Hello everyone, I’m a recent grad of University of Pennsylvania- The Wharton School and a former CC user. Since it’s college app season, I wanted to give back by doing this AMA.
I came from a first-gen low-income family. I applied to the College of Arts and Sciences at UPenn originally planning to be pre-med and was admitted ED. Later on internal transferred to Wharton. I’m now working in a business role in a FAANG company. Ask me anything!
Which FAANG company? They all have different company cultures so I wanted to know.
Can you tell us a little bit about what kinds of things led you from preMed to business?
I work at Google. The culture is pretty different and Google tends to be more bureaucratic (like many other large companies)
I was pre-med for about 2.5 semesters and took pretty much all the intro stem courses. Being pre-med at highly selective universities like Penn was really hard and I was not doing well mentally. The class sizes are very big so I felt like I wasn’t able to get help when I needed on the course. The curve for pre-med classes are also very tough, usually the average is curved to a B- or B and everyone at the institution is so bright making the competition even tougher. The class time is also longer, I think I was in lecture for 3 hours a week, plus 1 hour recitation, and then plus lab which is another 3 hours, and then you add in studying, homework, and exam on top of that.
When I decided I no longer want to be pre-med, why business specifically? I knew I needed a major that is employable and that I can finish within 2.5 years (I was already done with sophomore fall semester by then). The pre-med classes all counted for gen ed or free electives. If I had started off with business, my GPA would’ve been much higher. But at the end of the day, it still all worked out and I’m definitely very fortunate
I’m glad it worked out for you! I think it’s so hard to figure out what you’d like to do.
I thought it’s pretty hard to internal transfer to Wharton. Can you tell me what GPA you had when you internal transferred? Glad everything worked out and you’re enjoying your current career path.
What lead you to change career paths from pre-med to business? Those are two completely unrelated fields.
They don’t publish the stats and it really depends on your reasoning/demonstrated interests. I don’t think GPA is as important in this case, but of course higher GPA only helps doesn’t hurt. I had about 3.6 when I transferred which is a bit lower than what I would’ve liked but I’ve seen people getting approved with the min GPA needed to apply.
I was struggling with Pre-med and didn’t like how large the classes are, difficulty finding community, classes are very competitive/grades are on a curve, the stress, needing go take gap year potentially after undergrad etc. I didn’t want to do business necessarily, I was more so looking for an alternative major/career path in which I would be decently good at and have good job prospects
Hi! I’m doing premed in the College right now and I’m thinking of pivoting to Healthcare Management which is more business related because medicine j seems like a really really long and strenuous route. Do you have any advice for transferring to Wharton the business school next year? Is it common for people to transfer from the College to Wharton or SEAS?