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

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Status
Not open for further replies.
gridiron227 said:
All right, who else got a giant, happy-looking white envelope and got all excited only to open it and find... a copy of the curriculum. Not an interview, that's one thing. But not even a "Hey how ya doin thought you might like to look at this while you wait!" Thanks Penn. What a tease.

...I'd still like an interview, though...
Click to expand...

I know, that was funny, my heart skiped a beat when i saw it but then i just got angry then i went to the this is funny phase. it suxs, i wonder if they sent big envelopes for rejections with a huge "NO" on the paper.
 
I was complete mid July. No deferred message, nothing. Only a ******ed curriculum package in mid-Nov. I call UPENN they give me so weak answer about "taking longer" to go through "certain applications". Does anybody having any experience with UPENN, waiting for like 4 months after all your other medical schools have interviewed you? This is getting ridiculous.
 
i think itmay just be the holidays.. i think we wont hear anything until after new years, on the 4th or 5th when everyone goes back to school.
 
AspirinPlease said:
I was complete mid July. No deferred message, nothing. Only a ******ed curriculum package in mid-Nov. I call UPENN they give me so weak answer about "taking longer" to go through "certain applications". Does anybody having any experience with UPENN, waiting for like 4 months after all your other medical schools have interviewed you? This is getting ridiculous.
Click to expand...

its just Penn my friend.
 
Everyone actually at Penn just calls it Penn. The merchandise all says Penn. The only thing that says UPenn is the website: upenn.edu though penn.edu will also get you there. If you interview and call it UPenn someone will likely correct you and explain this.

Then again in this thread if you type it as PENN it will increase your chances of acceptance. Ok, not seriously, but I wanted to see how many people would do it 😛
 
All the stuff they give out to interviewees, how they talk about themselves, etc... Is just Penn.

The issue is that when I say Penn Med to other people they get really confused and I end up having to explain that University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine is called Penn Med and just Penn Med. So sometimes it's easier to say UPenn rather than explain.
 
yeah i noticed that too.. i felt awkward saying UPenn when they always seem to say Penn Med...
 
oh please guys. It's UPenn and just plain old Penn. I've heard both. I'm from SoFla and everyone down here calls it UPenn. I think they do this in order to differentiate it from Penn State. I interchange both names--- when I'm too lazy to say the "U" I drop it. At my interview, I'm pretty sure I called it UPenn and it was JUST FINE!
 
lol, no, it's definitely just penn. as Neuronix has just confirmed, they call themselves penn on all their material, etc. just because you've heard 'upenn' in southern florida (or elsewhere) doesnt make it correct, acceptable, etc. 😛

but you're right, they probably don't care if you fudge it as an applicant, but once/if you matriculate things may change 😉
 
I apologize for titling the thread U Penn. 😳
I didn't know what they called themselves. That must be why they didn't interview me 😛
 
iTool said:
lol, no, it's definitely just penn. as Neuronix has just confirmed, they call themselves penn on all their material, etc. just because you've heard 'upenn' in southern florida (or elsewhere) doesnt make it correct, acceptable, etc. 😛

but you're right, they probably don't care if you fudge it as an applicant, but once/if you matriculate things may change 😉
Click to expand...

whateverrrr.... most ppl at my school call them Penn State to make fun of them neways. the undergrad, of course. certainly not the Med School 🙂
 
anybody know around what time the next decisions will be made for the "deferred" crew?
 
DRBHOOM said:
anybody know around what time the next decisions will be made for the "deferred" crew?
Click to expand...

at any time from now till late march. be warned, however, that chances of getting off the deffered list, according to sources on this website, are slim to none. i wouldnt count on it my friend, but good luck!

its Penn...say university of pennsylania if dont think theyll know what mean....if youre trying to show off, if they dont know the dif between penn and penn state, they prolly wont care neway...i myself did not know Penn was ranked #4 on USNEWS till this yr after being on this website :meanie:
 
DRBHOOM said:
anybody know around what time the next decisions will be made for the "deferred" crew?
Click to expand...

If it's like previous years, the status won't change until you get officially rejected in March. If you want to be sure you won't get an invite, just wait another month or so until the last invites go out. IIRC, interviews end about the second week of February and typically the invites for those go out at least 2 weeks before then.

