Inside UPenn: A Current Student’s Perspective

Webinar Transcription

2023-09-21 – Inside UPenn: A Current Student’s Perspective

Lonnie: Hello everyone. Welcome to CollegeAdvisors webinar “Inside UPenn: A Current Student’s Perspective.” To orient everyone with the webinar timing. We’re first gonna begin with our presentation, and then we’ll have the opportunity to answer your questions in a live q and a. Before we get started, let’s now meet our panelists.

Deepak: Hi everyone. My name is Deepak. I’m a senior at Penn studying finance and entrepreneurship with a minor in Hispanic studies. Um, and I’m originally from the Philadelphia suburbs.

Lonnie: Great. Awesome. Um, right before we get started, we want to get a sense of your grade. So let us know what grade you are in. And Deepak, did you say that you’re in your final year?

Deepak: Yeah, it’s my last year of college.

Lonnie: Oh, that’s so exciting. Well, how are you feeling final year?

Deepak: I know. I can’t believe it’s almost over. Definitely like bittersweet. Um, I love college. Like Penn has been an awesome experience so far. And I can’t believe like I’m going to be thrown into the real world soon, but

Lonnie: nice, nice college is definitely a great experience.

I know you’ve worked really hard these last few years, so congratulations on this getting ready to hit this major milestone. Thank

Deepak: you. I appreciate that.

Lonnie: Yeah. Um, so for our webinar this evening, we have 37 percent of our audience is in 10th grade, actually 42 percent of our audience is in the 11th grade and then 16 percent 12th grade.

And then we also have a few So with that, I will turn it over to you to kick us off into what your college application process was like.

Deepak: Sure. So it seems like a lot of us here are in 11th grade, which is perfect. It’s like kind of a great, like the perfect time for you to start thinking about applying to colleges and figuring out what you, what you want your application process to look like.

Um, for me personally, I had spent all of like my high school, um, like experience. I was like, Oh, I’m going to go be pre med in college. I want to be a doctor. I want to go to med school and then, you know, practice hopefully one day. And that was going to be the deal. Um, but. And I shadowed a couple of doctors.

I was working with my pediatrician at the time, and I realized that maybe this wasn’t the life for me that I had actually thought. And I realized that pretty late. I realized that kind of end of my junior year. So, if you’re any seniors are on this call, like, you can kind of understand, like, what that feels like.

If right now you’re like, oh, okay, I’m actually going to switch everything up and apply to something different in college. That’s kind of where I was at. I. Had been interested in entrepreneurship throughout high school and realize that maybe that was a better path for me forward. And so, when I came, like, when it came to, like, apply to colleges, I decided to apply to most schools as a business applicant.

But as, like, I was on the 1st, I’m the oldest, uh. Like child in my family and applying to college was something that like we were very new to. Um, so I was kind of like the test guinea pig there and realized that I actually didn’t know that much about what it took to apply to especially selective institutions like Penn, um, and a lot of our peer institutions.

Um, it’s, it’s a game to win and figuring out how to play that game and succeed at that game is like the biggest hurdle in the, in the entire journey. And so, um, if you guys are already working with a CollegeAdvisor and you have an advisor, that’s Best 1st step, you can take to help you get the knowledge needed to even apply to school.

Um, so, yeah, that was my college application process. I think I watched a lot of YouTube videos, talked to a lot of people who had applied to college and learned how to. Even approach the application process, and that’s something I’ll be talking about a little bit, um, in the coming slides. I’m sure.

Um, cool. I’ll just keep going, uh, in terms of, like, other schools that I was looking at, uh, as I was, as I mentioned, I was kind of on this quasi premed business track when I was applying to schools. And so when I was at application. Um, some of the other ideas that I considered were, uh, like Dartmouth and Cornell.

Like this is after I got my decisions back, um, but I’d also apply to like Brown, Yale, Harvard, and then a couple of the other, like, Elite institutions like Stanford and I’m sure some other ones that I’m blanking on now. Um, and then after my decisions came out, I was deciding between like the following business schools on the screen as well as Wharton and ultimately picked Wharton.

Um, the reason that I chose to, like, continue down this, like, path and pick Wharton as the school that I wanted to study business, that was for a couple of reasons. One was like Penn in general has a huge emphasis on interdisciplinary learning. At the time, I was like, maybe I could still be pre med. Maybe I would still be interested in going to med school.

Um, and at Penn, you definitely can. Can everybody hear me? I just got a chat saying I can’t be heard. Yes, we

Lonnie: can hear you.

