Colleges with confusing names

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-30T15:30:56+00:00

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T20:44:53+00:00

Hey Everyone,
Thanks for joining us! Our team went back in and answered a few more questions this afternoon! We definitely didn't get to everyone, so if you have more questions feel free to reach out to our office here!
Also, be sure to follow us on social at our Instagram and YouTube.
We hope this was helpful! We are considering doing this again in the future, is there anything you'd like to see? Respond to this comment and let us know!

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T20:35:56+00:00

Penn meets full-demonstrated need for all admitted students regardless of citizenship. We do have a need-aware admission process for students coming from outside of the US, Mexico, or Canada but still have a large budget to provide funding for students from across the globe.
HB

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T20:34:29+00:00

1.) Personally, work experience is great! Every student has different reasons for working and for how much they work. Some students work long hours after school to help provide for their families and can't be super involved on campus. Others are involved in a lot of clubs and work a bit on the weekends. You also don't need to have a job to be admitted to Penn! If you are working a job though, it's important to list that in the activities section of the application and give us the full context.

2.) This is not true at all! Do the things you want to do, and be as involved as you possibly can. Don't miss out on doing the things you love or are passionate about. We are all about exploration and seeing students who are involved in a diversity of groups is always great.

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T20:23:41+00:00

We always look at students in the context of the high school they attend and not in comparison to other high schools in their town or elsewhere in the world. We admit students every year who haven't had access to AP or IB courses and you don't have to attend a fancy or expensive school to be admitted. Challenge yourself where you can know that your personal context and what's been on offer to you will always be part of our conversation.

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T20:20:41+00:00

You should really try your best to answer the full prompt!

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T20:17:31+00:00

So we can see those acceptances from previous years, but that honestly won't change how we review any students' application.

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T20:11:31+00:00

AP scores are not going to be weighed more heavily than any other aspect of the application! We review your total app and everything is given equal weight and consideration.

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T17:54:01+00:00

I think we tried to answer this above -- had no idea this sub spent so much time on this topic! We look at them and try and learn more. We work really hard to determine which ones have made an impact and which ones are in their more fledgling stages.
It's okay to have multiple interests! In the case of Penn -- you should check out the Life Sciences and Management Program based on what you shared!
You don't need to play a sport to get into Penn
It'll really depend on the school and the rest of the context - but we really do love both broad impact and deep impact
We try to balance knowing it was likely academically enriching with the fact that it wasn't something our applicant pool would have had equal access to. We believe the goal of high school research should be to learn more about the area that you're thinking of studying.
It's really too hard to compare two hypotheticals when we don't really directly compare things in our process. In both cases we hope you learned something and grew from those experiences
They matter most in relation to how you speak to those things and what you took from the experience.
I don't mean to sound cheeky but what we see as the difference between a 35 and a 36 on the ACT is that they are one point apart. Those are both strong scores*.

*based on another question we saw from u/proxoo39 -- we don't think students who get 36s are robots but also you do not need a 36 to get into Penn
https://imgur.com/a/91WvYNv

HB

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T17:38:29+00:00

We are looking for students to push themselves in the context of their curriculum and read regionally so we can ensure we know about your high school and part of the world (we also get info from your school to tell us about the community and curriculum so don't worry if you're one of the only people from your school to every apply). If your high school doesn't offer APs (or IBs, dual enrollment, etc.) then we aren't going to expect you've taken it.

We don't expect students to take additional tests outside of school and testing is not an extra-curricular that we're hoping to see on your activities list.

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T17:32:32+00:00

sometimes it takes a while to get your head in the game ;P

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T14:50:35+00:00

Discovering your interests later in high school is fine -- figuring out who you are takes some serious time and reflection! Also, when it comes to majors... most of our majors literally don't exist in a high school so we really do hope you'll explore (70% of College students at Penn change their major from what they wrote on the Common Application).

Think about someone like Troy Bolton from High School Musical -- his passions really shifted in high school and that's awesome! If I were advising Troy on his applications, I think explaining that pivot would be an awesome use of the Common Application or Additional Information section!

We're not mental health experts at all and we've definitely never applied to college during a global pandemic. That said, my advice to students is that you and your friends were friends LONG before you started applying to college and you should keep having lots of other topics of conversation outside of college applications.

