UPenn 2014 cycle updates!

Veterinary School Application Advising Ad
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Shanomong said:
http://www.vet.upenn.edu/Educationa...rentStudents/Calendars/tabid/613/Default.aspx

We have our own schedule. We technically do a quarter schedule... first semester most of the classes went a full semester, this semester it's definitely been divided up more.
Click to expand...

Thanks! So I guess Penn vet students don't get all the nice days off (ie. fall break) that the undergrads do?

To those who are current students, in "Financing your Penn Vet Education" it says that the cost-of-attendance is $56,814 (IS)/$65,398 (OOS). Have you found this to be fairly accurate?
 
Doggiepoo said:
To those who are current students, in "Financing your Penn Vet Education" it says that the cost-of-attendance is $56,814 (IS)/$65,398 (OOS). Have you found this to be fairly accurate?
Click to expand...


Accurate-ish, although probably on the high side. It is definitely variable. My rent is probably on the high side because I chose to live in center city instead of west philly and dont have roommates. My food budget is also probably on the high side because I dont really cook much out of lazyness. That being said, I took out about that much, but will most likely have left overs at the end of the year (depending on how much I can make this summer). It all depends on your lifestyle choices.
 
Last edited:
I've heard that it can be pretty expensive to get vaccinated... how do they do it at penn? Is it during orientation? Also, I'm assuming we pay for medical insurance - what company is it through and do they cover the vaccinations?
 
nude mouse said:
I've heard that it can be pretty expensive to get vaccinated... how do they do it at penn? Is it during orientation? Also, I'm assuming we pay for medical insurance - what company is it through and do they cover the vaccinations?
Click to expand...

Penn has its own health service that you have to be a part of unless you provide your own coverage.
 
nude mouse said:
I've heard that it can be pretty expensive to get vaccinated... how do they do it at penn? Is it during orientation? Also, I'm assuming we pay for medical insurance - what company is it through and do they cover the vaccinations?
Click to expand...
If you sign up for Penn's student health insurance, the rabies vaccinations are included. Most other insurance carriers don't seem to cover them. Sign-up for vaccination time slots (it's three shots, over the first couple months of classes) is during orientation. You'll get information about the student health plan in your packets this summer... I think it's Aetna (I have it but still I'm fuzzy on the details!).
 
This is for any new SDN people who missed old posts and people who don't have facebook! Find the facebook link above or PM me for contact/fb info.

Event details for this weekend at UPenn.

Friday 3/26

Daytime: apt hunting

4pm: Penn vet apparel/merch shopping-Meet at Hill Pavilion, SCAVMA President will walk us to SCAVMA store. You can not get the same vet merch at the regular store

4:30: We will check Hill Pavilion for lost/late people and bring them back to the SCAVMA store

5pm: Everyone goes to Happy Hour. We will stop by Hill Pavilion again to collect anyone else who comes later. If you aren't on facebook, PM me so you have a contact number!! The happy hour lounge is hard to find on your own.

7ish (whenever happy hr ends): Bar crawl starts

Saturday 3/27

Day: apt hunting

Time TBD: Dinner and Drinks at Smokey Joe's

:soexcited:​
 
StartingoverVet said:
Any chance to visit Scavma store on our own any other days?
Click to expand...

Hey! Not sure about that - it isn't really a store, per se.. It's only open on certain days when they have "sales," about 1x per month. I'm impressed that y'all are getting to go! Dolby's does have some stuff - a decent T shirt and nice sweatshirts, and they're open much more regular hours! Might be a good compromise 🙂
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
StartingoverVet said:
Any chance to visit Scavma store on our own any other days?
Click to expand...

Sorry!! the president scheduled the time that worked best for her because it isnt supposed to be open, she's just doing it to be nice. I guess the next best option is what Ben and Me said, Dolbys. I have no clue where that is lol If you want something non-apparel like a decal I can buy it for you. I've heard the SCAVMA decals arent insanely huge and obnoxious like the ones at the Penn store, and that is the only option at the penn store. Someone posted it on fb....it really IS that big lol you probably wouldnt want it

wait a second...are you going to penn??????? did u make a decision??? why would u want to buy penn vet stuff until u make up ur mind? do i sense good news??!?!
 
BlacKAT33 said:
wait a second...are you going to penn??????? did u make a decision??? why would u want to buy penn vet stuff until u make up ur mind? do i sense good news??!?!
Click to expand...

Decision? Just depends what time of day you ask... But, now that I think of it, maybe I should decide based on the apparel available. I will be wearing it for 4 years as primary a primary wardrobe (and many years after that as well). Took me a long time to wear out my undergrad stuff!
 
StartingoverVet said:
But, now that I think of it, maybe I should decide based on the apparel available.
Click to expand...

