2012-2013 University of Pennsylvania (Perelman) Application Thread

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Members do not see this ad.
justkeepswiming said:
For my fellow waitlistees, from penn's waitlist FAQ-- I thought these parts were especially helpful:

"The list ranges from a larger number (400) in March to a reduced size (100) later in the year (May). Reductions occur by self-selection or Committee action."

"Acceptances from the waitlist may be made at any time. Generally, waitlist acceptances are not made until May. Acceptances may continue, on a limited basis, throughout the summer until the first day of class, August 12, 2013."

and

"The number [accepted from waitlist] varies from year to year, depending on the number of people who withdraw from the initial acceptance group. We are not able to predict a specific number at this time. Best guess: 12 to 25."


Congrats again to everyone accepted, and to all of us for making it this far! 🙂
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like unless you're one of those high-tier waitlists that gets invited to revisit, your odds are very long indeed.
 
How is Penn financial aid, especially besides the ~34 full scholarships? If any current students can comment, it would be really appreciated!
 
stevecoral155 said:
Sounds to me like unless you're one of those high-tier waitlists that gets invited to revisit, your odds are very long indeed.
Click to expand...

Yeah from what it looks like, I'd have to agree, although it's interesting that there isn't any mention of the high-tier waitlist/revisit invitees on any of the info provided to us normal folk :laugh:

In any case, I'm keeping myself on the list but realistically planning for being elsewhere.
 
I just find it between mildly and moderately upsetting that some schools elect to maintain such an enormous waitlist. Obviously there's no benefit to the school in rejecting you, sure. But I think in some cases - Penn is a good one, since they say they don't rank their waitlist - it does more harm than good. If Penn has 400 people on the waitlist and accepts 20 off it, that's a 5% chance of getting in.

At some point, having that 5% hope is like taking a band-aid off slowly. It's better to just rip the darn thing off - it hurts and it ends. Yeah, of course you can get in off the wait list, but the odds are terrible. Props to a school that keeps its list small or ranks it - anything to give waitlisters some kind of indication whether their hope is futile or not over these next few months.

That said, I'm staying on Penn's WL :barf:
 
stevecoral155 said:
I just find it between mildly and moderately upsetting that some schools elect to maintain such an enormous waitlist. Obviously there's no benefit to the school in rejecting you, sure. But I think in some cases - Penn is a good one, since they say they don't rank their waitlist - it does more harm than good. If Penn has 400 people on the waitlist and accepts 20 off it, that's a 5% chance of getting in.

At some point, having that 5% hope is like taking a band-aid off slowly. It's better to just rip the darn thing off - it hurts and it ends. Yeah, of course you can get in off the wait list, but the odds are terrible. Props to a school that keeps its list small or ranks it - anything to give waitlisters some kind of indication whether their hope is futile or not over these next few months.

That said, I'm staying on Penn's WL :barf:
Click to expand...

+1 (x100000!)
 
stevecoral155 said:
I just find it between mildly and moderately upsetting that some schools elect to maintain such an enormous waitlist. Obviously there's no benefit to the school in rejecting you, sure. But I think in some cases - Penn is a good one, since they say they don't rank their waitlist - it does more harm than good. If Penn has 400 people on the waitlist and accepts 20 off it, that's a 5% chance of getting in.

At some point, having that 5% hope is like taking a band-aid off slowly. It's better to just rip the darn thing off - it hurts and it ends. Yeah, of course you can get in off the wait list, but the odds are terrible. Props to a school that keeps its list small or ranks it - anything to give waitlisters some kind of indication whether their hope is futile or not over these next few months.

That said, I'm staying on Penn's WL :barf:
Click to expand...

Most people on the wait list will sigh, move on, and forget about Penn in favor of a different school. Having a large waitlist provides an opportunity to those who are truly interested and passionate about Penn to stand out from the crowd through updates and letters of interest. That way they save time and resources when they select students off the waitlist because they have a greater chance of choosing people who will actually go even though these same people have already "committed" to a different school.
 
i am curious on how the waitlist will be reduced by "Committee action"
 
Even though I have nothing but three waitlists out of this cycle, gotta, say, SDN has the most epic emotions ever. I am so cheered up by those cute little figures =)
 
Waitlisted (fourth in a row)- Penn was my top choice so I'll def be updating them this week
 
tomhaverford said:
Most people on the wait list will sigh, move on, and forget about Penn in favor of a different school. Having a large waitlist provides an opportunity to those who are truly interested and passionate about Penn to stand out from the crowd through updates and letters of interest. That way they save time and resources when they select students off the waitlist because they have a greater chance of choosing people who will actually go even though these same people have already "committed" to a different school.
Click to expand...