As for if you'll be invited for an interview... I dunno, I'd never seen someone's status change from deferred to invite before 🙂
 
Neuronix said:
If it's like previous years, the status won't change until you get officially rejected in March. If you want to be sure you won't get an invite, just wait another month or so until the last invites go out. IIRC, interviews end about the second week of February and typically the invites for those go out at least 2 weeks before then.

As for if you'll be invited for an interview... I dunno, I'd never seen someone's status change from deferred to invite before 🙂
Click to expand...

i thought someone here had a deferred status and then got an invite?
 
yo...does anyone still have that paper that tells you where to send all thankyou emails? i cant find mine and i still need to send a thankyou note😳 can someone either post it or PM it? thanks!
 
htownpremie said:
i thought someone here had a deferred status and then got an invite?
Click to expand...

That was my point 🙂. I had heard rumors this happens rarely, but hadn't previously seen anyone it had happened to on SDN or personally. So for the timing as to when that would happen, I have no idea.

You're really supposed to send all thank you e-mails to one central e-mail? That's a new one on me. Just as a general suggestion to everyone: why not make a lasting impression and send a hand-written thank you card? I still keep the two I received, out of the dozens of interviews I did. Don't forget your student hosts either. I've hosted well over 50 people and that takes far more time and effort than interviewing.
 
Last edited:
What up doc said:
yo...does anyone still have that paper that tells you where to send all thankyou emails? i cant find mine and i still need to send a thankyou note😳 can someone either post it or PM it? thanks!
Click to expand...

You send your thank yous to [email protected] include your AMCAS ID in the subject line as well.

Now my question is where should I send an update letter to?
 
Does anyone know what they use the photo (taken at the interview) for?
 
Last edited:
guys should I assume I'm just rejected post-secondary if I was "deferred for an interview invite" a few weeks ago? I'm heading closer to a re-app every day...
 
Neuronix said:
The photo is to jog the committee's memories in case one of them interviewed you.
Click to expand...

Interesting...the woman checking us in said something to the effect of "no one ever sees those things," so I became curious about why they were even taken. Fantastic to know that when they are deciding my fate they will be staring at that gem.
 
thedudette said:
Interesting...the woman checking us in said something to the effect of "no one ever sees those things," so I became curious about why they were even taken. Fantastic to know that when they are deciding my fate they will be staring at that gem.
Click to expand...

Odds are nobody will ever look at them, because odds are the person that interviewed you won't be at the committee when they decide. Regardless, they shouldn't have any bearing on your acceptance. I think everyone realizes that deciding someone's fate based on some random photo is a terrible thing that should not be done.

guys should I assume I'm just rejected post-secondary if I was "deferred for an interview invite" a few weeks ago? I'm heading closer to a re-app every day...
Click to expand...

I've commented on this a few times now. Well, not that I'm the official voice of Penn or anything. Just to clarify, I'm certainly not. I'm just a student trying to help demystify things for you. Still, odds are very low at this point that you'll be invited for an interview. If it still says deferred in mid-February you're almost certainly out.
 
neuronix, they seemed to prefer emailed thank you notes instead of cards when i was there...
 
All I can say to that is: bizzare. I hope it's not true.

If it is true, the only thing I can think is that it takes someone a lot less work to file and forward an e-mail than to actually make note that a card arrived from you and forward the card to that person.

If true, that really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. E-mail thank yous mean virtually nothing, but then everyone is going to feel like they must send one. So in the end it's a token gesture of meaningless affection. The fact that you have to put your AMCAS ID in the subject only makes this worse to me.

All I can suggest is: stand out in a good way and be a genuinely nice person. I stand by this post: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=7532057&postcount=425 regardless of how things seem.
 
htownpremie said:
i thought someone here had a deferred status and then got an invite?
Click to expand...

I was deferred Nov. 15 and invited for an interview in early December.

The chances of an interview once you are deferred may not be great (probably extremely low), but they certainly aren't zero. I don't think I'm particularly unique in this regard either.

So I guess no one should get their hopes up, but it also "ain't over till it's over" and you get a rejection.
 