Haha, this totally sounds like something my friend would do. Basing a decision on school apparel/school colors/how cute she looks in those colors...
 
StartingoverVet said:
Decision? Just depends what time of day you ask... But, now that I think of it, maybe I should decide based on the apparel available. I will be wearing it for 4 years as primary a primary wardrobe (and many years after that as well). Took me a long time to wear out my undergrad stuff!
Click to expand...

:laugh: I still wear my raggedy UMD tshirts to work out in or just day to day lol i love school gear. You can throw it on in one second and you fit in like normal!!! You can wear it to the bar and still be cool! haha
 
BlacKAT33 said:
Sorry!! the president scheduled the time that worked best for her because it isnt supposed to be open, she's just doing it to be nice.
Click to expand...

PS - Not sure you're meeting with the current SCAVMA presidente, as he is a male.... 😀
 
Ben and Me said:
PS - Not sure you're meeting with the current SCAVMA presidente, as he is a male.... 😀
Click to expand...

:laugh::laugh::laugh: I dunno, i just saw this at the bottom of her email. Stephanie ___ V'13
SCAVMA President Elect 2010

sooo they haven't changed over yet?? im confused...its so far into 2010. ok, im stupid lol

THANKS!! *runs to change website*
 
BlacKAT33 said:
:laugh::laugh::laugh: I dunno, i just saw this at the bottom of her email. Stephanie ___ V'13
SCAVMA President Elect 2010

sooo they haven't changed over yet?? im confused...its so far into 2010. ok, im stupid lol

THANKS!! *runs to change website*
Click to expand...

Gotcha - she takes over next winter, I think, but is the President Elect in 2010. Who knows. It's very confusing. Current president is Chris - and since I know that name can go both ways.... 😉
 
Hello everyone! New member here. 🙂
I'm on UPenn's waitlist (#7, out-of-state) and was wondering if anyone knew how much it moved? Thank you.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
nuttrbuttr said:
Hello everyone! New member here. 🙂
I'm on UPenn's waitlist (#7, out-of-state) and was wondering if anyone knew how much it moved? Thank you.
Click to expand...

Probably a lot. You can already see that a lot of SDNers who were accepted chose to go to their IS or another OOS school that is cheaper. I think you're probably guaranteed a spot...butttttt dont get too excited yet, Penn may have already accepted more OOS students off the bat. Because I'm sure they know it moves fast. So if they accepted 200 OOS people already knowing that only half or less will actually come, then the wait list won't move much at all.

hmm guess that doesnt really answer your Q, but unless a student from their admissions committee posts i think thats the best anyone would know
 
In past years, Penn's waitlist has moved very little. I had a friend who was in a similar position my year and she did not end up getting in. However, she was in state, and I know the in state waitlist moves even less. Not sure how that will be reflected this year as I know they are accepting a larger percentage of the class from out of state, and that they are increasing the class size a bit, but I wouldn't necessarily bank on getting in.
 
just throwing this question out there again....does anyone know when you start discussing financial aid with a rep from penn? do they contact you, or should i make an appointment myself?
 
Not to be discouraging, but I'm going to have to agree with CanadianGolden on this one. UPenn's waitlist tends to move very little as it is my understanding that they accept more out of state students than they actually think will attend. Thus, even if people decline, they still don't get to the waitlist. But who knows, maybe Penn will have a bad year. I mean our application year, Cornell actually went through its entire waitlist and ended up calling people they had previously rejected to fill their class. That could happen....

With respect to financial aid, you should have gotten a 6 page or so form in your folder during your interview that needs to be completed and returned toAshra Markowitz. The top of it says "graduate and professional student financial aid application 2010-2011" and it is for need-based aid. If you did not receive it simply send Ashra an email and I'm sure she will send it to you. It needs to be completed by May 15. Also, you need to file your FAFSA online before that date as well and have it sent to Penn. Once all of that is completed, the University will notify you via mail if you have qualified for any need based loans or scholarships. If you are confused about anything on the application just email Ashra and she will be happy to help ([email protected]).

I believe that a couple of your classmates have already been notified about scholarships, which I assume were achievement based. I cannot speak to how that works, seeing as how I have no experience with it (thanks alot Penn), but if they are comfortable with it you could probably PM them and ask some questions.

Hopefully this helps.
 
bamitsme said:
just throwing this question out there again....does anyone know when you start discussing financial aid with a rep from penn? do they contact you, or should i make an appointment myself?
Click to expand...

are you goin to penn bamitsme?? add ur name to the final decision thread!! :biglove: penn looks so lonely! only me, gellabella, and nudemouse so far.

