2012-2013 Penn State Application Thread

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Does anyone know if Penn State video-records the lectures? and are the lectures mandatory? are there a lot of mandatory PBL components?

And can current medical students comment on the Honors/High pass/pass/ fail grading system? Does it really make the competition between students stiffer?

Thanks a lot!
 
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PrimaDonna said:
Graduated from Penn Univ. last year. Put on hold last week = NO LOVE from alma mater.
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I get that vibe too. I'm not getting any love from Hershey. I'm a graduating senior at Penn State and I've been on the "Pre-Interview Hold List" since December. Seeing as the last interview date is the first week of April, I'm taking that as a rejection from them...
 
Questions for current medical students:

-I plan on living on-campus and debating on whether I would need a car 😛 I was wondering if are there any grocery stores within walking distance?

-are there (free?) buses/shuttles that will take students from the campus to nearby grocery stores?

-are the University Manor apartments very close to the instructional buildings? and are these very popular choices among students? would the one-bedroom apartments be very hard to get?

Thanks in advance!! 😀
 
jubilantx said:
Does anyone know if Penn State video-records the lectures? and are the lectures mandatory? are there a lot of mandatory PBL components?

And can current medical students comment on the Honors/High pass/pass/ fail grading system? Does it really make the competition between students stiffer?

Thanks a lot!
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During anatomy nothing is recorded so you go to all lectures. That's the first 11 weeks. After that everything is recorded and posted online. The class gets split where about half of the class goes to lecture and half doesn't (I don't).

The grading system doesn't garner any competition that I've seen. For our last class, it was 90% is honors, 85% is high pass and 68% is passing. They lower those if the class does poorly but we didn't have that happen. There really is no competition with my class, we're all very quick to help eachother out with notes, websites etc that we use. It's really wonderful!

As far as PBL you don't have any during anatomy. In CMBMP we have 1 case (3 sessions per case) per test. In BBD, we have more cases and each session covers more cases but we only have sessions 1-2 times a week. And I personally like PBL more than sitting in lecture anyway.
 
jubilantx said:
Questions for current medical students:

-I plan on living on-campus and debating on whether I would need a car 😛 I was wondering if are there any grocery stores within walking distance?

-are there (free?) buses/shuttles that will take students from the campus to nearby grocery stores?

-are the University Manor apartments very close to the instructional buildings? and are these very popular choices among students? would the one-bedroom apartments be very hard to get?

Thanks in advance!! 😀
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I know some people who don't have cars but most do. There's a store close-ish to campus but it's a bit of a walk.
I live off campus so I'm no expert but there aren't any shuttles that I know of. As far as distance to campus, they're literally next door. Less than a minute walk to the crescent. Of our class, prolly 2/3 live on campus and 1/3 off campus. The current second years are switched, with slightly more living off campus. It just depends what you prefer. There an apartment complex (Briarcrest) right across the street from campus that a lot of people live in as well.
 
Got the big pack today 😀 Interviewed on February 4th. Very excited.
 
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Received my acceptance yesterday. Interviewed on Feb 14th. That was faster than what I expected
 
StephBee said:
I know some people who don't have cars but most do. There's a store close-ish to campus but it's a bit of a walk.
I live off campus so I'm no expert but there aren't any shuttles that I know of. As far as distance to campus, they're literally next door. Less than a minute walk to the crescent. Of our class, prolly 2/3 live on campus and 1/3 off campus. The current second years are switched, with slightly more living off campus. It just depends what you prefer. There an apartment complex (Briarcrest) right across the street from campus that a lot of people live in as well.
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Thanks StephBee for your response. I was also wondering if living on campus in the one-bedroom apartments would not allow for guests to stay for a prolonged period of time? I'm asking because my sister might come stay with me for 1 month during her vacation. I looked up the housing FAQs and they said that I would need to report to the office, but it doesn't specify the maximum length of stay.
 
jubilantx said:
Thanks StephBee for your response. I was also wondering if living on campus in the one-bedroom apartments would not allow for guests to stay for a prolonged period of time? I'm asking because my sister might come stay with me for 1 month during her vacation. I looked up the housing FAQs and they said that I would need to report to the office, but it doesn't specify the maximum length of stay.
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I'm not 100% sure but I doubt it'd be a problem. I mean, you're allowed to live with a spouse on campus so as long as you aren't hiding it (pretty sure it's more of a legal thing ) it should be fine but you can call and ask.
 
ash83plus said:
No Feb 4th. I wish it was that fast. The date of the letter was March 20th. Took 10 days for it to get to me!
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Ohhhhh okay I was going to say that was really fast & got a little worried since I interviewed March 4th :laugh:
 
ACCEPTED!!!!!! Interviewed 1/30, acceptance letter received 3/18

Sorry it's a bit late posting on here, but I gave up SDN for lent :laugh:

I'm so excited, I loved this school on interview day!!
 
Hold list... Interviwed 01/22 Does anyone know if they accept updates and such? The letter said something about only looking my file presently or something.
 