A friend of mine who was on the panel at Buffalo and they used to blow up your photo on the projection screen when they did the review. Yikes. Not sure if that is the same of Penn.
 
Neuronix said:
All I can say to that is: bizzare. I hope it's not true.

If it is true, the only thing I can think is that it takes someone a lot less work to file and forward an e-mail than to actually make note that a card arrived from you and forward the card to that person.

If true, that really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. E-mail thank yous mean virtually nothing, but then everyone is going to feel like they must send one. So in the end it's a token gesture of meaningless affection. The fact that you have to put your AMCAS ID in the subject only makes this worse to me.

All I can suggest is: stand out in a good way and be a genuinely nice person. I stand by this post: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=7532057&postcount=425 regardless of how things seem.
Click to expand...

It is sadfully true. It is easier for them to get emailed ones since they don't need to scan it since everything gets scanned anyway. But, I'd send both since paper card is always nicer. 🙂
 
Go for the handwritten and customized though. It's always easy to stand out in a good way if you put in the effort to be a socially adept person.

I'd say ~50% of applicants used to send me an obvious printed form letter that they probably send to every school. "Thanks for interviewing me. Now let me spend the next page telling you why I'm great."

Terrible form IMO. That's probably why Penn would rather get that crap by e-mail.
 
my status changed to this morning:

Your application continues to be reviewed but there is no change in your status. Reviews will continue until March 2009.

I was previously with the deferred message, anyone else with this??
 
i've still got the ole deferred message..
 
ami1983 said:
my status changed to this morning:

Your application continues to be reviewed but there is no change in your status. Reviews will continue until March 2009.

I was previously with the deferred message, anyone else with this??
Click to expand...

Who knows how good of a sign this is, but it certainly can't be bad. So, congrats on getting out of the deferred pile!
 
Mine is STILL complete, but no interview invite...🙁
 
my status had changed to "pre-interview hold" then back to "under review" a few weeks ago and I randomly got an email yesterday with an interview invite! I had sort of made my peace with the silent rejections...oh well
 
tfa2007 said:
my status had changed to "pre-interview hold" then back to "under review" a few weeks ago and I randomly got an email yesterday with an interview invite! I had sort of made my peace with the silent rejections...oh well
Click to expand...
was it the same as before the deferred message? or was it a different 'under review' message (like mine above 🙂 )
 
How do they feel about letters of interest (pre-interview letters)?
 
ami1983 said:
was it the same as before the deferred message? or was it a different 'under review' message (like mine above 🙂 )
Click to expand...

It said something like your application will be reviewed again later in the interview season. Initially it said my application was under review (months and months ago) then it had changed to tell me I'd be reviewed later, then it changed again and went back to "under review."
 
my status changed from the deferred message to " Your application continues to be reviewed but there is no change in your status. Reviews will continue until March 2009."



could this be... a glimmer of hope??
 
I have the same message! What does it mean? I mean, I guess I'm not in the deferred pile anymore, but still.
 
am9451 said:
my status changed from the deferred message to " Your application continues to be reviewed but there is no change in your status. Reviews will continue until March 2009."



could this be... a glimmer of hope??
Click to expand...

Am9451, mine has changed to the same message! I saw your post and decided to check... funny, UPenn has been in my mental rejection pile since mid-November.
 
Last edited:
hmm i wonder if everyone in the deferred group got this then... boo. my glimmer of hope is quickly fading 🙁
 
out of the deferred pile too... but i don't think it really means anything.
 
looks like we all got the same email... crud.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

wysdoc
2024-2025 Pennsylvania (Perelman)
4 5 6 7 8
Replies
389
Views
154K
BrainStorm12
B
wysdoc
2024-2025 University of Washington
10 11 12 13 14
Replies
680
Views
146K
stew_md
S
chilly_md
2023-2024 Pennsylvania State
11 12 13 14 15
Replies
711
Views
219K
Syllabub
S
wysdoc
2023-2024 Pennsylvania (Perelman)
12 13 14 15 16
Replies
752
Views
207K
ejyg777
E
wysdoc
2024-2025 University of Chicago (Pritzker)
12 13 14 15 16
Replies
778
Views
206K
X0001234
X0001234
Top