Deepak: Oh, perfect. Okay. Maybe whoever just sent me that message, like try reconnecting audio or increasing volume or something. Um, cause I, I think that might be on your end. Um, anyway, so right at the time I was like kind of toying this fence between pre med and business and Penn definitely lets you explore both at once.

Actually, one of my best friends just graduated and now she’s, um, going to med school and she graduated and went to undergrad. So it’s like very easy for you to do multiple things besides just business itself. The second thing was it’s action based curriculum. Everybody Like, every professor in every class here has some sort of real world component teaching in it.

And so whether that’s through casework, whether that’s through simulations, whether that’s through, like, the professor bringing in industry professionals, everything that you learn is for a purpose. And like, 1 thing about me is that throughout high school, I, like, I liked classes and I like going to school, but I knew that.

I didn’t like learning just for the sake of it. Like I wanted to have some, I wanted to feel some sort of purpose for what I was learning and weren’t like very much. So cap like cares about you learning things for a reason. Lastly, uh, or not lastly, uh, additionally, like the professors here are extremely exciting.

All of them are, all of them want you to succeed. Like all of them want to see you do well in whatever career you want to go into, whatever research thing you want to do, whatever your passions are. They want to see you be the best at that. Um, and for that reason, like, Out amongst especially our peer institution business schools.

Um, post grad placement here is just second to none. If you’re interested at all in going into like, business and working in business full time. Um, Morton helps you out incredibly with giving you a very strong network, giving you really strong classes and like the fundamentals, um, in your education to be successful on the job.

Um, and then the actual like club and extracurricular like scene here on campus, like assists with that. Um, there’s over 200, 300 organizations just specifically, uh, that have a business lens, um, here at Penn. With all those clubs, you can start to, like, explore your professional interest, learn things, um, and it gives you a lot of real world experience when it’s time for you to be out there in the workforce in, like, the real world.

Um, Wharton offers an incredibly large breadth of educational opportunities. For example, we have an entire legal studies department dedicated to, like, business and legal studies. We have a healthcare management department. Those are just, like, big companies. A couple to just, uh, to name a few. We also have, like, a business environmental and, um, like, sustainability concentration, things that, like, these other business schools listed here that I was deciding between, like, just didn’t offer, um, like, every school has finance, every school has accounting, every school has management, every school is, like, something, like, basic like that, like, marketing, but Wharton has all of that plus so much more and the way that they teach, even those basic things have all of those extra components, like, baked into it.

So, for example, I’m. Like, concentrating in finance, but I’m also concentrating on entrepreneurship, which is a concentration that not all of the other business schools have. So a lot of the finance courses that I’m taking are at the intersection between finance and entrepreneurship, which is this new way of learning things.

And it definitely teaches you to think in a different way. I mentioned this a little bit already, but the alumni network here at Wharton is just like, awesome. No matter what you want to do, there’s an alumni who does it, and they’re all excited to, like, talk to you. Um, so that means, like, once it’s time for you to go off into the real world, like, I’m unfortunately about to do in a year.

Um, I have, like, a very strong network of people who are going to help me, like, navigate life, because Lord knows I need that help. Um, and then lastly is the people. Everybody here is just like super super passionate about something. All of us are passionate about different things, but that’s what makes like Penn such a cool experience.

Um, you can walk down Locust Walk is like the main, like, um, part of our campus. You can walk down Locust Walk, run into anybody, and have a genuine conversation with them just because they’re interesting and have their own passions. Um, and so if any of those things sound exciting to you, I highly recommend you connect with Penn.

Um, on one of the following, like, handles that I threw down there, Wharton Ambassadors, the Wharton School, Wharton Undergrad, Previewing Penn, and U of Penn. I would definitely, definitely connect with Wharton Ambassadors. Wharton Ambassadors is an organization on campus that talks to prospective students interested in Wharton, interested in business.

Um, And I’m realizing a lot of what I’m saying is like, we’re in focused. If you’re interested in pen in general, like, I’m definitely gonna be talking about that too. Don’t don’t worry. Um, if you’re interested at all in, like, pen or or when to connect with Wharton ambassadors or previewing pen, that’s like the pen wide, um, component to it.

Cool. So that’s like, what, who, like, what I was deciding between again, like, that was a little bit more of a business focus, but I’ll make sure to also touch on those other things. So the reason that I chose to major in finance and entrepreneurship was for a couple of reasons. Um, I am extremely interested in business and I came into college knowing that and like the backbone and like, the language and understanding, like, how to run a successful business is finance, like, knowing what, like, mechanisms might work for you.