So i looked at the financial aid info that came in the packet during our interview. If you are applying for only stafford loan: just complete fafsa. (yay im done).

if you are applying for stafford&perkins or HPL you need to return copies of the penn financial aid application, your parents W2, your W2, your federal tax return, your parents federal tax return, and spouse/potential spouse tax return and W2.
 
TractorKid said:
Not to be discouraging, but I'm going to have to agree with CanadianGolden on this one. UPenn's waitlist tends to move very little as it is my understanding that they accept more out of state students than they actually think will attend. Thus, even if people decline, they still don't get to the waitlist. But who knows, maybe Penn will have a bad year. I mean our application year, Cornell actually went through its entire waitlist and ended up calling people they had previously rejected to fill their class. That could happen....
Click to expand...

That's a bummer, but yes, it could happen! Thanks everyone.

Do alternates need to do the financial aid stuff (other than FAFSA)? Do we need to send our spring transcripts?
 
If anyone's still looking for housing, I'm going to shamelessly promote the house that I'm currently renting:

  • Technically a 3 bedroom, but works better as a 2 bedroom (the 3rd room is ridiculously small)
  • Pet friendly
  • About a 5 minute walk from U-Penn's vet school
  • Rent is very reasonable
  • Neighbors are friendly
  • Washer and dryer in basement
  • Two trolley lines are about a block away
That being said, this house is west of the vet school, so you're closer to the shadier areas of West Philly.

If you'd like more info, feel free to PM me.
 
black kat-- i am going to penn...just havent gotten around to adding my name to that list yet...( i don't want to rub it in to all those unfortunate souls that have to go to another school 😛...KIDDING of course just kidding)

tractorkid-- thank you. very much appreciated
 
bamitsme said:
black kat-- i am going to penn...just havent gotten around to adding my name to that list yet...( i don't want to rub it in to all those unfortunate souls that have to go to another school 😛...KIDDING of course just kidding)

tractorkid-- thank you. very much appreciated
Click to expand...

Congrats on your decision! 🙂

Just FYI, I had a ton of questions about financial aid - so I scheduled a meeting with Ashra. Very helpful and easy since I was already coming up here to look at apartments.
 
nuttrbuttr said:
That's a bummer, but yes, it could happen! Thanks everyone.

Do alternates need to do the financial aid stuff (other than FAFSA)? Do we need to send our spring transcripts?
Click to expand...

I don't know for sure, but I would think not. Because I would imagine it would be difficult for Financial Aid to keep straight who is actually enrolled and who is on hold etc. To be sure, email Ashra (she knows all). I think you could send in the transcripts if you wanted to, but I'm sure that there is a little give with time lines for people who are notified of their acceptance later, so there's no rush. Again, Ashra knows all so send her an email to be sure.

And you're welcome bamitsme. 😀
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Hey guys -

I got a little concerned last week when I checked penn's website and the pre-req requirement was different from the VMCAR. I quote:

"The biology requirements may be met by taking a six semester credit course in general biology, which includes the biology of plants and animals. This may be followed by a course of not less than three semester credits in embryology or comparative anatomy of the vertebrates. An alternative method of completing the biology requirements is to take separate courses in vertebrate zoology, genetics, and embryology or comparative anatomy."

I didn't have a comparative anatomy or embryology course so I sent an e-mail to Roseanne. She got back to me very quickly after doing a transcript audit. She said that I "technically" did meet the prereqs although strongly urged me to take the embryology course and a non-comparative anatomy class that was available.

I will follow through on the advice and just wanted to let everyone know that Roseanne was very helpful.
 
I'm glad you emailed her...ever since you mentioned that pre-req thing I've been worried about it.

I'll probably email her as well, just to make sure i don't HAVE to take embryology or something like that.

Did you just ask her to take a look at your transcripts? or did you have to send them to her again?
 
GellaBella said:
I'

Did you just ask her to take a look at your transcripts? or did you have to send them to her again?
Click to expand...

Did not have to send transcripts (she offered herself to look at them), but I did let her know my current/future classes.

They seem pretty relaxed. She was mainly concerned about my lack of bio classes relative to most of the other students. I don't think you have that problem.
 
I just took Bio 1 and 2 and Ecology. They were fine with it. It's not a big deal.
 
...and as someone who just had an embryology exam today, don't take it now if you don't have to. i'd imagine it sucks just as much in vet school, if not more, so why suffer through it twice? i mean, unless blastocysts are your thing...
 
wow thats pretty sweet!

Unfortunately I don't think I've taken any of those recently enough to gain exemption.
 
GellaBella said:
wow thats pretty sweet!

Unfortunately I don't think I've taken any of those recently enough to gain exemption.
Click to expand...

I'm not entirely sure that they have to be taken recently.... 🙂 You'll get more info about this in one of your huge summer packets.
 
nuttrbuttr said:
Hello everyone! New member here. 🙂
I'm on UPenn's waitlist (#7, out-of-state) and was wondering if anyone knew how much it moved? Thank you.
Click to expand...

