2009-2010 University of Pennsylvania Application Thread

[shemarty]

Prompts

1. Please check up to three (3) activities (lists your AMCAS activities) which are most important to you. Please elaborate focusing on leadership and commitment. (1000 characters each)

2. If you will not be a full-time student during the application year, please list your primary activity/employment.

3. Have you been nominated or received an award from any state, regional or national organization? If so, please describe.

LOR Reqs

1. Committee letter/letter packet from a pre-health advisor or career service office, with or without, additional letters attached. Letters from your school's pre-health advisor or career services office are preferred.

2. A minimum of two letters from faculty members who know you well, at least one of whom represents a science department. Letters must be on official stationery and submitted to AMCAS by the recommender.

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[ksmi117]

Hey fellow Penn Applicants!

So I did some research on secondaries this morning and here is what I found:

Penn's secondary is available via email. There is no screen for applicants. More info can be found here. Just for reference, last year someone posted that the secondary was available on July 1st (there were no essays). Post whenever you hear anything.

Best of luck this year.

 

[mvenus929]

I'm really just commenting to mark this thread for quick find later in the season. But thanks for the info about the secondary ksme... I like secondaries with no essays.

 

[Steeler7588]

I like secondaries with no essays.

Penn's is amazing! Especially when I'll have to fill out Duke's...

 

[sleepy425]

penn's secondary was the easiest secondary ever. even easier than WashU's. It took longer for the credit card authorization to go through than the rest of the secondary! good luck everyone!

oh, and come to Penn!

 

[ksmi117]

penn's secondary was the easiest secondary ever. even easier than WashU's. It took longer for the credit card authorization to go through than the rest of the secondary! good luck everyone!

oh, and come to Penn!

You're obsessed. You should put in a good word for me.

 

[dw2158]

You're obsessed. You should put in a good word for me.

and me

seriously, i'm praying to get an interview at penn. no one i've met who's even visited penn has had anything negative to say about it. seems incredible.

 

[sportsfreak]

ill second that...a great place to do MD or any other degree

 

[tjluke25]

Penn is far and away my top choice for medical school...I am applying for the MD/MBA program there.

My uncle is an orthopedic surgeon who graduated from Penn, he told me that he had more fun at Penn than he ever had in college...he has gotten me extremely excited about their med school.

 

[sportsfreak]

thats cause they have parties every weekend

 

[SnarkyMD]

thats cause they have parties every weekend

We do?

We do have a happy hour almost every Friday which mostly consists of a keg.

But aside from having fun/balanced people, we have one of the best curricula to boot, and great dual degree programs (just not MD/MPH). A word for tjluke, you can't apply directly into the MBA program, as you have to take the GMAT first, which you'll do after your first year.

 

[sportsfreak]

well the people i know there tell me that they work very hard during the week, but when weekend rolls around there is time to have fun

 

[tjluke25]

SnarkyMD: Thanks a lot for this, I just realized this yesterday actually.

 

[Ok2Panic]

Just got an e-mail saying the secondary will be released July 15!

 

[Equality]

I just got the email too. Man, I got all excited until I found out that the real thing isn't open until later. -_-

 

[mvenus929]

At least they sent us something letting us know when it was going to be released...

 

[uva2010]

do they screen applicants? cuz i got the email too and i felt special haha

 

[ksmi117]

do they screen applicants? cuz i got the email too and i felt special haha

Nope, no screen here. But you should still feel special.

 

[ksmi117]

Snail mail from Penn. A booklet about their curriculum and such.

 

[FML]

Snail mail from Penn. A booklet about their curriculum and such.

ditto
my family was around when I opened it and they were like "why does penn taunt you so much?"

 

[mvenus929]

Snail mail from Penn. A booklet about their curriculum and such.

And they didn't even bother to include a form letter. Pshhh....

 

[ksmi117]

My mom went to undergrad at Penn, and she was like "It's so weird that we got something from Penn, and it's not addressed to me and asking for money."

 

[Jolt21]

initially, Penn was in my top 5. after reading their brochure and doing some more research...yea, i dont think they will get out my top 5.

 

[mvenus929]

initially, Penn was in my top 5. after reading their brochure and doing some more research...yea, i dont think they will get out my top 5.

Why the change?

