Vagelos Scholars Program in Molecular Life Sciences?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>I’m a junior who is seriously looking into the University of Pennsylvania (visited the campus over spring break…loved it!). I was recently looking through the penn website and found the Vagelos Scholars Program in Molecular Life Sciences, which, after reading the introduction seems like a very intensive program in the biochemistry/chemistry field.</p>

<p>How competitive is this program in terms of admissions? And on that topic…is the program really cutthroat? It also seems like this program is very science-centric, but I have a large interest in the humanities. For example, the freshmen fall requirements are:</p>

<p>General Chemistry I (Chemistry 101 or 15, without Chemistry 53) (1 c.u.)
Calculus for the Natural Sciences I or II (Mathematics 104 or 114) (1 c.u.)
Principles of Physics I: Mechanics and Wave Motion (Physics 150 or 170) (1.5 c.u.)
Vagelos Scholars Seminar (Chemistry 22)(0.5 c.u.)
A General, Distributional, Writing or Language Requirement (1 c.u.)</p>

<p>It seems like I can’t really find any wiggle room to take any thing other than the sciences. Would a major in biochem with a minor in history be better for me?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>I was invited to join the program even though I applied as an economics major(which reminds me, I still have to send in the reply form saying that I'm not going to do it). The Vagelos program sounds like a great thing for students interested in entering fields in the natural sciences; however, I choose to decline their offer for a number of reasons. First, the flexibility of a large university like Penn is sort of lost when you enter Vagelos due to the fact that you are required to follow a set curriculum. In addition, there is little room to choose any of your own electives. Second, you are required to spend two of your summers doing research. So basically, you would be spending your entire frosh-junior year in Philli with limited breaks. And yes, the workload is significantly higher for students in the vagelos program than it is for most students. But I don't want to scare you away from it-if Biochem is really what you are interested in, then by all means go for it. It just didn't work out for me because I can't see myself entering research/medicine 5 years down the road.</p>