Hi Nuttrbuttr -

Probably the best thing to do would be to contact the folks in admissions or student services - they'll have the most up to date info, especially after April 15. Every year is different, so I wouldn't necessarily rely on stats from past years. 🙂

As for pre-req questions, StartingOverVet is right - the best person to contact is the admissions department or student affairs. I wouldn't trust info about something that important to a random person on the internet. 😉

And finally, re: financial aid - get in touch with Ashra, even if you're on the waitlist. She is great about responding to emails and I'm sure she'll get back to you quickly, no matter how "little" you might think your question is. I know that I personally had a ton of questions last year and she was super helpful.

Congrats to everyone again! Looking forward to meeting all of you in the fall!
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Hey future Pennwe's! I've been a long time lurker on this forum but finally got around to creating an account. I look forward to meeting you guys this fall!
 
I read this on the Penn BB.

"Folks - Just a word about creating your PennKey and Password. Once you are entered as a student in the University's registration system, you automatically receive a letter within 4-5 days from the University's department of Information Systems and Computing (ISC). "

I assumed that being entered in the registration system would occur after we send in our deposits but it is long past 5 days and I haven't received anything.

Have any of you received your letter from ISC? Just wondering if I need to give them a call or just need more patience....

By the way, I will be on-campus Thursday and Friday if anyone is around!
 
I'd give them a call

I waited until the absolutely last minute to send in my deposit and stuff but got my letter with my Penn key info on like April 20th or so. So I'd definitely call and ask them to resend it
 
Ah, a Pennkey. Now I understand. I already have one as a Upenn alumni. remembering the password, that is a different story. I tried the challenge response questions and couldn't answer my own personalized questions correctly. That is so sad. Had to request a new password (through snail mail... ugh).

Anything else in the letter besides Pennkey set-up?

Thanks, Gella.
 
Can someone explain to me what this pennkey is? is it just for using wifi on campus??

also, do you guys have emails yet? i know nudemouse does, and i asked her how she did it. i tried to do what she said but it doesn't work. should i just wait and ill get assigned one later?

its hard to know what we wait for and what we do ourselves because so far it seems that everything is on our shoulders to do online right now
 
It looks like the PennKey gives us access to private information like our financial aid info, and I'd assume, once we start, things like unofficial transcripts, account information, tuition due etc.

No idea if it has anything to do with our email account. I don't have a penn email account yet (that I know of) since I haven't seen or read anything about how to go about getting that done.

For now I'm just waiting and I assume we will all get more info on that in the future.

Startingovervet- the only other thing in the letter was our assigned Penn ID numbers, but I would assume you probably already have one of those as well?!

They also sugested you "Use your PennKey Now" to take care of some "must Do" items which were things like entering emergency contact information etc. But you need your PennKey to get into the website they provided us with to do all that stuff.
 
GellaBella said:
No idea if it has anything to do with our email account. I don't have a penn email account yet (that I know of) since I haven't seen or read anything about how to go about getting that done.
Click to expand...

I'm sure the current Penn students will chime in soon enough, but for what it's worth, when I was a Penn student (2 years ago) my PennKey = my Penn e-mail address. Then again, I was @sp2.upenn.edu so I don't know if the different Penn domains/schools do things differently or not... and I think maybe they've changed e-mail clients since I was there?
 
So I was playing around on the Penn website and I figured out how to create an email account.

Since we were just talking about this I figured I would let you guys know, even though it's not yet necessary or anything.

I just went to the Penn Vet website and clicked Student Life under the Education/Training tab.

There is a link on the left entitled "Penn Portal for Students". I clicked it and at the top there is a link for creating an email account.

You need to have your pennkey all set up but I now officially have a penn vet email address. pretty spiffy!

PS. Are you guys taking out Grad Plus loans? Have you applied for them already?! Moving in August is going to be a nightmare financially and I'm a little nervous about beginning of the semester bills (books, fees, etc).

I know, I know we'll probably hear from the school but I figured I'd just ask
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

appa.la
Western vs UPenn
Replies
2
Views
254
appa.la
appa.la
Mr.Smile12
Hurricane updates: let us know of changes in plans
Replies
1
Views
632
katiemcat
katiemcat
M
VMCAS cycle 2025
Replies
4
Views
2K
supershorty
supershorty
E
WAMC: 3rd cycle applicant
Replies
2
Views
255
pp9
pp9
supershorty
  • Sticky
2025-2026 Cycle (c/o 2030 Hopefuls) Personal Statement Readers
Replies
34
Views
10K
BlueFeetBooby7
BlueFeetBooby7
Top Bottom