<p>who is the coolest professor?</p>
<p>Well of course you'll get 1000 different opinions on this, but in my opinion it would either be Dr. Granieri (history) or Dr. Kikkawa (physics).</p>
<p>You wouldn't be trying to get others to do the research for the professor question, would you?</p>
<p>I want people who go at Penn to tell me who is "down to earth"</p>
<p>It is hard to figure that by simply looking at their bios online. I would rather work with a "cool" professor rather than someone who is all academics. I think you can understand that.</p>
<p>how do you find out about professors?</p>
<p>well the best way would be to just sit in on a lecture, or ask for an interview. why not find out yourself.</p>
<p>if this is for your essay question, it shouldn't matter how "cool" they are</p>
<p>The thing is I dont live near Penn, That would be hard. And the application question clearly says which penn professor would you choose. I prefer a professor who is usually down to earth. I posted because I could get a few names I could look into, instead of me going to each and every professor at penn. But I do understand what you mean.</p>
<p>How exactly are we supposed to answer the question if we aren't able to visit the school due to financial reasons since we can't find out about professors?</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm sorry to all the current Penn students, but I am going to side with all the applicants on this one. You can only do so much research on the web, and while it is certainly still possible to write a great essay based on the info you accrue, getting first hand opinions and experiences would be quite helpful.</p>
<p>I don't know about any of you, but when my little brother applied to Penn I told him about some of my best professors, told him stories, told him what they do their own research on, etc. Did you honestly expect me to say "Jeezus, go do your own research! I'm not going to tell you any of that, you need to figure that out for yourself?!?" This is simply another method of research.</p>
<p>I think they realize that some people can't actually visit and meet the profs, and even when people do visit you can't exactly meet every single one to pick out your favourite. When I answered the question, I went on the Penn website to look at profiles of some of the professors, and then looked up pieces that several of them wrote. I then used that information for an essay, to talk about how I found their ideas and research fascinating, and that I'd like to study with such and such because we have similar interests.</p>
<p>I understand that you might want to write about a cooler professor, but what are you going to say in your essay? "I want to study with Professor X because some random poster on CollegeConfidential said he was the ****"?</p>
<p>no...I want some names of interesting perofessors from kids like you who have first hand experience. Then I can look him/her up and see if I like that professor.</p>
<p>I still think you're better off researching on your own. People can name professors for all sorts of subjects, but they might not be subjects which interest you. Say you're applying to Wharton, for example, but you've always been interested in nutrition. It would be much simpler for you to just look and see who teaches nutrition, and see what kind of things they've published, maybe read a couple of their pieces, and then pick out one who strikes your fancy. Naming a piece that you read, on top of that, will really show that you cared enough to do some research for the question. Plus, what interests us here on CC might not really interest you. For example, my Eastern Humanities class (from high school) attended Penn's annual Asia Day, hosted by the Department of Asian studies. There was one professor which some of us (myself included) really liked and found fascinating, while others thought he was the worst speaker ever. There was another one who gave a "really interesting, very unique" presentation; however, only a few people managed to stay awake long enough to find this out. What kids like us who have first hand experience think might not necessarily be what you think.</p>
<p>I guess your right. I will research myself. Do you think if I emailed a professor I liked, they would respond?</p>
<p>Yes, they will. I emailed several professors asking questions, both when I was applying and now that I'm selecting classes, and received helpful responses within a few days.</p>
<p>Would sitting in a professors class and then choosing that same professor as someone you want to study under a good idea?</p>
<p>how do find professors? where on the school site can you find out about them?</p>
<p>I just downloaded the applicaiton and the question about the professor asks for a response that fits on the lines. That is about 4 lines. So what is all this talk of people writing essays about a PEnn professor?</p>
<p>It's not an essay, it's a short answer question which should still be meaningful and well planned.</p>
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<p>That's one way to approach answering the question. You could say that you sat in on their class and enjoyed the experience and blah blah blah.</p>