Drive value in a company that is all driven by finance and understanding finance helps you with that. Um, and I listed like a couple of like jobs that you can do, like including investment banking, PE, growth, equity, capital markets, venture capital, corporate finance, so much more finance gives you the opportunity to unlock a lot of different careers down the line.

Entrepreneurship is the reason that I fell in love with business. I did a lot of entrepreneurship in high school and realized that no matter how small you may seem, no matter how young you may be, entrepreneurship is. A surefire way to create value in the world and create an impact on other people. Um, so I fell in love with business because of entrepreneurship.

And that’s something that, like, I will always be connected with and we’ll do down the line, um, at some point, like. I hope to have my own startup and make that my experience with business. And then lastly, I’m a minor in Spanish. Spanish is just awesome. Like I think it’s really cool for you to be able to connect with people who are very different than you.

And language is like the best way for you to do that. Like language allows you to connect a worldwide world. Like the rest of the world and that’s the reason I decided to minor in Spanish and so big thing. I want you to take away from here is that you can combine very, very disparate interests here at Penn, um, put them together and tailor your education to like, make it make sense for you all while being supported by like, Some of the, like, world’s best programs, the world’s most exciting and excited professors and being surrounded by, like, the coolest people in your field.

And so whether that means you’re pre med, whether that means you’re pre law, whether that means you want to do arts, whether that means you want to do nursing, Penn has something for you, um, and they’re going to help you throughout that process. I think

I missed a poll. Okay. Yeah,

Lonnie: no worries. Um, thank you so much. So we’re going to take a short pause so we can hear where you are in the college application process. So, you know, perhaps you haven’t started yet, um, or you are researching. Um, you know, you’re working on your essays or getting your application material together, or you could be almost done.

Um, so Deepak, do you remember September many years ago? Like where were you at in the application process at this time?

Deepak: That’s a good question. Is it not the next slide? It’s not. Okay, so I will just have to go by memory. Um, September of my junior year. So I can tell you September of my senior year, I was definitely writing all of my essays.

I think I had my Common App. Oh no, I had my Common App finalized by now, but decided to change it all and like, make edits. I was, uh, I applied REA, Restrictive Early Action, to Stanford, so I was writing all of my Stanford applications right now. It was a really, really miserable time in my life. Um, so I feel for all of you right now who are doing that.

Um, junior year, fall, what was I doing? I Had just taken my SAT, ACT. So I had taken the, uh, the August summer before my junior year, I’d taken that August SAT and then September I’d taken the ACT. So actually I think I was getting my score back. Like literally I got it on my birthday. So three days ago I got my ACT score back.

Um, and yeah, that’s, that’s what I was doing right now. Just getting ready for junior year. Wasn’t really like applying to colleges obviously right now, but was thinking generally what I want, like where I wanted to go and kind of what I wanted to study. But obviously that changed down the line. So things can change.

Don’t, don’t be stressed. You’ll everything will work out.

Lonnie: Nice. Well, the good thing is you were putting the initial thought, you know, into it. And it’s okay. If it’s for many students, it does evolve. It does completely change. Um, and look where it’s brought you so far. So, you know, that’s good that she’s got that early start in your thing.

So for our audience today, we have a 39 percent that are currently researching schools. We have 36 percent that haven’t started, but I know after listening to you tonight, they are going to be ready to get started. 11 percent are working on essays. We have 14 percent that are getting your application material together.

So I would definitely assume that is some of our, our seniors that are with us.

Deepak: Some of our poor seniors out there. Guys, it’ll get better. I promise life will be okay at some point.

Lonnie: It will, it will. Okay, so you can go ahead and continue with your presentation.

Deepak: Cool. Um, oh, I definitely talked about this at length two slides ago, but some of my favorite things about UPenn, and I’ll make this pen general, 100 percent of the people I’ve talked about why, but genuinely everybody here is like very intellectually stimulating.

I wish like this was like a zoom where I could see your facial expressions, but I don’t know about you in high school. I feel like I wasn’t, I felt like I wasn’t challenged very much. So by like my classes and like the people around me. I feel like everybody kind of thought the same way. It was a very homogenous experience.

Um, and I knew that in college, like I wanted to grow, like, you know. Pretty intensely and like, drastically, and I want to just like, become a better person in college and like, learn new things, meet new people and like, be challenged by everybody. I was around, um, and at an institution like Penn, you definitely have the opportunity to do that.

