<p>I'm looking into the essays on the application and i saw this one. For those who have already done this, how did you go about finding a professor you deemed interesting?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Here is what I did.
1. What is my prospective major? Chemistry
2. Go to Penn's chemistry department
3. Start reading the research papers of every faculty member in alphabetical order till I get to someone's I can understand (I think I got to the C's)
4. Write a few sentences about what the prof does and another few about why that is interesting to me and a few more about why I want to do research with him.</p>
<p>I forgot the dude's name less than an hour after writing the essay. Don't stress essays.</p>
<p>^
Same thing that I'm doing.
I heard that apparently that essay simply shows that you did research, and that interviewers won't ask you anymore about it (that'd suck if you forgot the professor's name when the interviewer asked you about it XD)</p>
<p>That essay -- which I thought was a great idea -- isn't just to show you did research. It's marketing -- getting applicants to engage with the university on a more detailed, realistic level, and hopefully getting excited about real opportunities there. It almost (not quite) happened with my kid. He really DIDN'T want to go to Penn (too close to home), but he got very excited about some of the faculty in the department he researched.</p>
<p>Really, if you can't find a professor at Penn who is doing something that engages you a few sentences' worth, you probably shouldn't be applying there in the first place.</p>
<p>wow. i kinda freaked out about that essay but i did what Venkat89 said and it's actually not all that hard to understand.</p>
<p>now im just worried about the essay on how the "courses of study and unique characteristics of UPenn" that make me such a great match for it. I really gotta research for that one =.,=</p>
<p>look up professors in the department you think you might be interested in. Read about them and then pick the professor you think is doing something you find interesting and write. Your application should be consistent for example dont say you want to study biology and then write about a Wharton prof good luck</p>
<p>that's exactly what i did last fall. i investigated the professors in the departments that interested me, and wrote a few sentences detailing the professor i picked and which classes she taught that i would like to take. truly, do not stress about this one. i was never asked about any more specifics in the interview or anything.</p>
<p>What I did is wrote the entire Why penn academic program about a specific professor who was studing something that i did research on in high school, and then connected it to why I wanted to go to Penn. But also some good advice is to include what you are going to contribute to Penn. Remember Penn is a business and wants to admit ppl who are going to give back, so I included being active in Campus Crusade, voluteering, and alumni fundraising and hoping my children will go to Penn.</p>