University of Pennsylvania Top Questions

Professors will give you the time of day if you make them, but you'll have to make yourself known to them. Students compete and hearing them complain about "failing" because they have a B- in a class where you have an F is becomes old very quickly. The Writing Seminars are a prodigious waste of time, and energy.

Absolutely! Every professor hold office hours for you to get clarification on homework or for you just to pop in just to talk. It's the Ivy League; if you don't think you're going to study, you're mistaken. Some days it's hard to find a spot in the library. The most spirited discussions about politics, philosophy, and other topics happen outside the classroom. Students are not competitive at all. There is this universal feeling of "cooperate and graduate" that pervades the campus. Someone is always willing to help you with your homework or send you notes that you missed when you were sick.

At Wharton, the greatest business school in the world, do not expect to be in an intimate classroom setting until your late junior or senior year. While the courses are demanding, there is very little hand-holding through the infamous Wharton core - the ten basic business classes that are completed during the sophomore and junior year. Be prepared to go through a brutal running of the bulls type classroom atmosphere where you cram for tests and feel very little personal satisfaction.

My professors know my name in seminar classes, obviously not large lectures. My favorite class was an Anthropology class called "Death". Needless to say, the subject matter was interesting and the professor was also very informative and interactive. Students study as much as they need to. I have friends who go out every night and have a 3.8 GPA, but I also have friends who study very hard to get a decent GPA...it depends. Class participation is quite common, however, most of the time, if you listen carefully, the person speaking doesn't actually know what they're talking about. People talk just to talk. Again, it depends on the student. I have friends with whom I can have intellectual conversations, but I also have friends who can't hold a conversation. Students can be quite competitive. Most unique class taken: see above. I am currently undeclared and it's wonderful. I do not spend time with professors outside of class, however, I am only a freshman. I feel that the academic requirements here are legitimate. They encompass a wide area of studies and give you the chance to expose yourself to different things. It's all what you make of it. People in Wharton, Nursing, or Engineering tend to be geared towards getting a job, while people in the School of Arts and Sciences are geared towards learning for it's own sake and seeing what job opportunities might come out of that.

As with any middle to large University, there are some large lecture classes. Introduction classes in Economics, Psychology, and Calculus can get up to 200 students. But all lectures ahve small recitation where once a week you meet in a group of about 15 to discuss the lecture and ask questions. All the professors and recitation leaders are available through office hours and before and after class to help you - they want to you to succeed. Most of the grades in most of the classes are normalized, but there is some competition to be above the average. Grades are most competitive in Wharton (the business school). Penn does have quite a few requirements, but most of them you can fill with classes you'd take anyway. They are distribution requirements, meaning a subject you can satisfy with one of twenty or so classes. The professors I've had have been very good and knowledgeable in their topics. Although they are some of the best in their fields, they have been willing to discuss with me after class or schedule a meeting with me. The only time I've had trouble with a teacher is in recitation, where many of the grad student teachers speak limited english.

Professors don't know my name. Favorite class: ASL. Least: Writing seminar. Student study time: I'd say fairly morderate. Class participation: higher than I'd thought, less substantial than I'd thought. Intellectual conversations: no. Students' competitiveness: not irrationally so. My major: ditzy girls.

Some, but not really. Favorite class is cross cultural awareness and least favorite is accounting. Study a lot. Yes common. I like wharton. too hard, tho

