THE OFFICIAL PENN THREAD! c/o 2011

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yomama'sdoctor

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masochism. No, I haven't gotten an acceptance.....I did have a vision, and a triple dare though.



uh huh. what now sara.

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after this, I think I have no chance of getting in...


but to all those who do: CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!

please feel free to discuss housing and books and other posts that'll break my heart into tiny pieces when I;ve found out that I actually haven't gotten into Penn.
 
holla!! i decided to step up w/ u and jinx myself too :D

ok...housing...anyone wanna share an off-campus apt, preferably on the center city side of the river? ;)
 
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sick. might as well go out in style too. good luck all.
 
Scandalous! Love it!
 
HOLY CRAP I GOT INTO PENN!!!! Ahhhh! This is an absolutely splendid day :D
 
it happened!!!! :D
see you all @ revisit wkd!

p.s. when i found out i was in, i ran around telling ppl who had written letters for me. then i bought a penn med t-shirt and went to the admissions office and thanked/hugged them :)

what'd you all do?
 
Hey everyone, I am so happy to finally have classmates! Is everyone going to Second Look? Are you all definitely going to Penn next year?

Great to be here :) Congrats all!
 
Hey everyone, I am so happy to finally have classmates! Is everyone going to Second Look? Are you all definitely going to Penn next year?

Great to be here :) Congrats all!
 
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Is your FAFSA confirmed under "My Financial Aid" (my = yours of course ... reminds me of simpsons: "who can prevent forest fires? you have entered you, referring to me, the correct answer is, you! ... right anyway). I sent it in January and it hasn't been received, while strangely enough my Need Access has. Obviously I will contact the financial aid office, but I was just wondering if anyone else is missing their FAFSA.

And Penn's awesome! :D
 
fotografía;4947246 said:
Is your FAFSA confirmed under "My Financial Aid" (my = yours of course ... reminds me of simpsons: "who can prevent forest fires? you have entered you, referring to me, the correct answer is, you! ... right anyway). I sent it in January and it hasn't been received, while strangely enough my Need Access has. Obviously I will contact the financial aid office, but I was just wondering if anyone else is missing their FAFSA.

And Penn's awesome! :D

Same thing here, I'm planning on contacting the financial aid office within the next week to check up on it (figured I would give them a couple days to sort things out)
 
my fafsa isn't confirmed either, maybe they were waiting until acceptances were in to actually update this. if it's not there by next week i'll call.
also, did you guys submit the preview rsvp form? did you get any confirmation or anything? i submitted it but nothing changed on my status page so i just wanted to make sure i'm actually registered (now that i don't have anything to worry about, i'm starting to worry about things like this...scary).
i'm so excited to meet all of you!
 
Congratulations to those who got into Penn Med. I've been here for a while and still can't believe how amazing this school is. Second look is going to be a blast. Try not to miss it. In the mean time, i will try to answer any general questions you guys may have.
 
Congratulations to those who got into Penn Med. I've been here for a while and still can't believe how amazing this school is. Second look is going to be a blast. Try not to miss it. In the mean time, i will try to answer any general questions you guys may have.

Thanks infiniti! I'm almost positive I'll be at Penn next year, which makes me think about housing. I'd really like to live in Center City, and I'm sure there will be more info about this during 2nd look, but is it easy to find apartments with fellow first years? Or do most people just live on their own but in the same neighborhood?
 
my fafsa isn't confirmed either, maybe they were waiting until acceptances were in to actually update this. if it's not there by next week i'll call.
also, did you guys submit the preview rsvp form? did you get any confirmation or anything? i submitted it but nothing changed on my status page so i just wanted to make sure i'm actually registered (now that i don't have anything to worry about, i'm starting to worry about things like this...scary).
i'm so excited to meet all of you!

I got an email confirmation, but it only marked that I had signed up for one day of housing (I signed up for two nights) hmm...
 
So I got worried for a sec when I got a small envelope from Penn today. Turns out they have that elaborate website in lieu of acceptance packets ;)
 
It's pretty easy to find housing with other first years because we create a roomate list where you can place an ad for a roomate. A good percentage of our class found their roomates on the list. The good thing is that 4th years are about to graduate and their apartments will be opening up. All in all, I wouldn't worry too much about housing yet.


fotografía;4948648 said:
Thanks infiniti! I'm almost positive I'll be at Penn next year, which makes me think about housing. I'd really like to live in Center City, and I'm sure there will be more info about this during 2nd look, but is it easy to find apartments with fellow first years? Or do most people just live on their own but in the same neighborhood?
 
Hey all! I'm so glad to be in at Penn! I just loved it when I interviewed, and I can't wait for the revisit weekend. Hope to meet a lot of you there!

:D
 
Apparently it worked, cause I got in! I'm so excited....

