Graduating in 4 years UPenn?

[Tikopia]

Hello! I'm an incoming freshman Bio or Health & Societies major at Penn. I'm looking at all the premed requirements and im really confused how we're supposed to graduate in four years? I DO NOT want to take a gap year to finish courses, so can any former Penn premeds who graduated in 4 years and went to medical school give some coursework advice? Thank you

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[Lannister]

You'll have to take more than one pre-requisite per semester. It's not uncommon for those with more demanding majors to take 18+ credits every semester.

Disclaimer: did not go to UPenn

 

[honey0102]

I graduated college in four years and didn't take a gap year before medical school. I sometimes did take pre-reqs in the same semester. Do try to balance out easy/difficult courses so you can spend more time on the difficult ones, and add in some good time management skills and it will be fine. Many people I know would balance a memorization-heavy course like biology or biochemistry (of course, rote memorization is not the trick here, it's memorization + understanding), with a conceptual class like physics or general chemistry. And depending on the medical school some prereqs could include non-sciences like English, social sciences, etc so keep that in mind too. I didn't go to UPenn either but I think these ideas can apply no matter where you are for undergrad.

 

[doctorleospaceman]

Semester 1: Bio 1, Chem 1
Semester 2: Bio 2, Chem 2
Semester 3: Orgo 1, Phys 1
Semester 4: Orgo 2, Phys 2
Semester 5: Biochem
Semester 6: ???
Semester 7: profit
Semester 8: prepare to waste above profit on amcas and secondaries

 

[thedoctorwillseeyounow]

I went to Penn, tons of hsoc majors were premed in my day (class of 2011). I majored in stsc which is under the same umbrella as health and societies. With stsc there is a biology and biomedical science concentration that a lot of the pre reqs count for. You should look it up, hsoc and stsc have a lot of the same classes and it may make it a bit easier. I actually did end up doing a post bacc but that's only because I decided I didn't want to be a doctor and stopped taking prereqs after sophomore year. A lot of people I know did this (i did half of it lol):
F- chem 101, chem 102, calc
S- bio 101/121, bio 102/202, calc (if necessary)
J- orgo 1, physics 1, orgo 2, physics 2
S- upper levels, fun stuff
Some people did bio then chem, personal preference. Few people that I know at Penn took both freshman year but more power to those who can pull that off.
This was before biochem was a requirement, you could probably double up bio 202 with biochemistry. Good luck!


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[aegistitan]

Here's some advice you may not receive, and you probably wouldn't have realized because you go to Penn. There's a privilege that comes with going to Penn and other Ivy league schools that state school students don't receive, it's the name value of Penn and it will make it easier for you to get into medical school.

But there's a caveat, and you see this a lot at Columbia and Cornell, where there's a lot of competition and grade deflation. Every year there are several students that get poor grades, whatever you do do not be one of them. Maintain a 3.7+ and ideally 4.0 at Penn and it will open many doors for you. When I went on interviews to top institutions the majority of the students were from Ivy schools. Additionally several top tier schools lean towards taking students who already have the name prestige with them.

 

[Gilakend]

Semester 1: Bio 1, Chem 1
Semester 2: Bio 2, Chem 2
Semester 3: Orgo 1, Phys 1
Semester 4: Orgo 2, Phys 2
Semester 5: Biochem
Semester 6: ???
Semester 7: profit
Semester 8: prepare to waste above profit on amcas and secondaries

What I did/am doing but currently in biochem over the summer. It was very manageable. My last semester I had 20 credits and it was my best one yet, it's all about learning who to study/manage time better.

 

[thedoctorwillseeyounow]

Also, make an appointment with the pre health office once you get settled on campus. They've helped students through this thousands of times and they have tons of workshops and advice. If you haven't already, google it and visit the website. The advisor you get assigned by the college won't necessarily know that much about planning for a pre med track and even if they do, it still helps to get to know them, they have lots of resources.


