Penn student offering to take questions

<p>Locust walk looks amazing with all the lights they put up in the winter.</p>

<p>About one university and classes, you can take 90% of the Wharton undergrad classes, all of the SEAS undergrad classes, all of the SAS undergrad classes (though some may be for majors only or give majors priority for registration), a bunch of nursing classes, some law school classes, some MBA classes, masters and PhD level classes for a bunch of departments, etc. etc. I doubt most people take full advantage of it, but I believe ilovebagels did when he was here.</p>

<p>hey tennisjump,
im a sophomore right now and my goal is to get into penn. i was just wondering what you think i could do to better my chances. Right now i play football, wrestle, run track, student council, a club called SUAVE where you just learn really big words its kinda a joke, and stage crew where ill be stage manager next year. i have a 97.747 GPA and its a prep school so were required to do service work.
any suggestions would be awesome,</p>

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I'm visiting Penn from the 16-18th, staying with one of my friends there, who is also a freshman in Wharton. However, she is going to be stressed due to a Stats final the next week. I don't know if she'll have much time to show me around. Is there anything you recommend I see while I'm there? I'm planning on sitting in on a class, either Wharton or Economics related in some way. Any classes that you've heard good things about? I'm going to see the dorms, I'm planning on going out to Rittenhouse Square at some point, and I wanted to meet with an Economics professor. (Hopefully either Krueger or Todd, as I wrote about them for my supplemental essay :-/, I even read some of their research for fun.)</p>

<p>Any tips for my visit? I'm taking a tour, but I'm trying to stay away from the dolled up aspects of the school, because those are not always representative of the actual school, for the better or the worse.</p>

<p>Any cool places to see, people to meet, landmarks? I've seen the old stuff in Philadelphia (Liberty bell, Independence Hall, etc.) on a previous trip, so I'm more interested in the school stuff this time.</p>

<p>are undergraduate students allowed to take classes from graduate schools?</p>

<p>oops I think I see the answer for my question</p>

<p>Thanks so much for answering my question!
Also, do you know if other schools have a similar policy? I've searched and searched and upenn is the only one which has an obvious and advertised One University Policy. Sorry if this question seems like it belongs in another thread/topic but upenn seems pretty special and interesting in my mind and I was was just wondering how its options compared to other schools.</p>

<p>And I was also wondering what people think of the faculty. I randomly read this incredibly sad story online of this person who had a horrible personal incident which affected their time there there and they constantly blamed some of the staff and faculty for not helping them through their ordeal and catching them before they fell. Now i'm sure its probably just some angry person, but I was wondering how helpful people thought the faculty was, whether the environment was sink or swim, whether its supposedly "social" atmosphere made it difficult to fit in with cliques and stuff??? Any help on either of my question would be very much appreciated!</p>

<p>mathmajor: Wow, thanks for the reply. </p>

<p>Can undergrads do research with grad professors?</p>

<p>Hey, can you tell me about the gym and exercise/recreation type facilities? How is the gym especially (like the weights and stuff gym)?</p>

<p>
[quote]
Hey, can you tell me about the gym and exercise/recreation type facilities? How is the gym especially (like the weights and stuff gym)?

[/quote]

The main one is Pottruck gym; there's another one next to Frankling Field (the Palestra?) and some squash and tennis courts, although I don't know much about those.</p>

<p>Pottruck has 4 floors with a variety of cardio and weight machines on each. They also have a gym with several basketball hoops, spinning rooms, a golf simulation of some sort, dance studios, swimming pool, etc.
University</a> of Pennsylvania, Department of Recreation Facilities
For freshman, membership to Pottruck is included in your tuition ("Recreation fee") so all you need to do is swipe in with your PennCard. They've got long hours (i.e. open until 1AM on weekdays) which is great for people who are busy during the day/early evening.</p>

<p>jptoor:</p>

<p>I would definitely recommend taking a tour of the campus while you're there, it might be dolled up but it does hit nearly all the main things at Penn. Sitting in on class is always good, if you're interested in wharton looking at huntsman is a must see. The lunch trucks are pretty big here, let's see, it really depends on what you're interested in.</p>

<p>What I'm interested in...? I don't know what my options are...
And lunch trucks?</p>

<p>Umm... I like volleyball, basketball. I want to major in economics. I'm possibly thinking about Wharton. Applying ED. The friend I am staying with is in Riepe. I'm going to visit FinAid Office and look up more info about housing, guaranteed housing, off-campus housing, etc. I wanted to look up more info on Wharton related clubs that I can join if I end up going to CAS. I plan on talking to some administration about which school I should apply to. Job placement help, Alumni network in other countries.</p>