Anyways, hi all. I'd love to go to the second look but unfortunately I can't, so fill me in on your first impressions/important details. have an amazing time!
 
fotografía;4961260 said:
So I got worried for a sec when I got a small envelope from Penn today. Turns out they have that elaborate website in lieu of acceptance packets ;)

Congrats to everone else who was accepted! See you at Penn Preview (I'm always a sucker for alliteration). The website is indeed elaborate, pretty, and rather shinny. Do you think that the fancy website is the reason they took so long to release decisions?

As of today, 4/2 everything but my FAFSA is received. Could someone let us know when Penn acknowledges their FAFSA being received?
 
My financial aid page is now "complete" -- it looks like they uploaded FAFSA information yesterday
 
My financial aid page is now "complete" -- it looks like they uploaded FAFSA information yesterday
Me too. And if anyone was wondering about the "tax waiver" forms (I was), those are only needed for those who did not file taxes this year.
 
Congrats to everyone who got in and welcome to everyone who's coming. Feel free to post or PM me if you have questions. I've been here for awhile, so hopefully my advice isn't too dated :laugh:

Specifically, if you're interested in housing, the best 3 places to look outside of the roommate list are:

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/classifieds_online/?inc=classifieds&type=1
http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/offcampusliving/

The class is split between living in West Philly and Center City. Either way, everyone lives within roughly 2 miles of each other.
For more info see my post here:
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showpost.php?p=427196&postcount=7

Since I wasn't invited to second look the first time, I hang out around every second look to see if I really would like to keep going to Penn :laugh: I'm still here!
 
anyone else notice that our winter break begins at 4:59? Only in med school...
 
DOes anyone usually live in Sansom place...it sounds convenient and very close by? any thoughts?
 
Very few choose to live in on-campus housing--in some classes none and in some classes I've heard a handful. As far as I know, there was 1 in my medical school class.

I've been in one of them once. I think they're really plain, small, and expensive for the area and that's the reason why I hear people don't live there. I think the even bigger reason why people don't live there is because nobody else does and the incoming students tend to do what the current students do. But then the incoming students become current students and... Well you get the idea. I don't think it's that bad of an option, but I highly recommend looking at your options before you sign on anything.
 
man im getting excited for penn preview, should be a good time.
 
Anyone else get their financial aid awards today? I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised!
 
Anyone else get their financial aid awards today? I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised!
Yeah, me too. It's by far the most generous out of my other schools (not overwhelmingly so, but still the best out of any). I'm now 99% set on Penn!
 
hi all, just wanted to say i'm really looking forward to meeting some of you tomorrow!
 
did any waitlisters invited to preview get in at preview?
 
did any waitlisters invited to preview get in at preview?

It didn't sound like anyone necessarily got right in, but it sounds like they were given various degrees of assurance of acceptance (some more than others). People may have heard by now.
 
I had to go to page three to find this thread. Shameful!

So, May 15th has come and gone, who's made the plunge and chosen Penn with me? Any plans for the summer?
 
i'll be in philly starting july... so excited.
 
'Poor' accepted people -- How did need-based finaid work out for you? I'm wl top of tier1 and hoping that if i get in, i won't have to take out $240k in loans since mom&dad aren't exactly in a situation to pay off my unsub staffords.

Congrats to everyone so far ... I think Penn acceptees are SDN-shy...
 
'Poor' accepted people -- How did need-based finaid work out for you? I'm wl top of tier1 and hoping that if i get in, i won't have to take out $240k in loans since mom&dad aren't exactly in a situation to pay off my unsub staffords.

I got need-based aid that amounts to a little less than half of total cost. I had hoped for a little more, but I'm happy with what I've got. Penn has seemed to be very helpful in regards to financial matters for me, but I have no idea about other accepted students or waitlisters.

Good luck getting off that list, Quaker!
 
Has anyone started looking for housing yet? I'm thinking of living in Center City but I was wondering how the public transportation to Penn works in that area.
 
I'm thinking of living in Center City but I was wondering how the public transportation to Penn works in that area.

From Center City the main bus routes you will want to think about to Penn are the 40 (runs along South St, diverted now due to South St bridge to be closed shortly), 42 (runs along Walnut, cuts down in front of hospital), and 21 (stays on Walnut). The 40 drops off very close to the medical school, the 42 a little more than 1 block away. The 21 a little more than 2 blocks.

You can take any trolley route except the 10 which will pick up at 13th, 15th, 19th, or 22nd and Market and then drop you off at 36th and Sansom or 37th and Spruce (your choice, either a little more than a block). The Market-Frankford Subway line is a little less convenient but an option if you want to live far out in CC, dropping you off at 34th and Market (about a 5 block walk to the medical school) and picking up in CC at 2nd, 5th, 8th, 13th, and 15th (and in CC there may be a stop or two north of 2nd and Market).

