<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>Well, I was thrilled with an acceptance into the LSM Program at UPenn. If you guys dont mind, I have a few questions. Firstly, I chose Wharton as my back up school. So, would it be easy for me to transfer only to Wharton if the situtation requires it? Also, how competitive was this program?</p>
<p>Thanks,
Robbie</p>
<p>Anyone know anything about this? I am kinda worried that I will be stuck in this program even if my passion for biology dwindles.</p>
<p>maybe you should join the FB group and post your question there…
I have heard that many kids actually do drop out of the program though…
Also, LSM is pretty damn competitive. You have to first get accepted into both schools (CAS and Wharton) individually before you get considered for the program. While ~25 out of ~250 get accepted (~10%), it is a stronger pool of applicants than for any of the single schools; the same applies to the other dual degree programs. </p>
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<p>You’re already in both Wharton and CAS so if you decide to drop the bio part of it you just…drop it. It’s really easy.</p>
<p>Also, I know a bunch of people in LSM so I can probably answer questions about it if necessary.</p>
<p>I know for M&T a few people dropped it the first day lol. Yeah, its really easy to drop (so long as you fulfill requirements otherwise, alot of dual degree courses double count so you may be short on credits if you wait until senior year but why would you want to at that point? :P).</p>
<p>Wow…the first day…impressive. Ya, I’m not sure what I am gonna do. However, deciding between Wharton and LSM isnt a bad problem to have!</p>
<p>Thanks guys!!!</p>
<p>@scribbler91:so how hard or even possible about doing opposite, namely from Wharton to LSM? Also, how likely would you think if transferring from an economics major from a top 20 university to LSM? Thanks.</p>
<p>@RSRM64…well, I know a lot of people transferred into the LSM program this year, and they’ve been growing it (accepting more LSM people, I think?)
However, I honestly have no idea how hard it is to transfer into LSM because it’s not done that often (I know people did it but don’t know how many people actually wanted to in the first place). Even if you don’t get LSM, you could always do a dual degree with Wharton and CAS–bio/BBB/the other option. If you’re in Wharton all you need to do a dual degree with CAS is a 3.4 at the end of your freshman year.</p>
<p>And I have no idea about transferring from another college to LSM–I don’t know if they would even take that because the issue of credits would just be…a big issue. There are a lot of unique wharton classes than an econ major wouldn’t have credits for.</p>
<p>scribbler, could you tell us a little bit about how intense the program is from what you know from your friends? My daughter was accepted to LSM but she is most interested in medical research. Although she takes and IB business course and enjoys it, she is not sure she wants to commit to such a demanding program with so many business courses, rather than having more time to dabble in some other interests.</p>
<p>I’m sure the career opportunities are plentiful afterward, but if she wanted to continue on to grad school in science, would it be worth the extra effort to get this double degree? Any opinions on this would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Also, with such an intense curriculum, is there enough time to enjoy a few extracurriculars and the social scene at Penn?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>A lot of people in LSM I know are definitely considering things like med school or grad school. I don’t actually really know the reasons, but I think a lot of people want to use the skills from Wharton undergrad later in their careers.
I don’t honestly think it’s too demanding a program…Wharton classes don’t actually have that much work, so it would mostly be the science (which yes, is hard and demanding).</p>
<p>I think your daughter should also ask herself why she applied to LSM in the first place, over just doing bio. She can always just drop Wharton if she decides she would rather dabble than take so many business courses.</p>
<p>I also think she should also talk to some actual current LSM students to get their opinions. A few of my close friends are in LSM, but most of them are freshman. I do have a junior friend in LSM who hates the Wharton part of it (but didn’t drop it for some reason). I know this week he was being flown out to some interviews for some sort of consulting relating to bio (medical something, I don’t remember).</p>
<p>And there’s definitely enough time to enjoy extracurriculars and the social scene. Though that really depends on the person (some people have to work a lot more and “don’t have time” to hang out as much, but some people with harder courseloads will be a lot more active socially. I know someone who works out everyday and parties 3-4 times a week (I don’t know her well enough to know what else she does), but she’s doing Wharton and bio/not LSM, and doing really well).</p>
<p>@scribbler91…Thanks.</p>
<p>[And I have no idea about transferring from another college to LSM–I don’t know if they would even take that because the issue of credits would just be…a big issue. There are a lot of unique wharton classes than an econ major wouldn’t have credits for]</p>
<p>But I have heard a Penn CAS student worked really hard first year and he was able to transfer into Wharton from second year. I would assume that as a CAS student, his will not be able to take the courses unique for Wharton, though being in the same university should help at some extent.</p>
<p>I’m not absolutely sure of this, but I think LSM would probably be a good program for someone who wants to be in administration at a hospital or university. For example, like the head of a department or dean of a medical school. In that environment, I heard it is very good to have a background in business.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to be disrespectful but it’s very irritating to read messages from those accepted to the LSM program who are now wavering. Why did you even apply? The LSM program may be the most difficult program in Penn to gain acceptance. The class consists of 25 students. You or your student took a spot from someone who was dying to attend. The decent thing to do would be to reject the program now so that maybe someone else can get the spot.</p>
<p>@RSRM64
The difference between transferring from CAS into Wharton and from another university into LSM is rather large, I would think. A lot of the things you take as a freshman in CAS can potentially count towards the overall Wharton degree. But I think transfers in general have to deal more with getting credits transferred, and then trying to do it for LSM would be very, very difficult. There’s an actual LSM seminar class, first of all, then OPIM and BPUB and Management100, just to name some classes you wouldn’t have taken as a transfer that are necessary (and writing seminar).</p>
<p>@hope full
I wouldn’t be so harsh. Just because something is your top choice doesn’t mean it was someone else’s…some people like options, or aren’t sure what they actually want. I applied to Huntsman and didn’t get it, and someone in my Japanese class was in Huntsman and decided to drop it and do physics instead…you can’t even transfer into Huntsman (that type of program), but I’m not resentful.</p>
<p>And I don’t think they give waitlisted (or single degree accepted) students acceptance to dual degree programs. They accept a certain number, expecting a percentage to not accept the offer.</p>