2008-2009 U Penn (University of Pennsylvania) Secondary Application Thread

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I feel like there was a year when acceptances went out earlier than expected. I tried to find evidence of this from past threads but failed.

Anyways, nobody is rejected post-interview. You will either be accepted or go on a waitlist.

Top of Tier 1 (This should be clear but wordings will change from year to year)
Tier 1 Waitlist
Tier 2 Waitlist

Tier 2 is kind of the you don't have much chance status. Kind of like the "deferred for interview", it's very unlikely you will be accepted.

Tier 1 is like a normal waitlist anywhere else. How far they go in depends on how far they go into the waitlist that year.

Top of Tier 1 waitlist is the status where you are likely, but not guaranteed to come off the waitlist. This was my status, and I came off the waitlist at the end of May. In the past couple of years, many of those students have been invited to Penn Preview. Even that is not guaranteed--i.e. the MD/PhD applicant who was top of tier 1, came to second look, and never got the invite :(

Waitlist LOIs certainly do help, especially for top of tier 1 and tier 1 types.
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Neuronix said:
I feel like there was a year when acceptances went out earlier than expected. I tried to find evidence of this from past threads but failed.

Anyways, nobody is rejected post-interview. You will either be accepted or go on a waitlist.

Top of Tier 1 (This should be clear but wordings will change from year to year)
Tier 1 Waitlist
Tier 2 Waitlist

Tier 2 is kind of the you don't have much chance status. Kind of like the "deferred for interview", it's very unlikely you will be accepted.

Tier 1 is like a normal waitlist anywhere else. How far they go in depends on how far they go into the waitlist that year.

Top of Tier 1 waitlist is the status where you are likely, but not guaranteed to come off the waitlist. This was my status, and I came off the waitlist at the end of May. In the past couple of years, many of those students have been invited to Penn Preview. Even that is not guaranteed--i.e. the MD/PhD applicant who was top of tier 1, came to second look, and never got the invite :(

Waitlist LOIs certainly do help, especially for top of tier 1 and tier 1 types.
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Thanks so much for the info! I'd seen people mention the Tiers before but hadn't really known much about them and didn't know that there were no outright rejections. I guess I'm hoping for an acceptance/Tier 1 then!
 
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I was "top of tier 1" last year, wrote an LOIntent and kept in touch with Penn. Got the magic phone call before May 15 :) I wasn't invited to second look though.

Maybe since application numbers are down this year, there will be more WL movement? One can only hope!
 
Textuality said:
I was "top of tier 1" last year, wrote an LOIntent and kept in touch with Penn. Got the magic phone call before May 15 :) I wasn't invited to second look though.

Maybe since application numbers are down this year, there will be more WL movement? One can only hope!
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So, do they tell you immediately on the status page what tier you are in?
 
is the status page update the only way to find out? or do they also e-mail/call/snail mail people?
 
justpremed said:
is the status page update the only way to find out? or do they also e-mail/call/snail mail people?
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Neuronix or textuality can correct me, but I thought that they also will send snail mail. Status page is obviously pretty quick though.
 
aebvd97 said:
Neuronix or textuality can correct me, but I thought that they also will send snail mail. Status page is obviously pretty quick though.
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They update first w/ status page and then send snail mail.
 
PENNNNNNNNNNNNN

please take me!!

on the bright side, spring break is right here, it makes 7 days of waiting a little easier....
 
Alas! The Ides of March has come and the month is half over. Let's hope Penn's decisions are coming soon!
 
yes! heres to hoping that decisions come out soon!!! this is going to be a looooooooong 2 weeks
 
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Word on the street is that MSTP decisions are going out the week of the 23rd. Don't know if MD decisions will go out at the same time.
 
tiamat360 said:
Word on the street is that MSTP decisions are going out the week of the 23rd. Don't know if MD decisions will go out at the same time.
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My guess is decisions will go out on Friday the 27th (just under two weeks!), so that is technically the week of the 23rd. I'll be really surprised if decisions actually don't go out until the 30th.

Although I have to admit that right now I have barely any hope for an acceptance (...but miracles can happen, right? :D).
 
This is not intended to freak anyone out! I got my 4th CBC email yesterday morning. I applied to 6 schools on the CBC list. I already got 3 CBC emails from the schools I've been accepted to (Boston, Case, NU). I was waitlisted at Vandy and withdrew a while ago (but with no confirmation) so I don't think this email was from them. I withdrew before interviewing at Rochester so it can't be for UR. The only other school I applied to on that list was Penn. Though I'd love to hope I got in there (PLEASE), I doubt they are releasing decisions (to us or to AMCAS) before the end of the month and it's possible they haven't even met yet to select the class.