 

[LAman10]

Why the change?

umm, I think you misread his post. he said penn WON'T be falling out of his top 5

 

[JJMrK]

This sucker should come out tomorrow, yeah?

 

[ksmi117]

This sucker should come out tomorrow, yeah?

Woot! Hope there are still no essays.

 

[mvenus929]

umm, I think you misread his post. he said penn WON'T be falling out of his top 5

Meh. That's what I get for trying to read posts after a 12 hour day at work.

 

[Jolt21]

Woot! Hope there are still no essays.

i hope there is one, actually. i have some stuff to say about the school...

 

[Aggro]

If Penn had an essay, it would be, "Why WOULDN'T you want to go to the University of Pennsylvania?"

 

[Steeler7588]

Because you'd have to treat Eagles fans?

 

[Jolt21]

Because you'd have to treat Eagles fans?

HAHAHA...that an listen to Phillies/76ers fan. no good thing comes out of philly sports.

i've heard they are almost as mean as fenway fans and fans in the black hole (raiders).

 

[Aggro]

Fenway fans aren't mean. They're just drunk and angry because they paid $10 a beer to get drunk.

However, the Black Hole is insane. You'd have to be to keep buying season tickets for a team that hasn't had a four win season since like 2003.

 

[sleepy425]

it appears that the "secondary" will be up soon because I woke up this morning and they now have a 2010 option on the status page login. It wasn't there yesterday. So I expect those with verified applications will be getting an email with a temporary password later today. Good luck!

 

[musings]

got it

there are like 3 "mini" essays. They ask you to pick the three activities that are most important to you and WHY you have 1000 characters to elaborate on leadership and commitment.

 

[Jolt21]

PENN! PENN!

just easy questions...dam

 

[Equality]

Got the secondary! It's the easiest one I received so far.

 

[Equality]

In case anyone is wondering--the link to the secondary is here but you need to refer to your email to get the unique password they generated for you.

 

[mdeast]

Not as easy GW, but still pretty good. Not sure what to write about the activities sections that I didn't include in my descriptions on AMCAS (I was pretty thorough).

 

[seira]

I don't know where I got this idea but is Penn non-rolling?

 

[Sam32]

is it different from last year's one?

 

[SpaceDementia]

I wonder if "awards" includes scholarships?

Not a big fan of writing descriptions for 3 activities because I wrote quite a bit for each in my AMCAS... guess I'll have to be a little bit redudant.

 

[Steeler7588]

I wonder if "awards" includes scholarships?

Not a big fan of writing descriptions for 3 activities because I wrote quite a bit for each in my AMCAS... guess I'll have to be a little bit redudant.

I'm putting down scholarships (state, national) for the awards.

I think I'll just put slightly modified versions of my AMCAS descriptions for my 3 activities. I made sure to touch on leadership and commitment in my primary application, so I'm not sure what I could do differently...

 

[JasonE]

it is really stupid for them to ask you to elaborate with 1000 characters. thats exactly what was on the amcas. why ask the same thing twice

 

[osumc2014]

What are the LOR requirements? It says I'm not eligible because I don't have LORs assigned...so LORs must be in before I start filling this out?

 

[Sam32]

it is really stupid for them to ask you to elaborate with 1000 characters. thats exactly what was on the amcas. why ask the same thing twice

Really stupid. I don't even know what to write. I talked about this on the amcas. Should we copy and paste then?

 

[JasonE]

Really stupid. I don't even know what to write. I talked about this on the amcas. Should we copy and paste then?

i wouldnt copy and paste. it may make you look lazy. just try your best to detail what you did (maybe provide some kind of short example/story in the description)

 

[vette2k10]

What are the LOR requirements? It says I'm not eligible because I don't have LORs assigned...so LORs must be in before I start filling this out?

Ya I got the same status. I just assigned my LORs to them so we will see how fast they are

 

[wt45]

What are the LOR requirements? It says I'm not eligible because I don't have LORs assigned...so LORs must be in before I start filling this out?

same.

 

[Dantheman52188]

"If this parent has any of the Penn School of Medicine affiliations listed above, please provide his or her address"

What affiliations are they talking about here?

Also, when I click on my 3 activities of choice, I am getting no option of writing 1000 characters. Is anyone else having this problem?