Penn/Wharton undergrad offering advice for college applicants, ask me anything!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
21

What are the people like at Penn?

There are all kinds of people at Penn. words I would use to describe Penn students I know are bright, personable, passionate, hands-on, sociable, active, hard working, fun, caring, resilient, amazing.

Is it a very elite school?

It is an outstanding school, with talented, hard-working, sociable students and excellent resources. I am not sure what “very elite” means to you. If you want to impress friends and family with the name, Penn is probably not going to do it. If you want to get a great education, enjoy your 4 years, grow as a person, and have super job prospects when you are done, Penn is a great choice.

Will a first generation student from a working class family fit it at Penn?

Sure. There are all kinds of people at Penn, including many first generation students. Students are all mixed together. You will find people like you.

Are the people very intense compared to other students at other ivies?

I don’t think so, but they do tend to be passionate about what they are doing. Certainly all top schools have a level of intensity, but most Penn students are positive, cooperative, and not cutthroat. Social skills, positive attitudes, and things that happen outside of class also tend to matter to Penn students. That tends to establish a more cooperative environment.

22

@Much2learn I would definitely disagree with your claim that Penn will not impress friends and family. Penn is an Ivy League school, and with that status comes prestige that few other colleges can match

23

@9Penn9 What you say is true, if the person is knowledgeable about colleges. Those people will be impressed.

However, the percentage of people who know much about it is pretty small, in my experience. That may not be true on the east coast, but here in the midwest, average Joe has never heard of Penn. If you ask a random person to name Ivy League schools, they will get Harvard, and maybe either Yale or Princeton, but probably not both. Then they are stuck. Try it when you go home (asking a random person on the Penn campus is cheating. lol) If your friends and family are wealthy, highly educated or live in the north east, they are much more likely to recognize Penn and be impressed. But in the general population, Penn is not even close to the name recognition of Maryland, Penn State, Alabama, Indiana, Nebraska, Michigan State, Florida State etc.

My point is that Penn will give you a better education and experience than all of these schools, even if grandpa was hoping for you to be an Ohio State Buckeye. The name may not be as well known to the average man on the street, but the product is better.

Now I am probably going to get attacked by posters from every school I mentioned above. haha

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@Much2learn While I do not disagree with you, and could probably add a few schools (Michigan, UCLA, USC for starters), the key element is that hiring managers will know Penn, and IMO, that’s more important. :slight_smile:

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Hi Much2learn!! Thanks for your reply!!

What I meant by ‘elite’ was that, do the people have that rich people attitude/mindset and all.
Like I heard Cornell students are just very chill and friendly. And aren’t pretentious like many students at other prestigious top schools…??!

(That’s what I heard.)
But I guess there are people like that at every top school??
That’s important to me, but I guess it’s all about who you surround yourself with right?

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As far as EC’s, do you know of any internships I may participate in that involve business/management. Also, will two B’s my freshman year deteriorate my chances of going to Upenn. (which was my dream school day one btw)

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@Trolty10 “What I meant by ‘elite’ was that, do the people have that rich people attitude/mindset and all.”

There will be rich students, poor students, and everything inbetween. It does not seem to be a primary criteria that students use to form friend groups.

28

I’m not even so sure about the northeast. I live in New England and I would say at least half the people who ask me where my son goes to school either think he goes to Penn State or that University of Pennsylvania is roughly the same as UMaine, UNH, UMass, UVM, URI, etc.

29

@TroLTY10 , @skieurope is exactly right. “the key element is that hiring managers will know Penn, and IMO, that’s more important.” Yes, that!

DD is getting an amazing education at Penn. She loves it there. The opportunities outside of class are also outstanding, and the reputation with recruiters is excellent. She (and I) do not care that many people who ask where she is going to school have never heard of it. That is fine. The experience is amazing. The people are amazing. If you have the opportunity, it is truly world class.

30

For what it’s worth, I can count the number of people with whom I’ve discussed Penn who didn’t know Penn was in the Ivy League, on one hand. And those same people wouldn’t have heard of places like Dartmouth, Caltech, or Brown either. However, when I worked for the federal government in DC and now that I live and work in NYC, I have yet to encounter a person that doesn’t know Penn is an Ivy. I’m sure part of that has to do with the fact that I’m on the East Coast and in primarily professional settings where Penn’s brand is strongest. But Penn’s name recognition has been on the rise for a while now and I’m sure that will continue. I wouldn’t put too much stock into Penn’s name recognition since you’ll spend four years on campus where everyone knows how great Penn is and then you’ll enter the work force where everyone also knows how great Penn is as well.

31

I agree 100% - most people couldn’t name the eight Ivies if their life depended on it.

But hiring managers have the internet, plus Penn State doesn’t have a bad reputation, and most people who see “Philadelphia, PA” would not think PSU, and would check if that was the location of one of their campuses.

Having Penn on my resume has helped a LOT, and I understand that having Wharton on your resume helps more.

Believe me, not only rich people attend Penn. Average FA is over $44,000 per year.

32

Are you familiar with the Jerome Fisher program? Do people in the program tend to be more interested in the business aspects or the engineering aspects? What do you think made you personally stand out to adcoms?

Thank you in advance.

33

I plan to apply to Wharton Class of 2021, and I’ve read that they like to see leadership, an interest and like building something from the bottom up. I have leadership positions in several ECs, but the thing I’m worried about is that I have no business ECs and I have not done any business related projects. How will this affect my chances?

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@dtbd17 it’s common for Wharton students to have no business ECs in high school.

35

I am a rising junior who interested in applying for the School of Nursing Class of 2021 (but in the duall enrollment program that I am currently will allow me to join the Class of 2019; hope they don’t mind lol) I know that you’re in Wharton but I wanted to ask if its worth applying to the school in nursing, if it is an actually a good program and what kind of opportunities do they offer for students.

36

I posted a discussion on this but I am bringing it here in case you are only looking at this discussion. I am trying to figure out what classes to take senior year but I don’t know what to do. I’ve taken 5 sciences already (3 AP and 2 Honors) and I don’t really want to take another science this year. Will it hurt me if I choose to take something like AP Human Geography instead? Btw, I plan on applying to Wharton.

37

Depends on the student. I just graduated M&T and am doing engineering after graduation. There’s no one M&T student archetype.

38

Hi! I’m a current Penn student…do you have any advice on easy classes that one could take to raise GPA?

Also, I’m not sure if you’ve gone through the OCR process but any insights on that would be much appreciated!

39

Thank you @LanaH100 !

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I’m a rising senior considering Penn but one of my main concerns is how difficult it will be to keep up my GPA since I plan on applying to medical school later and that’s a huge factor in decision. Anyone familiar with the pre-med track there or any of the majors that fall under it? Just trying to see if I should go for Penn or aim for an easier school.