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Congrats! When were you complete?
2009-2010 University of Pennsylvania Application Thread
- Thread starter shemarty
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Here's the stats from 2008-2009 class:
In state: 675 applied, 147 interviewed (22%), 48 enrolled
Out of State: 5551 applied, 707 interviewed (13%), 103 enrolled
Assuming they accept 1.5x as many applicants as there are spots (I made this number up) you have roughly the following chances if you get an interview...
IS: 49%
OOS: 22%
Definitely an in-state advantage judging from those numbers (a larger percentage are interviewed...but this is the case for almost any medical school).
Complete as in a 'complete' email? Or complete because you log in and see your status is listed as such?
I am thinking about adding this school to my AMCAS but I'm worried its too late in the application cycle. The only reason I didn't add it before is because my first MCAT score was really low (26) and I just got my retake score back and it was a 31. I have a really high gpa and I'm an URM. Is it worth applying?
I would apply since it seems like they aren't too deep into selection process.
Also isn't UPenn non-rolling admission? If so, your application would still have good chance against early applicants.
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Even non-rolling admissions schools have something akin to "rolling" interviews.
However, I say go ahead and apply, too.
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i went to my penn interview yesterday! i absolutely *LOVED* everything about the school. also, they gave me my best interview day in terms of usefulness for determining 'fit' by far: we got to be in anatomy lab with the first years and had an interactive block in their sim center to see what sim classes are like for penn students. philly is cool too.
they interview about 20-24 applicants per day, and on my particular day, it was fairly ivy-heavy. at least 8-9 kids were ivy leaguers. i met some kids from schools like rice, northwestern, UVA as well...but out of all my interviews so far, i'd have to say that penn probably had the most ivy interviewees. it seems like we were still relatively early in interviewing there, so i'm sure they have plenty more interviews they'll be handing out to you sdn folks 🙂
they interview about 20-24 applicants per day, and on my particular day, it was fairly ivy-heavy. at least 8-9 kids were ivy leaguers. i met some kids from schools like rice, northwestern, UVA as well...but out of all my interviews so far, i'd have to say that penn probably had the most ivy interviewees. it seems like we were still relatively early in interviewing there, so i'm sure they have plenty more interviews they'll be handing out to you sdn folks 🙂
i went to my penn interview yesterday! i absolutely *LOVED* everything about the school. also, they gave me my best interview day in terms of usefulness for determining 'fit' by far: we got to be in anatomy lab with the first years and had an interactive block in their sim center to see what sim classes are like for penn students. philly is cool too.
they interview about 20-24 applicants per day, and on my particular day, it was fairly ivy-heavy. at least 8-9 kids were ivy leaguers. i met some kids from schools like rice, northwestern, UVA as well...but out of all my interviews so far, i'd have to say that penn probably had the most ivy interviewees. it seems like we were still relatively early in interviewing there, so i'm sure they have plenty more interviews they'll be handing out to you sdn folks 🙂
I'm so happy you enjoyed it!!! It's such a fantastic place, and I really love the atmosphere here at Penn.
So I just counted and 70/164 of the students in my class are from the Ivy league (if you count the "Ivyesque" non-Ivies, it's more like 90-100/164). However, the awesome thing about Penn is that, even though there are so many Ivy grads, the environment is not pretentious at all. For me, that was a huge deal, since I went to a very large state school for undergrad (which, unfortunately, lost tonight to the very large state school from your home state).
Anyway, I hope everything works out for you and I hope you ultimately decide to come to Penn! Best of luck and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!
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idk what their deal is, I really am surprised. I really feel like you'll get one soon tho! They really haven't given out a large number of interviews yet!
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Hey any advice on how the interview process works / what Penn is looking for. I'm interviewing at Penn in about 2.5 weeks (I also work here now and know way too many mud phuds and med students). Any advice would be awesome.
At the interview they took us into one of the clinical simulation rooms, with the expensive dummy. It talked, breathed, had a pulse, etc. We even got to defibrilate the thing and "saved" its life; it was cool, I had that Fray song "How to save a life" playing in my head.
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great song
lol I had an interview at a school last week where we got to see the dummies...
Prof: Why don't yall ask the "patient" some questions?
Girl: What's wrong with you?!?
Prof:...You need to work on your bedside manners...
Dummy:I don't like the way you're treating me...
so the interview at Penn is primarily to see if you're a good fit for the school. I know that sounds really trite, but I am convinced that this is true. Virtually everyone in my class is what I would consider to be a very good fit for the school (i.e. not pretentious, really relaxed but still very passionate and dedicated). I think this is due, in large part, to how hard the admissions team works to find students who fit well with the school.
I should point out that deciding if a person is a good fit isn't that arbitrary. I met a few applicants on Wednesday during anatomy. I talked with a couple of them, and one of them was really really awesome. She was exactly the kind of person who would fit well at Penn, and she asked fantastic questions. On the other hand, there was this guy who was much less friendly, less engaging, and didn't seem to want to be here. Now I only talked to them for a few minutes, but I feel like I got a pretty good impression of them.