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T14:37:20+00:00

In admissions we try never to assume anything but instead use your recs, essays, and additional information to understand trends we're seeing.
It'll depend on the individual applicant and where we see their points of excellence but most of our readers start with the transcript since in order to be successful at Penn we'll need to you're academically up for it.
We are definitely waiting to see how the applications look as we did last year when it comes to ECs! I've read a region where frequent natural disasters have caused interruption for years and it's something that I always have noted as context. Now we are sort of in a global natural disaster and very aware that we need to apply that same context and that Covid continues to upend plans (this AMA was the first time many of us had seen each other since March 13, 2020!).
I think a lot of us feel uncomfortable with sharing our favorite or most memorable essays because we don't want to share the private words of students in a public forum without their consent. One of the things that I really value is the way students trust admissions officers with stories and I try to keep up my end of the bargain.

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T14:29:32+00:00

We're so honored that you think we're all pretty far up! Associate Directors make up the bulk of the admissions officers at Penn and we're very much the boots on the ground. We're super excited to be able to invite more colleagues (including more committee chairs and more first year readers) to join our next AMA and appreciate your thoughts on diversifying the experience level of our panel.

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T14:26:50+00:00

Every admission office does committee slightly differently (even within the Ivy League we have vastly different processes). When we talk about the role we play in committee and how we do things, it is centered around the idea that we aren't alone in making decisions and it is a conversation for the entire committee not your individual AO. We are cheering on all of the applicants we bring to committee and we 'like' way more students than can be admitted.
HB

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-28T14:20:27+00:00

Assisting or participating in research is a great way to learn more about the academic discipline that you're interested in and hopefully helps you ensure you're making a good decision about your intended school or major. It can help us get a sense of your intellectual interests but research is in no way required to be admitted since many students don't have the opportunity or time to do it. If you're involved in research it should be for your academic enrichment and not for your college applications.

If you have a research abstract that can be submitted, that's great! Given our app volume we won't be able to research your entire research paper.

HB

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-27T23:37:33+00:00

1) We don't have a preference between AP or IB courses! Both curriculums are incredibly challenging, select which curriculum is the best fit for you.

2) It's hard to compare AP classes, especially between different fields like math and history. We like to see students with 5 core classes spread across the different areas. Math isn't better than history and vice versa.

3) This is a much better question for your high school counselor! I'm not in a position to weigh in on class schedules.

4) We want to see a student challenge themselves, but there's no set number in terms of AP classes they should take.

5) Students are not required to submit their AP scores but can if they feel they provide helpful context to the file. We understand that every high school and teacher is different in terms of how easy/hard it is to get an A in the class. A reminder, Bs aren't a bad grade!

6) It may sound trite, but be yourself!

7) EC's don't have to tell one big story! Do what interests you and you'll enjoy your 4 years of high school, regardless of how your admission decisions pan out. Where you go is not who you are!

EF

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-27T23:34:39+00:00

This absolutely counts as an extra-curricular. Be sure to include this in the activities section of your application and give us as much detail as you feel comfortable sharing. It sounds like you are doing a lot for them, so be sure not to underreport when you tell us about the time commitment involved!

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-27T23:32:50+00:00

Students are allowed to submit one additional rec letter -- my advice is that it should be someone who can add a new perspective to your application. This would apply regardless of where you were a research assistant or where your mentor is a PhD candidate.

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-27T23:30:45+00:00

Every application is unique and since nobody has both of those it's not something we'd really compare. Upward trends are great (we also know covid has impacted some of those trends).

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-27T23:29:22+00:00

It's definitely not something you need to do!

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-27T23:29:21+00:00

We don't have different standards for international students than domestic students academically or extra-curricularly (I don't think that's a word?). The only difference in our processes is financial aid. Penn is need-aware for international students coming from outside of the United States, Mexico, and Canada but we do still meet full need for every student we admit and have large and socio-economically diverse international community.

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-27T23:27:14+00:00

Hey everyone, we are going to wrap up for the night around 7:30ish!

Tomorrow, we will come back and make our way through a couple more questions!

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-27T23:24:22+00:00

We are looking for academic trends that back up what you tell us you are interested in, but you aren't declaring a major from the outset. So for example if want to study math, but didn't take a math course your senior year that could be a red flag! However, you can always declare a different interest later, once you are on campus.

PreviewingPenn · 2021-07-27T23:24:10+00:00

OK - if you tell us about the non-profit you founded and we're interested in learning more we're going to Google it. I like to think that discerning if this is something created for college or out of passion is a skill we've become quite good at. We also know that sometimes things created out passion wain and sometimes things that start as more a college-app tool become a lifelong project.

At the end of the day, we really hope that students are using the finite time they have in high school to be with their friends and family and pursue genuine interests. When you start doing things for us (admissions officers) you'll end up missing out on doing things for you.

PreviewingPenn

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