I’m trying to make a decision between Penn and Williams. It appears to be a very hard decision for me to make as both are very good schools.
Do anyone know how hard (GPA) is Penn Pre-med?
Moreover, I’m interested in getting a dual degree with Wharton’s health management (concentration). Do anyone know how hard it is to apply for a dual degree? Is it very competitive?
@ChemIsHard There is a trade off you are faced with. On the one hand at Williams you will probably have a slightly higher GPA (but not by that much since Williams students are also top notch and the competition is intense esp for pre-med), but you will not have much access to research opportunities. At Penn your GPA will prob be a bit lower but you will have access to research opportunities at one of the best med schools & hospitals in the country and the possibility of getting recommendation letters from some of the top physicians in the country (this matters for med school applications). Additionally you will have other opportunities like pursuing a dual degree with Wharton and taking Med school classes as an undergrad (you can do that at Penn).
Regarding the dual degree question, it is not super hard as long as you have a good Penn GPA and a demonstrated/well-explained interest in business. If you manage to keep your GPA high enough to be competitive for med school (i.e 3.6/3.7+), it won’t be hard to apply for the dual degree. The GPA cut-off to apply is 3.4. Given that HCMG is not a super popular concentration at Wharton (like finance for example), that could also help you.
@ChemIsHard Agree with the above. Penn can offer much more, the medical school, the hospital and Wharton.
When I visited Williams, there were plenty of researches for all fields from STEM to Art History to Language. The good thing about Williams is that their professors still need to do research, and, since the school population is small and has no graduate students, you are pretty much to guaranteed to get a research position if you wanted to. Pre-med is hard anywhere, but, the competition is worse especially when you are doing both premed and Wharton. Honestly, the academics of either school shouldn’t be the deciding factor. You should consider where you will enjoy your time more.
Research happens at pretty much any academic institution. That said the biomedical (and pretty much any other type of) research happening at Williams is not exactly comparable to that of Penn or any other top research university,
Alo as an undergrad at Penn it is easy to get involved in research. There is so much going that they are always looking for research assistants.
All that said i agree that the deciding factor should be which school matches best your personality, interests and needs. Both are great choices.
There is a lot of value to the opportunities you get from having one of the world’s best research hospitals right on campus. Take full advantage of it!
Two great choices. My D went to Williams. It’s very important to understand that it has a formal policy of grade deflation. This means it’s difficult to get an A. So I disagree with “at Williams you will probably have a slightly higher GPA…” I think the opposite it true.
I also agree that academics should not be the only factor. The two colleges are extremely different in not just their location, but how they ‘feel.’ It’s very very important to visit both and preferably stay overnight before you make your decision.
Thank you guys so much! At last I decided to go to Penn!
@ChemIsHard congrats on your choice and welcome to Penn!