2017-2018 University of Pennsylvania (Perelman)

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gyngyn

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1. Have you been nominated for or received an award from any state, regional or national organization? Yes/No... "Add Award"
2. Have you taken or are you planning to take time off between college graduation and medical school matriculation? Yes/No... If yes, 500 characters given.
3. Have you participated in any global activities outside of the U.S. prior to submitting your AMCAS application? Yes/No... If yes, 1000 characters given.
4. Are there any special, unique, personal, or challenging aspects of your personal background or circumstances that you would like to share with the Committee on Admissions, not addressed elsewhere (siblings/relatives at Penn, applying as a couple, educational environment, culture, ethnicity, etc.) Yes/No... If yes, 1000 characters given.
5. Have you or your family experienced economic hardships? Yes/No... if yes, 1000 characters given.
6. Have you been employed at the University of Pennsylvania Health System or Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and worked with a Penn faculty mentor? If yes, please indicate name, department, phone number of faculty, and start/end dates.
7. Please explain your reasons for applying to the Perelman School of Medicine and limit your response to 1,000 characters.:

Good luck to everyone applying!
 
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Anyone know how to shorten the med school name in their secondaries? ("Perelman," "Penn," "UPenn..")
 
I attended an info session and tour here this week. The school is obviously amazing, facilities are top notch, world-class hospitals all visible outside classroom windows, etc. Students seem friendly and willing to help. The Dean leading the info session emphasized that admissions is wholistic by telling us that "you could have a 4.0000 (said all the 0's) and a 528 MCAT and still not get in here." Not intimidating at all to a LM72 non-trad.. :laugh:
Flipped classroom style with daily required small group sessions, but in-person lectures are still given, attendance-optional and available in the virtual curriculum.
This school is on my YOLO list. I'm a little weird - I mean, diverse - and you never know what type of weird they're looking for, right?
Good luck to everyone!
 
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Best bet is "Perelman" I think.

They seem to use both Perelman (pronounced Pearlman) and Penn (and PennMed) quite a bit. I feel like the Dean said "Penn" the most during the info session, as in, "Penn is a leader.." but he was most likely referring to the system as a whole - hospitals + med school + satellite clinics, etc.
 
I'm not an incoming MS1 here (could've been; admittedly loved the school), but I think you can go with Penn. They call it Perelman on all their official videos on the portal and stuff. But they also call it Penn, Penn Med, UPenn (on the acceptance letter files), and also sometimes U of P is written on some stuff.

Just call it Penn to save on precious characters. Most people in the university at large do that.
 
Has anyone gotten their secondaries yet? The school's website says they were made available on June 27 but I still haven't received anything. 🙁
 
Secondary Received


1. Have you been nominated for or received an award from any state, regional or national organization? Yes/No... "Add Award"
2. Have you taken or are you planning to take time off between college graduation and medical school matriculation? Yes/No... If yes, 500 characters given.
3. Have you participated in any global activities outside of the U.S. prior to submitting your AMCAS application? Yes/No... If yes, 1000 characters given.
4. Are there any special, unique, personal, or challenging aspects of your personal background or circumstances that you would like to share with the Committee on Admissions, not addressed elsewhere (siblings/relatives at Penn, applying as a couple, educational environment, culture, ethnicity, etc.) Yes/No... If yes, 1000 characters given.
5. Have you or your family experienced economic hardships? Yes/No... if yes, 1000 characters given.
6. Have you been employed at the University of Pennsylvania Health System or Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and worked with a Penn faculty mentor? If yes, please indicate name, department, phone number of faculty, and start/end dates.
7. Please explain your reasons for applying to the Perelman School of Medicine and limit your response to 1,000 characters.:
 
Apparently they're sending out more next week!

Dear Applicant,

Thank you for your interest in the Perelman School of Medicine. We have received your verified application from AMCAS and will be sending you an invitation to complete our secondary application within the week.


Sincerely,

Perelman School of Medicine
Office of Admissions
and Financial Aid
 
Notification "will be sending you an invitation to complete our secondary..." received 6:18 PM, July 7th. Good luck everyone!
 
