<p>I'm getting the impression that Penn is centered around Wharton. I'm no businesswoman--I think I'm going to go premed--but I love Penn. Is the SAS overshadowed by Wharton? I don't want to go to a school where I am overshadowed by Wharton students.</p>
<p>Is the Penn SAS not a good school to get a medical education at? What's the deal? Why do I only hear about Wharton?</p>
<p>Penn has so many premeds you wouldn't believe. Penn SAS is probably one of the best places for premed. You have some of the best advisers for premeds, tons of research opportunities with a top 5 med school and tons of bio/biomed/life science research going on all over the place, and HUP right on campus for clinical experience. You can't find a better premed experience anywhere else. It's competitive for a premed, but more than enough are accepted to great med schools (and med school period which is huge considering 60% of applicants get in nowhere) to show that if you work hard you can get out of here alive and into a great med school.</p>
<p>You only hear about Wharton because it is the best undergrad business school. At MIT you hear a lot more about engineering than say poly sci even though MIT is a top school in poli sci because MIT is the best undergraduate engineering school. Trust me when I say that there is a lot more going on at Penn than Wharton.</p>
<p>This website is pretty much the only place where Penn seems centered around Wharton. Wharton is undeniably the best place for an undergraduate business education, while SAS is competing with all the other top universities and liberal arts colleges. Basically..Wharton is a big fish in a small pond, while SAS is a big fish in a big lake. SAS is also like 3 times the size of Wharton and has a much broader range of students. It is has more of the relatively "dumb" legacies who just worked really hard in high school, but I think it has more truly BRILLIANT students than Wharton too.</p>
<p>Penn is a wonderful place for premed- probably one of the top 5 in the country. There are a ton of premeds here, so I guess the competition is tough, but I've heard good things about the advising. Visit the school. Don't let this board form your opinion of Penn.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments thus far. Are there rankings of the top pre-med schools?</p>
<p>^no. it's really impossible to compare two colleges and their ability to prepare students for med school. just read the premed forum for great premed advice. </p>
<p>Penn's arts and sciences departments are very strong, with many ranked in the top 10 or top 20 in the country. Wharton has about 1800 undergrads, while the College of Arts and Sciences has about 6500. College students are definitely not overshadowed by Wharton students.</p>
<p>On the other hand, many College students take some Wharton courses, and it's nice to have the world's best undergraduate business school on campus if you decide you want to sample some business classes.</p>
<p>It really is strange and unfortunate that so much of the Penn forum here seems to focus on Wharton. It's not the heart of the university--that is undoubtedly SAS. Wharton is more like the liver. Still pretty damn important, but not the heart.</p>
<p>but all the alcohol goes through the liver</p>
<p>...i don't really know what i'm trying to insinuate, it's late.</p>
<p>and what about SEAS and nursing? the lungs and the kidneys?</p>
<p>missb, i tried to come up with something clever to what you were insinuating but found my self rereading your post five times. and now, i have no clue if anything can be insinuated from the alcohol going through the liver. you're right. it is too late. and im going to wake tomorrow morning wondering what i have just posted here...</p>
<p>There's a lot of focus on Wharton, here and elsewhere, because it's really a unique asset: by far and away the top undergraduate business program in the country, maybe the world. There are other fine undergraduate business programs -- and lots of reasons to question why there should be ANY undergraduate business program at an elite college -- but Wharton's relative prominence in its field is unmatched by any advantage a place like Harvard has over its rivals in any area. So people pay attention.</p>
<p>Also, it's in the nature of good business schools that they generate a few extremely successful alumni. People like Michael Miliken, Ron Perelman, Saul Steinberg, Brian Roberts (and many others). Wharton certainly attracts bucks to the University of Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>But there's no question that Penn is a great place for pre-meds. The medical school is right smack in the middle of the university campus, there are not one but two major research hospitals (HUP and CHOP) on the campus, and the adjacent University City Science Center houses a plethora of biomedical research start-ups. Plus, the Philadelphia area is really the center of the U.S. pharmaceutical and chemical industries; there is well-funded research going on all over the place. One could debate whether Penn's a little better or a little worse in this regard than Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, Rice, etc., but it's clearly a place with world-class research opportunities.</p>
<p>Penn has 300+ people apply to medical school each year, and between 85 and 90% of them get in somewhere when half of all applicants nationwide get rejected by everywhere to which they apply. Penn also does not screen it's applicants, so this number includes even the few relatively weak applicants. I will say, however, that premed at Penn is extremely competitive, and the attrition rate is extremely high. </p>
<p>This is true almost everywhere, however, and this is the biggest reason why I think Penn is such a good place to pursue premed, aside from all of the very valid reasons that others have given. Odds are you will change your mind about what you want to do. Statistically, you will either get weeded out or change your mind about wanting to be a doctor (no offense intended, this is simply what the numbers say). Therefore, it is a very good idea to go to a school that gives you many opportunities to sample different things and learn what you really like, and that has many exceptional programs that you can be a part of if you decide medicine is not for you.</p>
<p>I will also echo what others have said about the more 'bread and butter' premed things one should consider. I'll be starting med school in just over a week, and thought the advising and guidance I received before and during the application process was extremely helpful. The research opportunities at Penn are second to none, simply as a result of the medical school (the real juggernaut at Penn, not Wharton. Over half of all Penn faculty are a part of the medical school) being directly on campus (most schools have the undergrad and med school in different places, i.e. Harvard med is in downtown Boston, not Cambridge). There is also the NCI designated cancer center Wistar Institute right in the middle of campus, and I haven't even mentioned the stellar Biology/BBB/Psych/etc. departments that all have their own research space (the newish Bio research building, Lynch, is gorgeous on the inside). CHOP, HUP, and Presbyterian are all basically on campus for volunteer opportunities, another relatively uncommon situation among undergrads.</p>
<p>Regarding the initial question, Wharton only overshadows any part of Penn on this forum, maybe on the website, and first semester freshman year, when a fair number of the new Wharton kids want it to be known what program their in to anyone who will listen. Most of them get over it after a semester of humility-inducing courses and realizing that they're not smarter than the other students (probably less so I would say, but harder working), and the ones who don't get over it aren't the type you or anyone else would want to be friends with anyway.</p>
<p>Regarding a witticism about Wharton being Penn's liver; it's where all of the nasty toxins are held and processed. SEAS would be the brain, and Nursing the genitals :p</p>
<p>woot! i think that may be my 100th 'why Penn is good for premed' post</p>
<p><strong><em>obligatory 'use the search function' comment</em></strong></p>
<p>
You will QUICKLY lose that attitude when nurses save your ass a few times during medical school or residency, or at some other point early in your medical career. :D</p>
<p>^ does that mean it's going to be an ugly nurse that saves my ass? :(</p>
<p>^ All nurses are beautiful--and especially the ones who save your ass! :rolleyes:</p>
<p>^You're calling the male nurses beautiful? They tarnish the Nursing school's reputation of being only for blondes. Penn really should do more to only admit blonde girls to Nursing.</p>
<p>
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and what about SEAS and nursing? the lungs and the kidneys?
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</p>
<p>I thought it was so readily apparent that Nursing would be the duodenum that I didn't even mention it.</p>
<p>I wonder what it is about Penn that seems to make it a magnet for smarmy wiseasses ;)</p>
<p>This is what I've noticed...</p>
<p>The smartest kids are in the SAS. At the same time, the most ignorant of people are in SAS.</p>
<p>Smart kids, but not the smartest at Penn, are in Wharton.</p>