Interviewers will probably be looking to see what kind of a person you are. They want to see how you interact with them. They want to see how mature you are. For most interview questions, there isn't a wrong answer. It's how you answer the question. They want to see maturity and passion, but they also want you to be someone that your classmates will love! So when you interview, RELAX!!! Have fun!!
They also want you to know something about Penn. It might also help to know something about Philadelphia. Philly is a pretty fantastic city, and I love living here. When you visit, try to see the city.
Finally, a little bit about the interview process:
There are a few activities in the morning, followed by interviews in the afternoon. You have two interviews. One is an interview with a member of the admissions committee, and one is an interview with a current student. Students can be from any year of medical school. Each interview is scheduled for 30 mins. Admissions decisions are announced in late March online.
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That is like a textbook description of my personality! Please pass this information along to the admissions committee. Thanks.
😉
fantastic! I just called Dr. Galetta and told him.
lol you know I'm kidding, right?
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You mean you didn't call Dr. Galetta and say "Bbon needs an interview now"? I'm sure that would have gone over perfectly and they would have figured out exactly who, out of their thousands of applicants, Bbon is and promptly sent him an interview.
nono, i realized that, but I wasn't exactly sure what the ^wow was for and just wanted to make sure. sigh, I'm tired...
oh, and technically i'm not a huge fan of the guy in your avatar right now.
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It's not that crazy. Bbon is my first name. I doubt there are that many Bbons applying to Penn. Also, fyi it's pronounced Byun, like kind of French-ish, and the second b is silent. But I digress. The point is, I've been refreshing my mailbox for the past 2 hours, assuming an interview invite was coming my way any second, only to find out it was all a joke. I'm pretty sure I'm entitled to an apology. Also, I am going to vent my frustrations directly to this Dr. Galetta figure and hope he can ameliorate my pain with some kind of consolation, a la an auto acceptance, preferably with a full scholarship.
Wooow, lol.
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Does anyone know if penn invites people in order of complete or is it sorta random like duke?
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Had my Upenn interview yesterday. Absolutely amazing place - very stress-less. But a couple of interviewees said they got some tough questions... though it looks like most students get a laid back interviewer.
The interview day is set up very well - they do a great job of telling you what Upenn is all about. I was a bit worried about Upenn shrinking the pre-clin curriculum to 18 months instead of the normal 24 months; but it looks like there are a lot more advantages than disadvantages to that. The kids seemed friendly and helpful (which is always good). Not too many douchebags either (also good).
One big advantage that a lot of the med students pointed out was having the whole undergrad/grad campus right next door (as opposed to other side of the city). Makes it easier to explore stuff outside medical classes etc.
Loved Upenn - their system and their people. Hopefully they'll let me in 🙂
The interview day is set up very well - they do a great job of telling you what Upenn is all about. I was a bit worried about Upenn shrinking the pre-clin curriculum to 18 months instead of the normal 24 months; but it looks like there are a lot more advantages than disadvantages to that. The kids seemed friendly and helpful (which is always good). Not too many douchebags either (also good).
One big advantage that a lot of the med students pointed out was having the whole undergrad/grad campus right next door (as opposed to other side of the city). Makes it easier to explore stuff outside medical classes etc.
Loved Upenn - their system and their people. Hopefully they'll let me in 🙂
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AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just got an interview from Penn!!!!! This week is just too amazing. What did I do to deserve such good fortune? So exciting. Doesn't even matter too much if I get in or not. Just to visit and get a chance is more than I had ever hoped for.
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Congrats! When were you complete?
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Congrats! When are you interviewing? I'll be there in 2 weeks.
lol maybe i'm missing something, but I'm guessing Dr. Galetta is the Dean of Admissions at Penn??
That's what I assumed
Also, 62% non-traditional students? That seems high (although I suppose a large percentage of that could be people who took 1 or 2 years off)
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yeah, i would assume they just mean people at least one year removed from college graduation
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Thanks guys. I think I was complete 8/20 and right now I'm scheduled for 11/13, but I have to check my schedule first to make sure that's okay. Figured since we can still change the date for another week, I'd just mark something down for now. Very excited. And now that I've gotten in somewhere, I can relax (kind of), enjoy the interview day and hope for the best.
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Has anyone heard anything from Penn in past week or so?
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I dunno but I just read over their curriculum guide again that they sent me months ago and it made me really really want a UPenn interview. 🙁 Complete since... too early.
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Oh man! You're waiting too?? That's crazy! This means my chances just got dramatically worse, lol
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Unlikely. You'll probably get an interview soon. I'm convinced there's something very un-ivy league about me (not sure what it is though). Harvard, Yale, and Penn are all ignoring me.
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Naw. I'm getting the un-ivy treatment so far as well. Here's to hoping for both of us! 
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