The professors here are amazing. Most of my classes have had less than 20 students and almost every professor I have had knows my name and stops to say hi when I see them outside class. My favorite classes have been the small seminars (which is about 80{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the classes I have taken). I took a writing seminar freshman year titled 'Beastly Visions and Talking Creatures,' which is my favorite class to date. It was basically an animal rights class disguised as an English class and the teacher was an eccentric woman that reminded me of Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus. She took us to local restaurants and farmers markets that advocated free-range and fair treatment of animals (translation- free delicious food and a class for a good cause). My least favorite class was one of the intro classes for the Communication major (awful professor) and a geology class (I am not a fan of the general requirement at Penn, although they did reform the requirements starting with the class 2 years behind me). The students here are amazingly intelligent, and it is not rare to be engaged in intellectual conversations outside class. While they are competitive, in the College this is not as noticeable as it is in Wharton where the curves are stronger. The education in the College (liberal arts) is very theoretically based. It is academia for learnings sake. Very little of what I have learned has practical application for getting a job. The other 3 schools within Penn- Engineering, Nursing, Wharton Business School, take a much more practical approach to education. Wharton students practically have jobs handed to them when they graduate.

Professors can really go either way. The classes here range between huge lectures to tiny seminars. But, I've noticed that in medium-sized lectures (around 50-70 people), professors often require you to put a name tag on your desk so that they familiarize themselves with your name. And there are definitely professors who know everyone's name by the end of the semester. My favorite class here at Penn has been The Business of the Sports Industry. I don't particularly want to go into sports (although I might after this class), but I loved the way that the professor brought everything back to what we learn in our basic Wharton classes. He basically showed us that sport franchises are like any other business. It was really cool. I would say that most people at Penn have a very healthy work ethic - otherwise, how would they have gotten in? People are always at the library, or in coffee shops working. Still, we know how to let loose and have fun and I love that balance here. My two majors are Marketing and Retailing. I love that they're off the beaten path (most everyone in Wharton majors in Finance) and that they're more subjective, and not just number-based. It really allows me to think critically and think outside of the box. There's one professor that I spend time with out of class - he was my Econ 101 professor freshman year and I almost failed. Since then, we have been really close and he has become my mentor. We have lunch at least once a month to check in.

Get through introductory courses as fast as you can. If you're in the College, upper level classes are really amazing, especially in the history political science departments. There are a ton of courses with alternative formats. For instance, I had a class that met 6-9 on Wednesday nights and had field trips a couple times during the semester to visit the organizations we were studying. We ended up at the District Attorney's office the last week of school. There are classes that are geared entirely around designing a mural with the community in West Philly and then painting it. Architecture classes also have a really strong practical component. There's even one political science class about incarceration that meets each week at a local jail (students take a Penn van there and back) and is made up an equal number of Penn students and inmates. The list definitely goes on.

You have to make an effort to get professors to know your name. My favorite class was through the graduate school of government - Fels. It was called "Women Leaders and Emerging Democracies" and was taught by former Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies (her son is dating Chelsea Clinton). The class was very hands-on and we heard a lot of wonderful guest speakers. Students study a reasonable amount. In class participation is an important part of classes Some Penn students have intellectual conversations out of class. Others just gossip. And others just talk about summer internships and investment banks (cough cough, Wharton) Students are very competitive. Especially pre-meds and Wharton kids. Most unique class - Community Based Environmental Health. We learned about health risks and the developed a plan to fix an environmental health problem in West Philly. My major is Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). It's an interdisciplinary major based off of the Oxford major by the same name. And Harvard has the same program but they call it Social Studies. It was Bill Clinton's major. I LOVE PPE. It teaches you liberal arts combined with practical real-life skills You have to make an effort to see professors outside class. The academic requirements are good, except there are too many science requirements (especially for non-science majors). Wharton is geared toward getting a job. The other schools are geared towards learning.