Did anyone else who interviewed get a CBC email? Has anyone ever gotten 2 CBC emails for the same school? Is this some kind of sick joke that AMCAS is playing on me?
 
linguini said:
This is not intended to freak anyone out! I got my 4th CBC email yesterday morning. I applied to 6 schools on the CBC list. I already got 3 CBC emails from the schools I've been accepted to (Boston, Case, NU). I was waitlisted at Vandy and withdrew a while ago (but with no confirmation) so I don't think this email was from them. I withdrew before interviewing at Rochester so it can't be for UR. The only other school I applied to on that list was Penn. Though I'd love to hope I got in there (PLEASE), I doubt they are releasing decisions (to us or to AMCAS) before the end of the month and it's possible they haven't even met yet to select the class.

Did anyone else who interviewed get a CBC email? Has anyone ever gotten 2 CBC emails for the same school? Is this some kind of sick joke that AMCAS is playing on me?
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I got that email too. However, it's the first one I've received despite being accepted at NU (a participating school) a long time ago. Also, I think schools request it if you are on their alternate list as well as if you are accepted. So I wouldn't read too much into it.
 
linguini said:
This is not intended to freak anyone out! I got my 4th CBC email yesterday morning. I applied to 6 schools on the CBC list. I already got 3 CBC emails from the schools I've been accepted to (Boston, Case, NU). I was waitlisted at Vandy and withdrew a while ago (but with no confirmation) so I don't think this email was from them. I withdrew before interviewing at Rochester so it can't be for UR. The only other school I applied to on that list was Penn. Though I'd love to hope I got in there (PLEASE), I doubt they are releasing decisions (to us or to AMCAS) before the end of the month and it's possible they haven't even met yet to select the class.

Did anyone else who interviewed get a CBC email? Has anyone ever gotten 2 CBC emails for the same school? Is this some kind of sick joke that AMCAS is playing on me?
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I got the email on Sunday morning as well. All of my accepted schools on the list have already done a CBC for me and I'm not on any waitlists, so it's either one of my accepted schools is requesting a CBC for a second time or it's Penn. Personally, I think that it's Northwestern screwing up.
 
CourageKid said:
I got the email on Sunday morning as well. All of my accepted schools on the list have already done a CBC for me and I'm not on any waitlists, so it's either one of my accepted schools is requesting a CBC for a second time or it's Penn. Personally, I think that it's Northwestern screwing up.
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Hmmm, I'm thinking it's them too. From previous years' threads it seems like Northwestern has some kind of communication screw-up every year. Looks like this is it for 2009.
 
I also got a sunday monning CBC email... Could be from either Penn or Penn State... here's hoping the former! haha.. oh and btw.. does anyone know for sure if they actually do run CBC's on alternates.. or is almost always a sign of acceptance?
 
funkymonkey30 said:
I also got a sunday monning CBC email... Could be from either Penn or Penn State... here's hoping the former! haha.. oh and btw.. does anyone know for sure if they actually do run CBC's on alternates.. or is almost always a sign of acceptance?
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So you didn't interview at Northwestern?

Seems like they do sometimes run CBCs on alternates but usually that takes place later on. From the AAMC website:

"In support of this recommendation, the AAMC has initiated an AMCAS-facilitated national background check service, through which Certiphi Screening, Inc. (a Vertical Screen® Company) will procure a national background report on applicants at the point of acceptance. In addition, beginning in May of each year, a national background report will be procured for a subset of applicants who are on a participating school's alternate list; medical schools will not receive such reports until the point of acceptance."
 
nope. no northwestern interview for me.. didn't even apply there actually. only schools i've interviewed at and still waiting to hear from are penn, penn state, and GW (but GW's interview was only 3 weeks ago, so doubt I'd be hearing from them this early) FINGERS CROSSED! :)
 
I hope for the sake of everyone who got that CBC email that it's from Penn and it means you are accepted. :)

I hope for my sake that it wasn't since I didn't get one :scared:!
 
quirks said:
I didn't get one. Which, if it's from Penn, is really not that big of a surprise to me (but is a bit of a heartbreak).