Any movement from people that have been hold listed?
 
jubilantx said:
Thanks StephBee for your response. I was also wondering if living on campus in the one-bedroom apartments would not allow for guests to stay for a prolonged period of time? I'm asking because my sister might come stay with me for 1 month during her vacation. I looked up the housing FAQs and they said that I would need to report to the office, but it doesn't specify the maximum length of stay.
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Just to add to that, there are no one-bedroom room apartments on campus for the medical students, only doubles (Briarcrest which is off campus has singles, double and triples). Also, I know a good amount of people on campus that don't have cars, many of my friends are from Cali and just carpool to the supermarket which is about a 3 minute drive.

If any accepted students would like to ask more questions directly to the current 1st/2nd year class as well as meet some of your classmates, the link to the Class of 2017 fb groups is: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/483921058306713/
 
Does anyone know if they are still sending out invitations to interview? I've been on the continue to review list since October and I still haven't heard an update on my status. I'm expecting a silent rejection. Does anyone know if they actually send out rejections? Thanks!
 
I interviewed on the 13th of March and LOVED the campus, the philosophy, and everyone I met. I really hope that I hear soon. I think my wife is more nervous than I am. Anyone else from that cohort hear anything yet??
 
AspiringNeuro said:
Does anyone know if they are still sending out invitations to interview? I've been on the continue to review list since October and I still haven't heard an update on my status. I'm expecting a silent rejection. Does anyone know if they actually send out rejections? Thanks!
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I interviewed on the 13th of march and I know that when I was scheduling my interview they said that the last day was the 29th of March for interviews. Sorry
 
ZJ Daddy OC said:
I interviewed on the 13th of March and LOVED the campus, the philosophy, and everyone I met. I really hope that I hear soon. I think my wife is more nervous than I am. Anyone else from that cohort hear anything yet??
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Based on their timeline 6-8 weeks is the norm (Based on the thread up to 17+ weeks for some other people). I got my acceptance letter 7 weeks after the interview (letter was dated almost right on the 6th week mark). All you can do now is to patiently wait 🙂 Best of luck to you!
 
ash83plus said:
Based on their timeline 6-8 weeks is the norm (Based on the thread up to 17+ weeks for some other people). I got my acceptance letter 7 weeks after the interview (letter was dated almost right on the 6th week mark). All you can do now is to patiently wait 🙂 Best of luck to you!
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I'm passing the 8 week mark today. The wait is literally killing me. This is the only school I interviewed at this season. Blah!
 
iloveca said:
I'm passing the 8 week mark today. The wait is literally killing me. This is the only school I interviewed at this season. Blah!
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Good luck! If you are in CA (just an assumption based on your username) it may take a couple of weeks for the official letter to get to you so feel free to give them a call if you can't wait any longer.
 
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Interviewed March 8th, accepted today! (Via email letting me know about Second Look day next week...) 30P, 3.9, In-State.
 
accepted today! (Via email letting me know about Second Look day next week...) 30P, 3.9, In-State.
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Hmm, I interviewed during the 3rd week of Feb and haven't heard anything yet. Guess it's not looking good for me...
 
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dbs1 said:
Hmm, I interviewed during the 3rd week of Feb and haven't heard anything yet. Guess it's not looking good for me...
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Same here, guess not receiving that email is a really bad sign for my chances
 
Did we all need to get that email? I didn't interview until March 18th, so I didn't think they would have decided yet.
 
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Vena7 said:
Did we all need to get that email? I didn't interview until March 18th, so I didn't think they would have decided yet.
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I guess that in the end it's just pure speculation as to what receiving the e-mail or not receiving it means, but in your case, I wouldn't give it much thought because it hasn't even been a month yet post-interview for you.
 
ash83plus said:
No Feb 4th. I wish it was that fast. The date of the letter was March 20th. Took 10 days for it to get to me!
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I interviewed on February 4th and my acceptance letter was on March 20th too! I probably met you on interview day. I received the letter on the 29th, but I live pretty close to Hershey. I think they do that so they get a prompt response. Congrats!
 
Thanks! Yep we probably did meet. Have you decided where you are going to go?

ekoorb said:
I interviewed on February 4th and my acceptance letter was on March 20th too! I probably met you on interview day. I received the letter on the 29th, but I live pretty close to Hershey. I think they do that so they get a prompt response. Congrats!
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I called in today for two reasons. 1. Wanted to make sure they had my correct address bc it changed shortly after I interviewed and 2. To check on the status of my app. The lady said I should be hearing something in a few weeks. It's been 9 so far. Dah! Trying to stay positive is hard sometimes! I wish everyone the best!
 
iloveca said:
I called in today for two reasons. 1. Wanted to make sure they had my correct address bc it changed shortly after I interviewed and 2. To check on the status of my app. The lady said I should be hearing something in a few weeks. It's been 9 so far. Dah! Trying to stay positive is hard sometimes! I wish everyone the best!
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Best of luck to you. Waiting is the hardest part of this whole process. Just keep a positive attitude and wish for the best.
 
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