Hello -
My D is a freshman this year and she is interested in pre med program in Upenn. What is needed ( SAT score, GPA, ECs , voluntary work, awards, summer programs, type of work) for her to get into pre med program in Upenn?
Thanks
Lostmom
Not a current student, but…
I’ll be a freshman at Penn this fall. I haven’t heard of a premed program at Penn. A quick google search gives no results either. As far as I know, Penn has advisors who will make sure you are on the right track (taking all the classes you need to prepare for the MCAT, offering some classes that connect to your goals, etc). There isn’t any set “program,” just the classic “choose a major and apply to medical school, good luck!”
So the high SAT score/GPA, good awards, ECs, etc is what you need to get into Penn. Once your daughter is in, she’ll be able to reach to advisors for help in the process but that won’t be a program that will give her an edge in medical school admissions. For that, she should consider internships/research.
Good luck! Your daughter still has 4 years to build up a strong college app!
Penn has an excellent premed program, and one of the countries best medical school. Premed students can major in anything, but have to meet the premed requirements.
Average high school gpa is 3.9 unweighted. Average SAT is 2200.
ECs and summer programs that demonstrate Interest in the medical field would be helpful.
“pre med” is an advising track – there no “pre med programs” Like Much2Learn said, a student can major/study anything – as long as they prepare themselves for the MCATs, achieve a high GPA and can afford med school. You’d do your daughter a great service if you dissuade her on focusing on any single uni. There are 100s of great colleges that can prepare her for eventual medical school. Saying “I wanna do pre med at Penn” is like your neighbor’s 14 year old saying he wants to play in the NBA. Nothing wrong with striving – but there are many routes beyond a single “name”
@Lostmom T26e4 is right that you should not focus too much on one school. There are many that will prepare you for medical school. However, there are a few benefits to attending Penn.
One is that you can complete the pre-med program, and still have a degree in something useful else bioengineering or chemical engineering.
Also, student have extensive opportunities to be involved in research.
Another is that, under the One Penn policy, an undergrad can take electives in the medical school as long as they meet any pre-requirements.
Finally, students are assigned an individual faculty advisor do guide them through the process. This can be a huge benefit.
The above posters are correct in stating that there is no “premed” program at Penn, but there is a premed advising board that will assign you an adviser to get you through the process of preparing to apply for medical school. In order to apply for medical school, the student’s application must be “supported” by the school. Some schools (such as Princeton) have a very stringent scanning policy of their students’ medical school applications so that they can tout a high percentage when acceptance time rolls around. Here are some of the stats for the Penn students applying for medical school… 308 applicants, 74% acceptance rate (compared to 47% nationally) in 2013
Penn stats for those applying to med school in 2014: Mean overall GPA: 3.63, mean BCMP (biology, chem, physics, math GPA): 3.53, mean MCAT: 33.8 (though the format of the MCAT is changing as of April 2015 to be scaled to a max score of 528 with 4 sections (max score of 132 per section)
All that said, there are no specifics to getting into the premed track at Penn. Just focus on high test scores, GPA, extra curriculars, etc. to get into the school and then she can decide how she wants to go from there.