At night Penn runs a free shuttle bus that pretty much never follows its schedule and it's infuriating to me just how badly scheduled and full it can be. [RANT]Supposedly it comes every 20-30 mins depending on time, but I've seen it skip times. If it's less than 5 minutes late it's a miracle. I want to record all the times it was supposed to come and when it really did come and then send it to the Daily Pennsylvanian. Seriously, when you see 6 West Busses and shuttles come by when you're waiting for the East, you want to scream[/RANT]. Rant over, it runs to at furthest 20th between South and Walnut (you can check the route, it snakes).
 
From Center City the main bus routes you will want to think about to Penn are the 40 (runs along South St, diverted now due to South St bridge to be closed shortly), 42 (runs along Walnut, cuts down in front of hospital), and 21 (stays on Walnut). The 40 drops off very close to the medical school, the 42 a little more than 1 block away. The 21 a little more than 2 blocks.

You can take any trolley route except the 10 which will pick up at 13th, 15th, 19th, or 22nd and Market and then drop you off at 36th and Sansom or 37th and Spruce (your choice, either a little more than a block). The Market-Frankford Subway line is a little less convenient but an option if you want to live far out in CC, dropping you off at 34th and Market (about a 5 block walk to the medical school) and picking up in CC at 2nd, 5th, 8th, 13th, and 15th (and in CC there may be a stop or two north of 2nd and Market).

At night Penn runs a free shuttle bus that pretty much never follows its schedule and it's infuriating to me just how badly scheduled and full it can be. [RANT]Supposedly it comes every 20-30 mins depending on time, but I've seen it skip times. If it's less than 5 minutes late it's a miracle. I want to record all the times it was supposed to come and when it really did come and then send it to the Daily Pennsylvanian. Seriously, when you see 6 West Busses and shuttles come by when you're waiting for the East, you want to scream[/RANT]. Rant over, it runs to at furthest 20th between South and Walnut (you can check the route, it snakes).


You're awesome! That's really helpful. Other than that do you recommend any apartment complexes? Most of them are booked up until September. If not, the transportation info at least gives me a start:)
 
You're awesome! That's really helpful. Other than that do you recommend any apartment complexes? Most of them are booked up until September. If not, the transportation info at least gives me a start:)

No problem. In general, Center City Philadelphia has something of a housing shortage, with many condos sitting on the market that were once apartments, so it is a seller's market when it comes to apartments. Almost all the major budget mid/high rise buildings (The Ambassador for example) have been converted (Riverwest Condominiums). As a result, rents are going up very rapidly, much to my concern. The organized buildings rent apartments that are typically several hundred a month more than their brownstone counterparts in the same area. Because so many students are scared to live off on their own in this way and are fueled by parent money, these buildings can get away with this quite easily. For example, by my guess about half of my MD/PhD class seems to be getting/have gotten money from their parents, and they get a stipend!

So from that I cannot recommend any apartment complexes. I've been living on my own since I was 16, and as such I'm a bargain hunter. The best way to find budget housing in Center City is to live in a brownstone (old house converted into apartments).

The three best ways to find brownstones are:
1) Craig's List
2) Philadelphia Weekly (www.phillyweekly.com find RE for Rent section)
3) Penn's office of off campus living

With the Philly Weekly note that new listings come out Wednesday morning. You will want to start calling promising places that morning and go to look at them ASAP. The good places go very, very quickly. For my current apartment I followed this strategy, I was the first to look at it and the second person to look at it also wanted it.

To sort through the listings, take a look at the locations of things in your price range. If you're like almost every other CC Penn Med student, you want to live between 18th and the river (up to the 20s) between South and Vine. Though I used to live over on 13th and Spruce and can vouch for that area being cheaper and more happening. Note that if you live around South St that the South St bridge will close for at least a year and a half soon to be rebuilt so you won't be able to walk over it. Make sure that you don't sign on anything until you have seen it. Quality varies wildly and doesn't really correlate well with price. Most apartments won't come onto the market until ~1 month before they're to be rented, so if you don't see much for August, wait a few weeks. The buildings require ridiculous notification times (90 days for example), so they know well in advance what they have and don't.

If anyone coming to Penn needs to crash on my couch while they apartment hunt, just send me a PM and I can host when I get back from vacation.

Cheers from Tatranksa Lomnica, Slovakia,
Eric
 
Hey everyone (wow, how did I get through this process without this place??)...

Neuronix, I'm looking for housing ... what is your opinion about living on the rail route (lansdowne, swarthmore, media) ? housing seems a bit cheaper there and I'm used to a commute already, I just don't want it to be TOO long...and the SEPTA website says that lansdowne to university city is only 12 minutes?
 
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