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[LizzyM]

Penn is well known by adcoms for having a very informative and useful committee letter. Find out what is required to qualify for the letter and jump through those hoops. Most likely you 'll need to get your ducks in a row at the end of sophomore year and during junior year so that a letter goes out on your behalf before the start of senior year.

Take advantage of office hours and other opportunities to interact with faculty outside of the large lecture hall. Be memorable as a curious and personable student but not as a cheater, brown-noser or grade-grubber.

 

[efle]

Penn is well known by adcoms for having a very informative and useful committee letter. Find out what is required to qualify for the letter and jump through those hoops. Most likely you 'll need to get your ducks in a row at the end of sophomore year and during junior year so that a letter goes out on your behalf before the start of senior year.

Take advantage of office hours and other opportunities to interact with faculty outside of the large lecture hall. Be memorable as a curious and personable student but not as a cheater, brown-noser or grade-grubber.

I'm curious, how much do feeder undergrads vary in their committee letters' quality and content? Like is a Penn letter a lot better than a Cornell letter, or a Columbia letter? I figured they would all cover the same stuff and be pretty formulaic.

 

[LizzyM]

I'm curious, how much do feeder undergrads vary in their committee letters' quality and content? Like is a Penn letter a lot better than a Cornell letter, or a Columbia letter? I figured they would all cover the same stuff and be pretty formulaic.

Whose grandmother makes the best soup? It is like that... the pots of soup that come from one grandmother's kitchen might have a lot in common and be predictable but there is tremendous variability among grandmothers but almost all of them are excellent. You know what to expect from Columbia and it is different than Cornell or Penn but they are all useful and greatly missed when absent.

 

[desr3]

I'm a recent Penn 2017 Grad (hurrah hurrah to the red + the blue, best place ever). I was a biology major and premed, finishing the premed reqs for bio majors is pretty easy, as most overlap. Even if you do HSoc it's still pretty doable, just plan ahead and double count things. If you take biochem through the chem department and then fill out the minor form, you'll also get a chem minor just from the premed/bio reqs! I took the 2 semesters bio+lab freshman year, and then did the 2 semesters chem+lab and 2 semesters physics+lab my sophomore year, and then 2 semesters orgo my junior year, and took orgo lab my senior year. I'm taking a gap year, but I also didn't decide on premed/bio for sure until about halfway through college. About 1000 kids every year come into Penn as pre-med, and 200 finish as one, so honestly just let yourself explore fun classes too and maybe you'll find a new passion! If you don't want to take a gap year then you have to take 2 sciences (like how I did chem+physics) for one of the years, but if you end up being a bio major you'll be doing way more than that anyway. You can essentially do the same schedule I did and take your MCAT some time junior year, and then apply that June (you're allowed to do orgo lab after applying aka senior year) I mostly just took a gap year because I didn't want to take the MCAT during school and did it while doing full-time research instead after my junior year, but the orgo on the MCAT is nothing compared to Penn Orgo so you could just self-study if you wanted to take it during the summer after sophomore year. Honestly, don't stress it, Penn doesn't like people to go overboard first year, and I think I only met 1 person who doubled up on sciences their freshman year. It all works out, advisors are helpful usually!

And with regard to committee letter for Penn, it is quite a process; make sure you're on the pre-health listserv your entire time at Penn as they always send informational things out. In the year before you're applying (if no gap year, junior year) you just have to go to a workshop in the fall, then by like March/April you have to have an hour-long advisor interview. Before your interview you'll need to write and upload into a portal 5 to 7 500-word essays, and a couple other documents, such as BCPM courses/gpa delineated, expanded resume, and then on May 31st you'll need to upload your AMCAS app draft. You also have to have all LORs into them by May 15th. Seems like a lot, but it's really just stuff to help you with the activities section, personal statement, secondary essays, etc. and keep you on top of the app.

Sorry this is a lot of info, feel free to message me with more specific questions, but just relax and enjoy your freshman year! I hope you love Penn as much as I did!