How is the pre-med track at penn? Are you limited to the arts and sciences school when picking a major? I’m a college freshman thinking about transferring (please don’t give me a lecture on it, im just formulating ideas to see if its something id even consider), but not sure what you can and can’t do as a premed.
Hi there-
no, pre-meds at penn are not limited to picking majors in the College of Arts and Sciences. They aren’t even limited to just enrolling in the college of arts & sciences. Students can go to med school from any of Penn’s four undregraduate schools as long as they’ve fulfilled the requirements. Those requirements, however, usually overlap with majors in the College so it often makes sense to major in the College’s science programs. But, like any student in the college, pre-med students can add a second major from the school of engineering or they can do a dual degree between the College and one of the other undergrad schools: Wharton, Engineering, and Nursing. the only exception being that if you transfer to Penn with junior standing then you are ineligible to participate in a dual degree with Wharton. (Also, for clarification: the difference between a double majoring between the College and Engineering and doing a dual degree between the College and Wharton/Engineering/Nursing is that double majors do not have to complete both sets of requirements from each school whereas those doing a dual degree would have to complete both the major requirements of the College and (let’s say for argument’s sake), Engineering).
Good luck with the transfer process
You will have to apply for a dual, at least for Wharton, and probably for SEAS. I think that for SEAS, you can get in if they are comfortable that you can do the work. For Wharton, they will be looking for a certain gpa, plus an essay explaining why you would want to add a Wharton major.
You have to “apply” to be a dual degree with both Wharton and SEAS (as you would have to apply for a dual degree with the College if you were originally admitted to Wharton/SEAS/Nursing). But the “application” process is mostly a formality. There are GPA “requirements” for both. The crux of the “application” is the explanation of why your intellectual needs are not being met by your current home-school and how the dual degree will help you meet those needs beyond just taking classes in the school to supplement your home-school education. And those GPA “cut-offs” are actually not that strict. I know students with great reasons for the dual degree who didn’t quite meet the GPA requirements and they were permitted to add the second degree. Those students, however, had professors backing their efforts and had good explanations for why they didn’t meet the GPA “requirement.”