Secondary Received

4. Are there any special, unique, personal, or challenging aspects of your personal background or circumstances that you would like to share with the Committee on Admissions, not addressed elsewhere (siblings/relatives at Penn, applying as a couple, educational environment, culture, ethnicity, etc.) Yes/No... If yes, 1000 characters given.
5. Have you or your family experienced economic hardships? Yes/No... if yes, 1000 characters given.
:

Do you think these are truly optional prompts or should I be sure to respond to them? I could put my diversity into #4 but it doesn't seem like it especially fits. Or my adversity essay? Doesn't really seem to fit either.

For #5, I haven't experienced any financial hardship. I do own and run a business, and that has had challenging financial moments in the first year, but I'm not sure if that's screwed up to talk about how starting a business was financially stressful when I was coming from a position of privilege.
 
Do you think these are truly optional prompts or should I be sure to respond to them? I could put my diversity into #4 but it doesn't seem like it especially fits. Or my adversity essay? Doesn't really seem to fit either.

For #5, I haven't experienced any financial hardship. I do own and run a business, and that has had challenging financial moments in the first year, but I'm not sure if that's screwed up to talk about how starting a business was financially stressful when I was coming from a position of privilege.
Don't crowbar it. If it says optional it probably really means is
 
Does anyone know why they send out secondaries in batches? If they don't pre-screen, why not just send it to all verified applicants at once?
Probably to prevent being overwhelmed and so they have time to sift through apps quickly. The turnaround time from secondary to II for Chicago is extremely rapid
 
Perhaps because all applicants are not verified at once?

Probably to prevent being overwhelmed and so they have time to sift through apps quickly. The turnaround time from secondary to II for Chicago is extremely rapid

But all applications verified before 6/30 were transmitted on 6/30 at the same time... How do they decide on which applicants to send secondaries first then? Is it purely a coincidence that the extremely high stats applicants seem to get secondaries first?
 
But all applications verified before 6/30 were transmitted on 6/30 at the same time... How do they decide on which applicants to send secondaries first then? Is it purely a coincidence that the extremely high stats applicants seem to get secondaries first?

Honestly, I would try not to think too hard about when you recieve secondaries. I was verified before 6/30 and have high stats, but have not recieved UPenn's secondary yet. If they say they're going to send it to everyone, then they will send it to everyone. Sometimes I recieve secondaries in the first wave, and sometimes it's days afterward. There are just so many moving parts in the application cycle, and so many other things to worry about (like why didn't I prewrite more???). 😕
 
But all applications verified before 6/30 were transmitted on 6/30 at the same time... How do they decide on which applicants to send secondaries first then? Is it purely a coincidence that the extremely high stats applicants seem to get secondaries first?
I just don't think that's the case. I am an extremely high stat applicant and have not yet received a secondary. I have a friend who is also a high stat applicant who had not received a secondary, and a few other SDN folks with high stats are in the same boat. I wouldn't give it too much thought. There is also probably a reporting bias on SDN which is a combination of the kinds of applicants that applied to Penn along with the kinds of people that post about receiving and completing a secondary so early. It may not be random but I wouldn't put too much stock in secondary receipt order
 
Shhhhhhhh. I'm still behind on my other secondaries...
 
Secondary recurved but can't seem to login. Anyone access it yet?
 
Hey all, for the secondary question:
1. Have you been nominated for or received an award from any state, regional or national organization?
Could I put significant state/regional awards I got back in high school?
 
Hey all, for the secondary question:
1. Have you been nominated for or received an award from any state, regional or national organization?
Could I put significant state/regional awards I got back in high school?

You can..but to be honest I doubt adcoms care much about your high school achievements/awards. Unless it's something you got an award for in high school but then continued throughout college, I wouldn't put it.
 
You can..but to be honest I doubt adcoms care much about your high school achievements/awards. Unless it's something you got an award for in high school but then continued throughout college, I wouldn't put it.
Like i was a music all stater in high school but in college i mostly stopped competing (but im pretty proud of being an allstater; it means I was one of the best in the state). It was a pretty significant award tbh
 
Like i was a music all stater in high school but in college i mostly stopped competing (but im pretty proud of being an allstater; it means I was one of the best in the state). It was a pretty significant award tbh

I wouldn't put it down. It may be different in your state, but being in All-State was not a significant achievement for me (everyone in my orchestra was in all-state). Did you receive any music awards/recognition during college?
 
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