Like, everybody here will challenge you and will and you’ll grow no matter what second is like the variety of courses. Like, as I mentioned, across the board, like, we have 4 undergraduate schools, which is like, which means that we have 4. Like, designated institutions that are all powerhouses in their respective fields.

Like, if you want to study anything, like, there’s a spot here for you to study it and get support from some of, like, the best and brightest in the world. Beyond that, too, is like, what I like talking about is the 1 pen policy. So we have. For undergraduate schools, I think it’s like 12 or 13 graduate slash like professional or continuing education school.

So that’s like our med school or dental school that and so on and so forth as an undergrad. You have the opportunity to take classes across any 1 of the 4 undergrad schools, or even up to 9 out of the 12. so you can’t take med school classes. You can’t take. to others, I think. I want to say it’s dental and vet, but you can take classes at any other, like, grad school here at Penn, um, as a freshman.

Like, first time on campus, you can do all of that, no matter what your undergraduate school is. So, my home school is Wharton, but I’m taking classes across every single other, like, um, undergraduate school here at Penn. I’ve already talked about extracurricular opportunities. Um, Penn is a huge research institution.

Like, we, we churn out, So many research papers a year, if you’re interested in all in research, or like, like, spearheading innovation in any space that you’re in, like, this is the place to do it. I’ve talked about alumni mentorship. I’ll talk about mentorship for a little bit. Mentorship, I think is critical when you’re like young and trying to figure out what you want to do in life.

Um, and everybody here has a pay it forward mindset. Like the only reason that I have a marginal idea of what I’m doing post grad is because people sat down and talked to me, took that time. And like, there’s not a single bone in my body that wouldn’t do that for somebody else. And so there’s this idea that you are where you are because people put in the work and put in the time for you.

And then, so therefore you pay that forward, which creates this really, really, like, It’s, it’s honestly an awesome culture here. Like, it’s really collaborative and everybody’s like, everybody wants to see you succeed. And so, um, like, mentorship here is awesome. Talked about professors already talked about career readiness and I really want to highlight the diversity here at Penn.

As I mentioned, my high school experience was very homogenous. Everybody around me kind of looked the same, acted the same, thought the same. And I wanted to like, be challenged in different ways. And being in a diverse institution is like one of the biggest ways that I’ve experienced that. Um, I’ve met people from across the world.

I’ve met people who’ve thought such different things. You can sit in a room and everybody will be thinking like polarizing thoughts, and we’ll still be having like great discussions about it. And it’s just, it’s a really good like environment to be in, um, for you to like grow intellectually as well.

Um, I love this question. Like, what’s it like attending like college in the city? Um, I don’t know about like, again, I don’t know what you guys I was indifferent. I was like, I don’t really care if I go to college in a city or like a small town or a college town or in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t want the middle of nowhere, but I was okay with like a college town.

Like, I don’t know, Penn State, University of Michigan type of vibes where it’s like just the college in the town and that’s it. And I have friends who go to all those schools and like, they seem like they’re having an amazing time and like, I, I think it’s also awesome to be in a college town. I love being in the city.

However, I think that like the city gives you access to the real world. You’re not in some bubble. You’re, you’re out there in like the sixth largest city in the US, um, which means that you’re given, you’re given access to like the arts, the culture, the food, the history, the sports, and all of the other things that come with being in a large metropolitan area.

I literally never bored. Like, I think if you’re bored, it’s because like, you were just creating nothing for yourself to do. There’s always something to do in Philly. Um, and I also just love Philly. Like, Philly is just a beautiful city. Um, I’m from the suburbs here, so I’m partial, and I’m sure, like, people have their thoughts, but I think Philly is an awesome city.

Um, and I’ve listed some things here that I do, but, but generally, like, you can do whatever you want. Um, If you are like worried about moving into a city, like you can still make campus feel like your home. Like we are on our own Philly’s broken into like West Philly and then there’s like the city itself we’re in West Philly.

And so in specifically in university city in West Philly. And so we have our own campus. Like we’re not, we’re not like one with the city. If that makes, like, we have our own campus. We have like a little central quad area. Um, like we are like integrated into the city that you can, you know, you’re there, but you also have like that campus itself too.

So if you’re worried about that, know that. You, you won’t be just like thrown into the middle of Philly. Like it’ll, you have your own campus and that sense of belonging.