Academics is highly volatile. It depends on the department, the course, the professor, the students in the class, and you. The good part is that there is the option of doing a dual degree, which involves two bachelors (not just two majors), and I know in some universities this is not possible or very hard to do (like Stanford). There are many schools and a wide variety of majors, as well as the option of doing an individualized major, and changing majors is quite easy. In the College, or SAS, there are a lot of general requirements, which is good if you are only getting one major because you can explore and expand; but they get very annoying when you are trying to complete the requirements for a minor, and another major in another school. The administration is terrible too. The psychology major is a joke, but I guess that's true everywhere. In general, being in SAS is not that strenuous in terms of work, even if you take 150{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} workload (6 credits). The College has been for me a terrible experience, and moreso because I can contrast it directly with Engineering. The administrators in the College don't motivate you, quite the opposite: they get pissed if you try to do more than you should. The first time I took 6 credits (the limit is 5) my advisor was very angry and condescening. In Engineering, it is more common to take more credits. In Engineering, for any type of request, you just fill out a petition and turn it in. In the college, it is a whole process to fill out any sort of petition; you have to go talk to an advisor first, who will supposedly 'advise' you, when you just actually waste 1 hour. Engineering, or SEAS, has more specific requirements because it is obviously a more specialized major. This is good since you end up actually learning something useful. You also have to take a lot of social sciences and humanities, giving you freedom to explore other areas, and not just science. The environment in Engineering is a LOT more welcoming than in the College. SEAS organizes semesterly events, the advisors in general are better, you get to know people better, and there is a sense of community. Students are very competitive. Grading is usually on a curve, meaning the average is a B/B+, so you only have to do better than everyone else to get an A, which can be easy or hard (depends on the course). I've taken very hard courses and done well, very easy courses and done poorly. I feel that in general professors don't care about you. They don't know your name, and don't care to know. There are some rare ones that know who you are, nod their head when they pass you in the hall, but beyond that do not really venture further.

Only in my smaller seminar classes do my professors know my name and my interests. These have actually been some of my favorite classes (English classes), because I can discuss my academic interests on a more personal basis with my professors, which all in all makes me more excited to learn. My worst classes have been math and science classes where we have problem-set type homeworks every week for recitation. Students study a lot! People are very competitive academically, but that doesn't mean they don't have intellectual passions outside of class that don't count for a grade. Once you get to upper level seminar classes in your major people get very excited to learn for the sake of learning. The english major, for example, definitely has a lot of passionate majors. I think it's partly the professors that foster this enthusiasm. I used to be a psych major, but switched because the psych professors were only there for their research. I felt like the English dept professors really cared about their students, and wanted to help them in any way they can. I have had many conversation with English profs about things outside their class, over coffee or walking through campus. As in english major I'm definitely learning for its own sake rather than for a job, but I know a lot of Wharten students and even econ and polisci students who are gearing up for a job.

Least favorite class - MTH 114, multivariate calc. The professor was a visiting professor from Philadelphia Community College who was fired the next semester for doing such a terrible job. Favorite class - Hard to say. I've had lots that were good. FNCE 101, Monetary Economics and the Global Economy, might be the most impressive one. Extraordinarily well taught by Nicholas Souleles, stimulating, and practical. How often do students study? - One semester I took 6 courses. This meant I had many days when I woke up, started working, took breaks for food/shower/etc., and kept working until I fell asleep. Not all semesters are that intense and not all students take 6 classes. I'm taking 4.5 now and it's much easier, but I still study 6 days a week. Are students competitive? - Yes, overall. Some people are tools and take competition to an extreme and are always trying to ask smart-sounding questions in class. Most students do not enjoy this toolishness. What's the most unique class I've taken? - MGMT 209, Political Environment of the Multinational Firm, is a valuable class at the intersection of business and politics. About my major/department - http://www.upenn.edu/huntsman/curriculum/index.html Our program's website is a mess, but here's the info. Huntsman is a joint-degree program run by the College and Wharton. You get something of a liberal arts education but you also get the job-market power of Wharton, which is a nice combination. Do I spend time with professors outside class? - Yes. Note that Penn has more than one institutional framework that facilitates students joining faculty for free lunches. How do I feel about Penn's academic requirements? - They're generally not bad. Is the education at Penn geared toward getting a job, or toward learning for its own sake? - It depends on the student, but Penn does have a stronger vocational tilt than the other Ivies.