<p>Hey guys,
I was just wondering if anyone on CC had any experience or info to share regarding Penn's Pre-College Program (6-week). I have visited the website. I am looking for info such as:</p>
<p>How was the program experience? (Worth the money?)
Which classes did you take? (How difficult?)
Is it extremely quiet on campus during the summer?
Does the program help you when applying undergrad to Penn? (Any "living proof"?)
How "prestigious" are these types of programs? (I am aware of ~48% acceptance)</p>
<p>DS spent 4 weeks at the Summer Discovery program-Biomedical Research Academy @ University of Pennsylvania. He got a lot out of it and it firmed up his feelings regarding Biomed/Bioengineering. As with most summer programs you get out of it what you put in, and there were a lot of students that didn’t put very much in.
Yes, the campus was very quiet during the summer. Note that his dorm was a dump. Very old and in need of repair.
They say it won’t help with admissions, but it certainly shows a a high level of demonstrated interest in the school and depending on the program, your intended major.
Finally, the only programs that are really “prestigious” are the ones you don’t have to pay for.</p>
<p>I agree that you get what you make of it. I took Biol 101 in the program last summer. It was a lot of work, but I ended up doing very well and learning a lot about molecular biology as well as lab skills (the lab is part of the course). However, a lot of high school students in the program did very poorly. The course I took had many college students, several coming from Penn’s engineering school and also a physics phD student. It was graded on a curve, so if you take that class, you will be competing with college students to get a good grade. This grade goes on an official transcript from Penn, and I got the impression that you are required to show all of your official transcripts when you apply to college.
I personally loved being at Penn for the summer. I got to meet a lot of interesting people from the university and got to explore the campus. I also met some friends in the program.
Regarding the college application process, I really am not sure how much weight the program has. I think it shows interest, but I really have no proof. It definitely helps generate ideas for the “Why Penn” essay. I applied early decision to Penn and was accepted and I know that there are a few more people from the program that were as well. However I also know of several people who were deferred or rejected.</p>
<p>My D attended the 6-week program and loved it. It’s definitely expensive, but here’s what she (and we parents) got out of it:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Our D learned that she’s quite capable of living independently and very far away from home (we are from CA). She loved the dorms and the freshman quad. A BEAUTIFUL campus.</p></li>
<li><p>D signed up for a class that she ended up hating and had to scramble to change her schedule in the first week. This was a good lesson for her for real college.</p></li>
<li><p>The classes were rigorous and filled with actual UPenn students, and D earned two As. I don’t know if the pre-college program “looks good” on college apps, but two As from an Ivy League school can’t hurt.</p></li>
<li><p>Poeme is right. The experience definitely helped her write the “Why Penn?” essay.</p></li>
<li><p>The folks who run the program are awesome. It was very well-organized, and the people are sweet. The RAs are cool, and the weekend excursions were mostly great.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hi,
I did the penn precollege program last summer and it was an amazing experience. I got to meet a lot of people with a variety of interests and although it was a lot of work, I had a lot of fun. I took a class called “Creative Non-fiction Writing” and I absolutely loved the class. If you love writing, you should definitely consider it. The professor I had, Deborah Burnham, was a really sweet woman and she’s always available if you’re having problems. It’s a seminar class so its pretty small and each person gets adequate attention. </p>
<p>Also, the program is managed my Summer Discovery so there are a lot of fun trips and things to do. They took us to DC, New York, Hershey Park, Georgetown University, Columbia University, etc. So, it was rarely ever boring, and the people there are very nice. </p>
<p>You should definitely consider it, and don’t just attend a summer program because it looks good on a college application, you should consider that you’ll be spending a lot of time there and consider pros and cons of every one you look at. Attending this program really influenced my personality and made me really want to attend UPenn, and I think that’s better than something superficial to put on a college application. </p>
<p>I definitely agree with IvyAmbition’s comment. You should do this program if one of the classes genuinely interests you, not for your college application. I am very interested in molecular biology/biochemistry/biophysics, so taking Biol 101 over the summer really helped me explore this interest.</p>
<p>I didn’t do it, but there’s a bunch of people here I know who did… only positive comments. Given the amount of people who did the program who end up at Penn, I’d say you have an above-average chance of getting in if you meet the average SAT/ACT and GPA things they look for when you apply later.</p>
<p>If you take a Penn course over the summer and earn a high mark, it will always look good on a transcript, especially to Penn. Getting two As in Penn courses, for example, will tell admissions officers that a student can clearly handle the difficulty of Penn and will also help them to gauge the student’s high school performance. In that sense, a student with a 3.7 GPA would get an advantage since it would be clear that his/her high school has tough classes, but on the same token a student with a perfect GPA who got a B and a C in Penn courses would be at a slight disadvantage since it shows that they have more difficulty with the college level courses. That said, the hook of taking a course or two at Penn should offset and negatives.</p>
<p>And of course, don’t think of summer courses as a ticket to admission!</p>
<p>To anyone who has done the program – is there a defined schedule or are you pretty much a college student for 6 weeks? If you take 2 classes, you’re probably only in class for 10-12 hrs per week, except Bio which will involve more time for lab. Granted there will be a good bit of studying because summer session classes move fast since they meet daily. But what are you doing the rest of the time? Are you free to explore, study wherever you want to on campus, and just hang out or are you kind of checking in/out with your RAs all the time? I know there are some summer programs out there that are very strict – ie HS students only going out with the entire group etc. while others would be fine with you finishing class for the day and then grabbing lunch in center city if you wanted. Also, did you feel like you had TOO MUCH time on your hands with only 2 classes and no real defined ECs going on during the summer?</p>
<p>There are plenty of activities, but they are not highly structured. You do have to sign in to the Quad at around 10 pm and are confined to a certain area of the campus if you want to walk by yourself without notifying anyone. You have to sign out to go to center city and be in a group of four and you must also return by a certain time. So while there are not extremely strict rules (in comparison to other places I have heard stories of), there are still plenty of rules that you must follow. If you take one credit class, you are also put in an enrichment class (SAT prep or community service). I loved community service, I got to go to a nearby elementary school and play with the kids. I will definitely try to become involved with this program next year at Penn. In regard to class time, the Biology lecture was everyday for 1.5 hours with labs twice a week for an additional 3 hours each, so that’s about 14 hours, which is a lot more than for other classes (but I got an extra .5 credits for the lab).
There are weekend trips (at least 4) which pretty much take up all day on Saturday. An important thing to add is that you must manage your work by yourself, there is really no one to remind you to study; in fact there are plenty of distractions that may keep you from studying. This proves to be a real test on people’s study skills; it’s not only knowing how much you study, but how you study. This is probably a good indication of what college will be like.</p>
<p>It is a decent indication, but Penn in the summer is FAR different from Penn during the academic year. Aside from the restrictions placed on high school students, all of fraternity chapter houses are closed for the summer; students taking courses generally need to do so in order to graduate with difficult/labor intensive majors, so they are usually very much geared toward school. That’s not to mention the fact that each summer course is a full semester course condensed into six weeks, therefore the workload is greater for each course.</p>
<p>This is less the case during the academic year, when workload is more spread out and when everyone is on campus. Take the level of off-campus activity and night life and multiply it by ten to compare academic year with summer! Or compare campus right now, when we’re all on spring break, with campus two weeks from now.</p>