My like big ticket advice for anybody interested in applying to Penn is like knowing why and this is just honestly my advice for applying to anything, let alone like colleges are not understand why you’re applying to whatever you’re applying to there should be some sort of reasoning. Um, I think it’s really easy to just shotgun applications, especially a lot of, like, the T20 schools.

Like, they might have similar essay prompts and you’re just like, okay, this is my community. Boom, boom, boom. I’ll submit it to, like, all the schools that talk about community. A large part of getting into these colleges is, like, showing why that school specifically makes sense for you. Um, knowing your niche is, like, kind of Plays into this.

What I mean by that is like, I read, I read this article when I was applying to colleges and it’s this idea that like, you shouldn’t, like, you don’t necessarily need to be well rounded and I’m sure like many of you have heard this concept before. You just need to have developed your spike, um, because at the end of the day, what Penn wants to do is admit, is admit a bunch of spikes so that like the entire class is well rounded, but everybody has like their one thing or like two things that they’re like incredibly gifted at and like something that they’ve like done in their life that they’re not this round ball, but there’s this like.

incredibly like interesting spike to them. Um, so that’s what I mean by find your niche, figure out what that is for you. Um, it doesn’t necessarily need to be like, I mean, it definitely doesn’t need to be like something as profound as curing, curing cancer. It can be something just like, it can be like generic, it can be like entrepreneurship, like entrepreneurship isn’t necessarily unique, but figuring out like how you’re going to develop your spike, um, is what’s important.

Um, and then going into like kind of, you know, The 2nd, part of that is understanding and showing to admissions. Why, like, your school, or why, like, pen needs that specific niche and why you’re the best person that fills that niche. And I think once you’ve aligned all of those things, it. Going to be like, you make a really good case for yourself, like, essentially, at the end of the day, you want your admissions officer to be an advocate for you and make it really easy for them to be like, this is why deserves to be at this institution.

This is what he, like, has done in high school. This is what I think he would do at Penn. And this is why Penn absolutely needs him. Similarly, like, fill in the blank with your own name, fill in the blank with your own niches, and then you’ll be, you’ll be set or you’ll be in a good position. Not necessarily set, because at the end of the day, it’s also just like, very random.

Be true to yourself, like don’t fabricate things, don’t fabricate a personality. The most like genuine applicants shine through because like genuine or authenticity goes a very long way. Like these admissions officers are people and I’ve talked to them, I’ve met with them through like an organization on campus that I’m a part of, like we interact with admissions a lot and like they’re, they’re great.

Not just people, they’re really cool people and they’re like interesting people and they want to like just learn more about you. They’re not like, there’s no formula and there’s, they’re not like just like ticking off boxes. They genuinely like read each application, like understand who that person is and think to themselves, like, is this somebody that would like have a place on campus?

Um, and throughout the entire process. I mean, it’s going to get really stressful and it’s going to get like really demoralizing, but have a good attitude. Like everything genuinely works out for a reason. Again, I didn’t get into my dream school when I was applying to my college. My dream school was Stanford.

It didn’t work out. It was a very quick rejection. It was like a two liner saying like, sorry, like, this isn’t going to work out for you. Having a good attitude through rejection is really important. Um, you’re going to get rejected from colleges and like, Or unless like UED and get in, which case great. Um, but you probably will face rejection during colleges and that’s okay.

Like that’s, that’s how things work and it’ll like prepare you for the real world where rejection happens all the time.

Lonnie: Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much, Deepak. We are now going to move into our Live questions and answers. So on your screens, you have a tab that says Q and a and that is where we’re going to ask if you place any questions that you would like to ask to our panelists about his experience at you pin and we will be able to answer them.

So we’re gonna move into our first question that we have so far. Um, the question reads did you apply to Huntsman and what activities are extracurriculars? Did you do in high school that positions your profile for Wharton?

Deepak: Sure. So, um, I did not apply to Huntsman. I When I was applying to colleges, I was, it was a very different mindset than I am now.

I, like, never thought I was going to minor in Hispanic Studies. I studied abroad last semester in Barcelona. I never thought I was going to, like, I didn’t really think I was going to study abroad. Like, that kind of, like, came at the end of my freshman year. If I was going to apply to a dual degree, it would have been LSM, and I’m so glad that I didn’t apply to LSM because if I had to take bio classes right now, I would, you know.

be a very miserable human being. Um, so I didn’t apply to Huntsman and that’s also one of the programs you can’t transfer into. So at application you need to be like, okay I want to be in Huntsman which, and for those of you don’t know, Huntsman is international studies and business. Um, so you’re getting like a degree in the College of Arts and Sciences with a target language and then you’re studying business at the same time from Wharton.