Here's last year thread, if anyone's been looking for it and couldn't find it: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=495931
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No CBC e-mail here either. Guess I can move Penn to the Rejected/WL/whatever-they're-calling-it-list. The sooner this process is done, the better.
 
Podalarius said:
No CBC e-mail here either. Guess I can move Penn to the Rejected/WL/whatever-they're-calling-it-list. The sooner this process is done, the better.
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Seriously?? I can't take this anymore :(
 
A person in the Northwestern thread also got 2 CBC emails (and the only school she applied to on the background check list was NU). Therefore, in some of our cases it's probably 2 CBCs from NU :mad: (don't know about your situation funkymonkey30). So I seriously wouldn't freak out if you didn't get one. Like I said before, I doubt Penn has even finalized its list since they give themselves until the end of the month.
 
This is not intended to freak anyone out

haha did you expect anything less?
 
Don's lose hope!! A) because we have no idea if CBC was actually from Penn and B) even if it was it is entirely possible and probably even probably that they would send names in in multiple batches.. don't fret! But I do concur with the statement that I want the process to be over already.. It's so frustrating having to wait so long and to speculate.. This whole medical school admisssions process has only exacerbated my Type A personality. I find myself compulsively checking my mailbox and status pages multiple times a day... :-/
 
I'm going to go out on a limb, and say the CBC's PROBABLY aren't from Penn...only because there was none of that madness last year, and our decisions were super late. I want to say that Penn tries to update their status site as soon as they make the decisions, so unless they're really trying to screw with your heads, chances are they haven't finalized the lists.

I could be entirely wrong, lol, we'll see come end of March I guess!
 
I'm going to go ahead and say you all are right - just got an acceptance to penn state in mail today.. makes much more sense that way. haha.. here's hoping we ALL get into Penn in the next couple weeks tho!!!!
 
Like always, we won't know anything for sure until they post the decisions. I'm definitely glad they post them online though so we don't have to play the "what was your postmark?" and "where are you located?" game.

I'm secretly hoping that maybe they'll come out this Friday since they quoted March 20th at my interview, but I'm more convinced it will be some time next week. Still, I'm completely ready to be done with this whole process ASAP.

Come on Penn! :luck:
 
blurryLines said:
Like always, we won't know anything for sure until they post the decisions. I'm definitely glad they post them online though so we don't have to play the "what was your postmark?" and "where are you located?" game.

I'm secretly hoping that maybe they'll come out this Friday since they quoted March 20th at my interview, but I'm more convinced it will be some time next week. Still, I'm completely ready to be done with this whole process ASAP.

Come on Penn! :luck:
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Online status update is the way to go :thumbup:

I completely agree that this application cycle needs to end soon. But I'm kind of hoping decisions won't be released this week. I don't think I can mentally handle another waitlist/rejection until next week...especially not one from my #1 school!
 
funkymonkey30 said:
I'm going to go ahead and say you all are right - just got an acceptance to penn state in mail today.. makes much more sense that way. haha.. here's hoping we ALL get into Penn in the next couple weeks tho!!!!
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Congratulations anyways on Penn State! Should have guessed that Penn is too on top of their game to release CBC requests before they send out decisions. Hope you get another CBC email soon, next time from Penn!
 
Time seems to be moving at a snail's pace...

Can we just fast forward to March 30th?
 
blurryLines said:
Like always, we won't know anything for sure until they post the decisions. I'm definitely glad they post them online though so we don't have to play the "what was your postmark?" and "where are you located?" game.

I'm secretly hoping that maybe they'll come out this Friday since they quoted March 20th at my interview, but I'm more convinced it will be some time next week. Still, I'm completely ready to be done with this whole process ASAP.

Come on Penn! :luck:
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They mentioned at my interview day that they'd like to have them out that day, too...but I who knows how reliable they really will be with that. They cover their butts by saying by March 30, I guess. Ugh, I at least wish we knew when they were meeting to select the class.
 
blurryLines said:
I'm secretly hoping that maybe they'll come out this Friday since they quoted March 20th at my interview, but I'm more convinced it will be some time next week. Still, I'm completely ready to be done with this whole process ASAP.
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aebvd97 said:
They mentioned at my interview day that they'd like to have them out that day, too...but I who knows how reliable they really will be with that. They cover their butts by saying by March 30, I guess. Ugh, I at least wish we knew when they were meeting to select the class.
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I'm curious when you all interviewed and heard this... was it later or earlier in the cycle? I think it would be close to being right if you guys interviewed Jan/Feb. I interviewed in December and they didn't give us a date like that they just said end of March.
 