<p>I was going to check out Huntsman, but I'm not fluent (I've taken 4 years and will probably get a 5 on the AP, just not conversationally fluent.) in Spanish, and I know that's a fairly important part of the program. However, I would like to take classes in it if possible.</p>

<p>Btw, what are Cohort Rand? (My friend spoke about it, I never asked) and some cool spots to see on campus.</p>

<p>Also, I'm from California. Not used to cold weather. Right now, I'm just taking shirts, regular jeans, and a wool peacoat. Do I need more? About how cold will it be? (I don't trust the 10 day forecast, it said it would be 80 and cloudy when I checked yesterday. Now it says 69 F and raining (I lol'd in real life). I personally think 11 degrees is a pretty big jump. Any tips on handling the weather for the unaccustomed?</p>

<p>Hi tennisjump!</p>

<p>I was very surprised when I found out that the chances of admission of an international student can be hurt if he or she applies for financial aid. Whatever happened to need-blind admission? My question is: Can I apply for fin aid after I get accepted, in my sophmore year perhaps-Even if no particular family financial crisis occured-? I know it sounds a bit manipulative but oh well...</p>

<p>My second question is:
Can you apply to more than one penn school at the same time? Can I apply to say,both Wharton and CAS? So, I can get rejected from the college of Arts and Sciences put still go to penn if I get into Wharton?</p>

<p>One more thing:
If you want to apply for a dual degree, do you apply to each school seperatley?</p>

<p>I know this seems like alot but I'll be very gratefu when you reply back.
Thank you! =)</p>

<p>Yasmin: You would need to check out the financial aid office for that, my blind assumption is that you wouldn't be able to unless you proved some hardship that hadn't existed before. You can apply to a dual degree program, and if you are rejected you can choose a school to be considered. If you are applying to one school then you may only be considered for one. If you wish to apply to dual degree once you're at Penn it depends on which of the schools you are coming from and which you wish to go to. I believe a link has been posted about Wharton which is the most common one.</p>

<p>Jptoor: Lunch trucks are what they sound like, trucks that serve lunch on the sides of streets. Very tasty. A lot of that information you can find online. It has gotten very chilly here, particularly at night. In terms of cool spots, again the tour will take you pretty much all the famous spots, locust walk, the button, the palestra, Franklin field, Van Pelt and Fisher libraries.</p>

<p>If you're interested in job placement, penn has a career services website that is very good.</p>

<p>@topoftheworld123</p>

<p>Yes, you can definitely find the opportunities to do research with grad professors whose work interests you. Grad students probably have the priority but qualified undergrads can always try to apply for an internship during the academic year or summer. In fact, because the wage is cheaper, some profs actually like working with highschools and undergrads</p>

<p>@Yasmin</p>

<p>I'm an international student who receives financial aid from Penn, so I guess I can answer your concerns. Penn has a need-aware admission policy for INTERNATIONAL students, meaning that applying for financial aid will hurt your chance of admission. This, however, should not be a factor preventing you from applying for aid if you need it, because most of the international students here receive some amount of aid from Penn. How much money you can contribute to Penn is important, but the more important factor is how much of you, with all of your talent and uniqueness, can contribute to enrich our campus.
You can always apply for financial aid anytime during your time at Penn. However, unless you have a change in financial situation, your appeal will not likely be effective. There are some tips about how to "ask at the right time with the right attitudes", but we can talk about it later when you are here.</p>

<p>Thanks for the replies. A couple more questions...</p>

<ol>
<li><p>For those of you who got it, how good or bad was your financial aid package? I understand some of this info is personal, but if you can provide approximate numbers that would be awesome.</p></li>
<li><p>How good would you say medical school placement is for premeds?</p></li>
<li><p>I see that it is pretty difficult to fulfill premed while at wharton. How feasible would it be to transfer out of wharton after freshman year and then start fulfilling premed requirements starting sophomore year? (I'm not saying I'm apprehensive about Wharton, but I just want to know) I'm not familiar with college scheduling at all, so do you think this would require you to take extra summer courses to do?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>bump 10char</p>

<p>for the application essay 4a ("Why Penn?"), it says on the common app that responses should not exceed one page. i'm assuming they mean single spaced? or do they?
btw, tennisjump, i think i may know who you are. SSTP 07 much?</p>

<p>i talked to an admissions person and she said it doesnt matter single or double spaced as long as it adds to your characterr</p>

<p>What about the workload?
How hard is it to get an A?</p>