So you’re getting like whatever degree you want or whatever concentration you want. Um, so I didn’t apply to Huntsman. Now I’m realizing though that like my profile is like very similar to a Huntsman student’s like I’m minoring in a language I’m like studied abroad I’m involved in a lot of like international things at Penn and if I were going to redo it like sure maybe I would have applied to Huntsman um because I think it’s a really really really cool program.

Um the second part of the question is like what did I do in high school that aligned like my application to Wharton and to Penn and like my answer to this is there is no like there is nothing that is like the correct way to do things. If you’re going to apply to a business school, like just justify why you have an interest in business.

And it doesn’t even need to be any business experience. Like I, applied to Ross and Stern and all of the other, all of these other business schools. And my primary focus was like the high school research paper about like science that I’d written and like my experience working with doctors and my experience doing all the science stuff.

And at the end of the day, like your application is your own narrative. You can create whatever story you want to create. Um, and what I did was like, I said, oh, I had all this interest in, like, in the sciences, and then I had a little bit of entrepreneurship experience, and I want to marry these 2 things together to do healthcare management, go into, like, pharma, blah, blah, blah.

I, like, I had no idea what healthcare management was when I was applying to college and, like, to an extent, like, I don’t know if I know that much more now. Genuinely, just like, I think you can, you can create whatever narrative you want, um, based on whatever experiences that you have. Just do things that you’re excited about, that you’re passionate about, and the application will just kind of like, follow suit.

Lonnie: Okay. Um, our next question is in your years of experience. What clothes would you recommend to buy for students planning to

Deepak: attend

Lonnie: college on the East Coast? That’s a great question.

Deepak: That’s a wonderful question. I love that question. So, our winters are brutal. They’re cold. They’re windy. There’s like, it’s cold.

It’s bad. It’s bad here. Um, bring a heavy jacket, like a winter coat. None of this like, like a puffer is fine, but you need a puffer and another layer. Like you need, especially if you’re going to be in the Northeast, like Boston area, New York area, like you definitely need a solid winter coat. Additionally, bring sweaters, bring sweatshirts, bring sweatpants, bring, like, liners, like, fleece type things.

Um, I don’t know if this question was about the winter specifically, but I am suddenly talking about the winter specifically. Bring, like, snow boots, because it’ll snow. Things that I, like, Things that I don’t think are necessary like I don’t think you really really need like a range like a um, sorry Uh a rain jacket per se like have a jacket that’s waterproof But like you don’t need to go out and buy a rain jacket.

That’s too much um have some waterproof boots like you don’t need to go buy rain boots, but like have something waterproof because like It rains a lot here too. We get all four seasons. Um, the springs are beautiful, have short, short sleeve shorts, like cool weather. Um, but yeah, honestly prepare for everything.

And that sucks. Cause like, especially if you’re flying in, like, that means you have to pack four tens as much as anybody else, but we do properly get four seasons here.

Lonnie: Okay, that’s a great question, especially for someone like me, who’s from Southern California. Our winner is very different.

Deepak: Lonnie, you’re so lucky. You’re so lucky. I can’t even begin to describe how lucky you are.

Lonnie: Thank you.

Deepak: That’s brutal.

Lonnie: Um, so the next question reads, any tips for getting a general idea about finding which direction I should, I should pursue?

Um, like for you, it was pre med slash entrepreneurship.

Deepak: This is, this is a good question. And I think it’s something like that extends itself into your college experience as well, because you should be like actively considering what you’re studying when you’re studying it. And I think the biggest thing is just be reflective, like, I didn’t journal in high school and I just wish I did.

I would just, like, all my thoughts happened when I was, like, showering. Like, all those shower thoughts, like, that’s when I would, like, sit there and think to myself, like, what does life look like for me? What does life look like for me? Like when I’m a young adult, like what do I want? And in high school, like you might not know, like functionally what the job looks like, but you’ll know, like, okay, like I want to be able to like have kids by the time I’m 30 or like, I really want a family or I care about impact and like, I know that I want to be my own boss or like, like these things, like, I think you can answer those questions now, or you can at least think about them and then figure out like, does that align with.

My current expectations, like, for example, I knew that I didn’t want to be in school as a 35 year old and I was like, well, then I probably shouldn’t be pre med. And so that’s how I quickly realized like pre med wasn’t for me. Um, in terms of just like exploring other things, though, like, I would just say, like, don’t say no to things.