Enroh said:
I'm curious when you all interviewed and heard this... was it later or earlier in the cycle? I think it would be close to being right if you guys interviewed Jan/Feb. I interviewed in December and they didn't give us a date like that they just said end of March.
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I interviewed during the first week in January. I think what they said was that they would "like to try to get decisions out by March 20th this year."

I took this to mean that it's possible they will come out earlier than the 30th (and they don't want to torture us longer than necessary) but that they were still more likely to take more time to decide than not.

Also, they could have already made the decisions since all the accepted applications are then considered for their full and partial tuition scholarships, which probably takes even more time.
 
blurryLines said:
I interviewed during the first week in January. I think what they said was that they would "like to try to get decisions out by March 20th this year."

I took this to mean that it's possible they will come out earlier than the 30th (and they don't want to torture us longer than necessary) but that they were still more likely to take more time to decide than not.

Also, they could have already made the decisions since all the accepted applications are then considered for their full and partial tuition scholarships, which probably takes even more time.
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I interviewed in December. We'll just have to wait and see I guess.

As far as the scholarships go, I was under the impression that we wouldn't necessarily hear immediately, but I could be wrong...I spaced out during the FA presentation hah.
 
I still stand by the 27th. Previous years show that to be a reasonable guess and a reliable-ish source told me last week of March. Shall we start placing bets? :D
 
quirks said:
I still stand by the 27th. Previous years show that to be a reasonable guess and a reliable-ish source told me last week of March. Shall we start placing bets? :D
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Ultimately, I agree with you! I'd love for it to be March 20th, but it seems March 27 is more likely.
 
Ugh. I just called, and I was told that decisions should be going out "in the next few weeks." Looks like we probably won't be hearing back early from Penn. :(
 
sevenup said:
Ugh. I just called, and I was told that decisions should be going out "in the next few weeks." Looks like we probably won't be hearing back early from Penn. :(
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Thanks for calling. I was just about to reach my breaking point and call them today too. It seems to me that they don't even have a "few weeks" left! The 30th is only a week and a half away, and I think that deadline is mandated by the AAMC.

Must ... not ... lose ... patience ... :annoyed:
 
sevenup said:
Ugh. I just called, and I was told that decisions should be going out "in the next few weeks." Looks like we probably won't be hearing back early from Penn. :(
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They would. :thumbdown:
 
I just got a CBC email...Penn is the only possibility...hoping so hard right now.
 
Hey Dunc, did you also already receive an acceptance to Northwestern? Please say yes. If you've read some of the posts above, there seems to be something going on with Northwestern sending out 2 batches of CBC emails. Not to burst your bubble or anything, but I only don't want to crush mine either!
 
doctorntrainin said:
Hey Dunc, did you also already receive an acceptance to Northwestern? Please say yes. If you've read some of the posts above, there seems to be something going on with Northwestern sending out 2 batches of CBC emails. Not to burst your bubble or anything, but I only don't want to crush mine either!
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Nope! Definitely not trying to throw everyone into a frenzy, though I have checked my status approximately every other minute since that e-mail. I need to stop, it's probably an artifact from another school I got into that uses the CBC service (so maybe other schools are having Northwesternesque CBC issues?).
 
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I don't think Penn would tell the CBC people that we were accepted before they tell us. It sincerely seemed like they wanted to get the news to us as soon as possible and it just doesn't make sense that if they had the decisions they would wait this long to tell us. Assuming some of you got the CBC email Sunday that must mean that Penn must have told them at least last Friday (no work on weekends) which means they'd be sitting on our fates for a week without telling us.
 
Enroh said:
I don't think Penn would tell the CBC people that we were accepted before they tell us. It sincerely seemed like they wanted to get the news to us as soon as possible and it just doesn't make sense that if they had the decisions they would wait this long to tell us. Assuming some of you got the CBC email Sunday that must mean that Penn must have told them at least last Friday (no work on weekends) which means they'd be sitting on our fates for a week without telling us.
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I also got a a CBC email on Sunday, but I think it was for a school that I received an acceptance letter from on Monday. That's why I was thinking this CBC email was for Penn, though if no one else got it, it probably isn't the case. Regardless, I agree with you that the admissions office is sincere in trying to get us the news as soon as possible.
 
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