I understand, and I also understand that a school has practically zero incentive to reject you. Doesn't make it suck any less.
 
Donald Blake MD said:
So were most people waitlisted? Not many rejections...
Click to expand...

The number of rejections must be non-zero, because I remember about 700-800 students were interviewed, but only 400 were waitlisted, and <200 admits? But yeah, not many were rejected it seems. 😀
 
unfortunately i was one of the unlucky few who were rejected. the message on the portal was kind of curt, and started with: "The class entering in August 2013 has been filled."

well Penn, at least you're not still stringing me along.
 
bansheebeat said:
unfortunately i was one of the unlucky few who were rejected. the message on the portal was kind of curt, and started with: "The class entering in August 2013 has been filled."

well Penn, at least you're not still stringing me along.
Click to expand...

I think as a waitlisted applicant who did not get invited to second look weekend, pretty on the same boat here. Virtual hug 🙂
 
My friend who goes to penn said they accepted 240 applicants thus far and from last years data they accepted 279 in total. Those stats don't bode well for us WL applicants.
 
Long-time lurker here. Just wanted to say I was accepted by status update yesterday, but I decided to decline my acceptance today. Headed to Harvard next year. Hopefully more people planning to hop on the HMS train with me do so soon. Good luck to all the waitlistees here.
 
Tots said:
You mean April 25th - 27th 😛

Looking forward to checking out Penn!
Click to expand...

Yes, sorry! It is April 25-27th. I was on my phone and messed up the dates.

As for significant others, while the events are generally geared towards acceptees, the admissions committee is very friendly and accommodating. Definitely give them a call or e-mail them!

Unfortunately, I've not really seen children at these sorts of events, but will say it will be challenging to have children tag along for these things.
 
Yay! Now I know how one of the most famous SDN members looks like. I'm pretty obvious as well if you search hard enough!
 
I'm going to guess the Penn people probably wouldn't want this posted here, because it allows anyone to see who has been accepted.
 
Last edited:
Accepted, and absolutely will be matriculating! Can't wait to meet the rest of you
 
Guess Penn doesn't send waitlisted applicants a letter? Lol
 
Markov110 said:
Guess Penn doesn't send waitlisted applicants a letter? Lol
Click to expand...

To be fair, the acceptance letter came in an eerily small envelope and was only two pages (as opposed to traditional acceptance packages). For a moment I thought they had rescinded their offer.
 
So excited for Penn Preview!

Are we able to stay with a student host for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday night?
 
tomhaverford said:
To be fair, the acceptance letter came in an eerily small envelope and was only two pages (as opposed to traditional acceptance packages). For a moment I thought they had rescinded their offer.
Click to expand...

same here. A few moments of terror never hurt anyone
 
premedrox111 said:
Long-time lurker here. Just wanted to say I was accepted by status update yesterday, but I decided to decline my acceptance today. Headed to Harvard next year. Hopefully more people planning to hop on the HMS train with me do so soon. Good luck to all the waitlistees here.
Click to expand...

Same pulling out in favor of Columbia. Good luck all! Hopefully with so many declining acceptances, there will be lots of waitlist movement.
 
First of all congratulations to all the people who have gotten into UPenn so far and to those who are waiting back to hear good luck! I am currently a second year medical student at another school, but have received a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Fellows Grant to do research with an investigator at UPenn starting in the summer for one year. If anyone on this thread is decided about UPenn medical school and is interested in having a roommate for the next year, then I am looking for someone to live with. I already have some places I have looked/inquired about that are within walking distance to the medical school and I know a ton about the area since I lived their last summer, also to do research, and am always visiting the city.

Please PM me if you are interested and once again good luck to all those waiting!
 
member10358 said:
+1, does anyone know this?
Click to expand...

Not sure, but I did find this on a previous year's forum (which was a repost of another year's forum...). Sounds like a great time, I can't wait!

So in a nut shell, Penn Preview was really awesome and totally confirmed my decision to go to Penn. I was looking through older threads to see if anyone wrote about Penn Preview before -- I found a post from last year that describes this year's Preview pretty well! Here it is (copied/pasted with some parts added by me to describe this year):


"1. The backpacks are awesome. The MS1s told me apparently ours are upgraded versions - since ours has an additional zipper in the front! Although going to a club with the backpack on may seem cool, it is definitely not designed for dancing. After the barmaid at Vango ran off with my jacket to lost and found... I wasn't about to let her get her hands on my backpack!