Like I. I shadowed doctors and even just shadowing doctors, like you can just talk to them and understand like what their process getting there was like, talk to people, have conversations, and like, that’s how it works in my life now, too. Like, I’m figuring out what I want to do post grad and I’m talking to people and I’m asking them, Hey, what does your life look like?

Like, what do you, why are you doing this job? What do you want next? What are your like, long term goals? And like, those are the questions that you want to be asking and thinking about. By yourself right now.

Lonnie: Okay. Um, let us know if you can answer this or if you can’t because it’s about a specific community. So what is you pins political science community like? And what is the main goal of the political science department?

Deepak: I think like our policy department department is phenomenal. I actually have taken a couple of poli sci classes.

One of my best friends is a poli sci major. He’s doing like P. P. N. E. So politics, philosophy and economics. Um, If you’re interested at all in, like, public policy, international relations, like, government stuff, like, this is the place to do it. We have some really, really cool people, like, professors who are doing, like, they’re, like, on Capitol Hill constantly.

There’s a pen in Washington program where you’re able to, like, get that government experience early on. Um, again, like, A lot of my experience doesn’t lend itself to poli sci, so I can’t answer the second part of the question, which is like, what’s the goal of the poli sci department, but know that there’s like incredible research opportunities here, phenomenal professors, really cool classes, and like, in general, like, if you’re interested in poli sci or politics or any of that stuff, like, Penn is a great spot for you to get.

Like some exposure to it.

Lonnie: Okay, what was your GPA and how did you think it aided your application? So what was your high school GPA?

Deepak: Um, so I think like your GPA range, like if you look at the website, you can, you can see what the GPA ranges are for most of these schools. Genuinely, like, It’s not like you need to hit a certain number.

Like they look at your application holistically. They want to, they want to review who you are as a person. And obviously like doing well in school is like a huge part of that. Um, like I was definitely like a good student and I think that that didn’t hurt my application by any means, but it definitely wasn’t enough for me to get in.

Like you need to be doing other things and having good grades is not going to be your like ticket in the door at all.

Lonnie: Yes. Um, this question reads, I heard, you know, pin is. Are you pin is stressful? Uh, what is the mental health support like and how do they accommodate students with certain needs?

Deepak: I don’t think pen is any more stressful than like any other college experience like At the end of the day when you put like 2200 young adolescents together and you’re telling them Hey study this thing figure out what you want to do with your life like it’s going to generate stress regardless because like None of us know what we want to do all of us are studying things and we’re going through this process We’re figuring it out.

Like all of us are figuring it out pen is not You Pen can be stressful, but pen is not more stressful than like Drexel, which is right next to our campus, like, or any other school that, like, exists in the universe. Um, And, like, I genuinely do want to just, like, clarify that because I, obviously, there are moments of, like, stress here at Penn that I’ve experienced, but it’s, like, these are universal college young adult thoughts, and you’ll go through these same things, no matter where you’re at.

In terms of the formalized programs that are in place to help you, I can’t stress enough, like, mentorship is, like, phenomenal here. Like, as I talked about this earlier. Half of dealing with stress is just like going to an upperclassman and being like, I don’t know X, Y, Z. And then they were like, Oh, guess what?

I didn’t know X, Y, Z literally three months ago, but I talked to somebody and now I have a better grasp on how I’m going to deal with it. Let’s talk. So you do too. Um, so mentorship is huge in terms of like the pen, like formalized things. We have a counseling and psychological services, like program where they, we have like counselors and psychologists and licensed professionals who are there to help you through like your mental health and everything like that.

Um, but seriously, like, pen is pen is not more stressful than the institution right next to us or anyone else.

Lonnie: Yes. Um, someone asked, what was your spike?

Deepak: Okay. Again, like, I think me answering this question probably won’t be super helpful because like your spike is individualized to who you are. Um, and there is no like correct answer to this question.

Like there is no like your thing at the end of the day, do what you’re interested in. And I was talking about this earlier and I hinted at it, but I’ll just say point blank now do what you’re interested in and you can just create whatever narrative you want to create when it’s time for you to apply to colleges, you can generate your own spike, even if it doesn’t look like you have one, just by like grouping things that you’re involved in together.

And so what I did was I was like, okay, I just. Did a bunch of things in high school that I was interested in and I was like, what’s the common narrative between I literally wrote down all of my involvements that I took like five different highlighters and I highlighted things that like happened to be really like under different buckets and I said, okay, like, I have three main buckets right now.

