How will you explore your intellectual and academic interests at the University of Pennsylvania? Please answer this question given the specific undergraduate school to which you are applying. (400-650 words)
What exactly defines “intellectual and academic interests”? Do community service interests, study abroad, student organizations, etc. fall under this category? Should these topics, if not directly applicable to the prompt, not be mentioned at all?
“What exactly defines “intellectual and academic interests”? Do community service interests, study abroad, student organizations, etc. fall under this category?”
Yes, all of those things. What would you do to take advantage of all of the amazing opportunities?
“Should these topics, if not directly applicable to the prompt, not be mentioned at all?” I am not sure what you have in mind. I suspect that the words “intellectual and academic interests” are included to suggest that a guy saying he intends to explore his interests at Penn by getting drunk and chasing girls around the campus is unlikely to get him admitted.
Though, paradoxically, Penn has been known to admit quite a few students with those precise interests. And they obviously aren’t alone in that regard.
@renaissancedad “Though, paradoxically, Penn has been known to admit quite a few students with those precise interests. And they obviously aren’t alone in that regard.”
The problem with that is that if you do not put some effort into your academics, you will not be there very long. You really can’t fake your way through at Penn, the professors will definitely fail you.
In one of Ds freshman courses, the professor gave 1/3 of the class a D or F on the first mid-term. He suggested that certain students needed to decide whether they were going to make a better effort, or drop the course. lol
I was being mostly facetious. Though I certainly knew of some party animals in my years at Stanford. One guy in my freshman dorm was a Greek kid who had a lot of friends who ended up at a local community college, and he would bring them over with chaotic results. More than alcohol appeared to be involved as well. He either dropped out or was suspended, but I saw him briefly listed in an alumni magazine (with a perfect looking family), so he must have sorting things out and come back to graduate. He was reputedly brilliant, but obviously needed time to mature.
@renaisssancedad If I had known you went to Stanford, I would have understood that you knew that. Like any other school there are party kids at Penn, but the ones that everyone is wondering how they do in during first semester often vanish by second semester. lol