>Let me know if you have any more questions! :)</p>
<p>Hey, Philgirl. Thanks for the above information. I have a question regarding the social life at Penn: would you say, for the average transfer, that Greek life is particularly important and/or plays a huge role in a transfer’s social life? Do many transfers rush, and is it easy not to feel out-of-place if you do not go Greek? Thanks!</p>
<p>You’re an angel for being willing to do this haha! I have a question- I am applying as a Fall 2012 transfer. My stats are solid and my reasons for transferring are also very specific. I want to switch majors from International Studies to Russian Language with possibly a minor Linguistics and my university has only VERY watered down courses in these areas. Also I am simply not happy where I am for multiple reasons. </p>
<p>So, do you think the fact that I am itching to major in Russian Language will be appealing to schools, especially Penn as it is my top choice? I aced my language courses thus far and took this past fall semester off to work in a Russian orphanage and teach English in Russian high schools while doing research on the correlation between Perestroika and Education, so I’ve backed up my interests outside the classroom as well. I am hoping since it is sort of a rare thing to concentrate in that it’ll give me a bump in admissions’ eyes. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I was also curious about greek life, are juniors allowed to participate in formal rush?</p>
<p>Hey Philgirl,</p>
<p>I was wondering, do you think high school grades are highly regarded to in terms of transferring to UPENN?</p>
<p>I did bad in high school, but went a bit crazy when i got to college and tried pretty hard. my gpa is around 3.8-3.9 as a transfer and was wondering if it is even worth the time for the application if my high school career was absolutely horrible?</p>
<p>Hello!</p>
<p>I got rejected from Penn as a freshman and now I’m trying again as a transfer for junior year, but I have a few uncommon issues.</p>
<p>My grades in high school weren’t amazing (not terrible but definitely not up to the Penn standard… about 94/100?) but I’ve worked hard in college and I think it has paid off. My problem is that at my home school my GPA shows up as a 3.63, because I am spending my entire sophomore year studying abroad.</p>
<p>I have a 4.0 in two summer classes I took, and a 4.0 last semester, but none of these are factored into my home school gpa. It’s a significant part of my college education overall, so I am a bit worried about that fact. I am also sending transcripts from all three schools, and I have three strong recommendations, plus some unique work and volunteering experience.</p>
<p>Do you think Penn will look at all of my transcripts equally?</p>
<p>Hi philgirl I was wondering if your not too busy if you would look at my essay and tell me your opinion of it if you have some time?</p>
<p>I was wondering what housing for answers is like? I’d be coming in as a sophomore and at my current schools transfers are all housed far away from the “normal” sophomores</p>
<p>HI PHILGIRL thank you so much for doing this !