2. The students there seemed to genuinely like being there, and seemed to actually enjoy their time there! They definitely seem to follow the "work hard, play hard" scheme. First years seem to have a good chunk of free time - compared to second years anyway; especially when second years start clinics. We saw quite a few of the students - they seemed pretty down to earth.

- A slight addendum: you expect that kids @ penn med are going to be amazing students... and they are; but boy do they have some crazy experiences and backgrounds. Some of the stories of what students have done are really quite humbling (which is a good thing). [this is what I gathered from stories of current students - I'm sure the prospectives/M0s have similarly awesome backgrounds]

3. Supposedly 180 kids/prospectives/MS0s were signed up for PP (about 40 were for MD/PhD). I know for sure that not all of them showed up. A few of them were a bit odd and anti-social; and I'm pretty sure some of them are turdy too (which school doesn't have those) - but overall, I can honestly say I could really see myself hanging out with most of them for the next four years and having a blast. I was kinda crossing my fingers that that's how it would turn out, and I'm glad to see it came true!

4. Proportions of students coming here - it seemed like quite a few students were set on coming here / decided to come here by the end of it. I'd say 2/3 were set on the idea, with the other 1/3 deciding between this and another top-tier school, or a school that gave them a lot of money. I didn't really seem like PP convinced them to change their minds though... or maybe they just hadn't sat down and processed everything they'd seen yet? (either way, the 1/3 number is the general sense I got... I clearly didn't go around polling everyone. Yea... not everyone )

5. The faculty / administration seems to really like working with the students. [The financial aid officers were really receptive to your comments, especially if you had a competing offer from another school. I remember people going in to talk to Gaye or Dr. Galetta and that they were doing everything possible to get as much financial aid out for students to stay. As I talked with people or overheard nearby conversations, for some people, the result of the meeting pretty much helped them to make their decision to go to Penn.]

And for kids who want to do the MD/MBA program - apparently it's one of the more expensive double degree programs... yay for me . And for those who missed it - the MD/MBE (bio ethics) prog seems to have some pretty good grant money floating around... making it one of the cheapest ones.

Er, let's see what else am I forgetting about PP? Dr. White (the anatomy professor) seems pretty awesome. The simulation center is sick... although the tour guide was a bit, er, interesting. CHOP is awesome.

Ok that's all I had. In general, I loved PP. It was a blast. I'm off to bed to catch up on lost sleep (totally worth it though). If I left something out correct me.
 
Thanks for posting that, hondcol! I'm excited for the backpacks 😀 (and everything else!)
 
Shockwave456 said:
😱 Where did you see that?
Click to expand...

They were released ~2 weeks after acceptance emails were sent out last year (per last year's thread), and I remember being told the same thing on my interview day.
 
Any guesses as to when financial aid awards will be released this year? Current students- have you guys gotten any emails about when to expect your award for next year? It seems likely we will get our awards the same day.
 
diethylether said:
Any guesses as to when financial aid awards will be released this year? Current students- have you guys gotten any emails about when to expect your award for next year? It seems likely we will get our awards the same day.
Click to expand...

The status page says "Awards are provided only to accepted students with complete documentation. Needs analysis and the generation of awards takes 7-14 days from completion. Your Financial Award will be available on your status page in mid-April." (This is from going to the Financial Aid tab, and clicking "Your Financial Aid Page.")
 
diethylether said:
Any guesses as to when financial aid awards will be released this year? Current students- have you guys gotten any emails about when to expect your award for next year? It seems likely we will get our awards the same day.
Click to expand...

Awards are guaranteed for the 4 years we are here, so the only thing we have to worry about is filing the FAFSA annually. Last year it seems a lot of financial aid letters came out April-May, so it should be shortly.
 
Last year financial aid was excellent. I got far more than I expected. I think they have a bunch more money from the Perelman donation. I suspect you will get a nice amount unless your parents are loaded.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

wysdoc
2024-2025 Pennsylvania (Perelman)
4 5 6 7 8
Replies
389
Views
155K
BrainStorm12
B
wysdoc
2023-2024 Pennsylvania (Perelman)
12 13 14 15 16
Replies
752
Views
207K
ejyg777
E
wysdoc
2022-2023 Pennsylvania (Perelman)
6 7 8 9 10
Replies
450
Views
158K
deleted1117431
D
wysdoc
2024-2025 University of Washington
10 11 12 13 14
Replies
680
Views
147K
stew_md
S
wysdoc
2024-2025 University of Chicago (Pritzker)
12 13 14 15 16
Replies
778
Views
208K
X0001234
X0001234
Top