How do these things connect? And then I was like, this is my spike. It’s the amalgamation of these three buckets. And then suddenly every single thing in high school that I did matched my spike. But that’s not how this like it was a very like backwards approach. I generated my own spike based on what I did in high school.

Therefore, you can do this. Like you should do the same thing. Like look at what you’ve done in high school and then be creative. Like figure out how those things tie together. And then when you’re presenting your application, like that should be your spike. And then we have advisors here that help you do that.

Like, this is not something you have to do on your own. If you are doing it on your own, like it is stressful and like it takes Hours and hours and hours of YouTube videos for you to like figure that out. And like that’s the process that I went through, which is why I joined on as an advisor to help people like through that process.

’cause that’s the hardest part about applying to college is figuring out like what your story is gonna be and how you’re gonna sell yourself. And as soon as you have that figured out, everything else generally just falls into place.

Lonnie: Um, someone asked, where is UPenn located at? If anyone was interested in going.

Deepak: We’re in Philadelphia, baby, the coolest city in the world. Um, we’re, we’re properly in Philly. Um, and we, we have like, as I mentioned, a lot of opportunities because of that.

Lonnie: Um, and what is your advice for applying for scholarships?

Deepak: Um, so Penn doesn’t offer any merit based scholarships. All of our scholarships are need based.

That being said, we have phenomenal financial aid here. Um, we meet 100 percent of need based aids through grants, which means you don’t have to pay that stuff back, which is great. Um, I would highly recommend you apply to external scholarships because like Most external scholarships will wire money to your bank account, not to like the school.

And so if you’re on financial aid, you can still get all your financial aid and then get money like to your bank account from external scholarships. And like, they usually pay like chunks of thousands of dollars. So like, it’s a great way for you to come into college, just a little bit of money in your like wallet so that you can like spend on like dinners or things like that and enjoy life here as well.

Um, in terms of finding scholarships, I like, It’s a, there’s no, there’s no like good process. Like there are those central databases. I personally didn’t have much luck with them. Like, I don’t think. like scholarly or whatever those scholarship services are. Like, I think a lot of times you get a lot of junk through there.

What I did was I looked at like my community and like figured out what a community based scholarships existed because there was like my local bank that gave one of my local hospital about this by that. And by the end, like you can write, like you can rack up like 20 K and just like one off scholarships like that.

And then what I also did was I looked at people who had graduated before me or like, you know, What I did was I went to people who are like incoming freshmen at schools like Penn, like in their peer institutions, and I just LinkedIn stalked them and everybody, everybody puts their scholarships on their LinkedIn.

And so then I just applied to like, big scholarships like that. So that’s how I learned about like the Coke. Coca Cola scholarship and the Dunkin Donuts scholarship and the Taco Bell scholarship and the this and the that. There’s an Amazon one, there’s like so many different ones. Like just spend an hour and a half, two hours when you’re like bored just looking through people’s like LinkedIn’s and you can see like where people are going and what money, like how they’re getting money and then just apply to those things.

Lonnie: Okay, so we’re going to take a short pause from our questions and answers. So you still have time to ask some more questions, but I want to share about CollegeAdvisors. So for those in the room who, you know, aren’t already working with us, we all know how overwhelming the admission process can be, especially for competitive applicants like yourselves.

Our team of over 300 former admission officers and admission experts are ready to help you and your family navigate all in one on one advising sessions. Take the next step in your college admission journey by signing up for a free consultation using the QR code on the screen. During the consultation, a member of our team will review your current extracurricular lists, discuss how it lines up with your college goals, and help you find opportunities for growth and leadership.

After scanning the QR code, you’ll be able to select a date and time for a phone conversation with a member of our team. Okay, so now we’re going to jump back into our questions and answers, and I’ll still have the QR code on the screen for you to scan. Our next question is, would you recommend taking the SAT now that it’s optional?

Deepak: I think you should take it. It’s the way that this works is like your reporting scores is what’s optional. Like, I don’t think it hurts to take an S. A. T. And then if you do well on it, submit that, um, but again, like, I’m not admissions. Like, I don’t, I have no idea what goes on behind those closed doors. If I knew what was going on, like, I would be selling that information for way much more money than I’m getting paid right now.

Um, so I have literally no idea if it, like, helps or hurts your application. They say it’s optional. So, like, treat it as such, but. Yeah. There’s genuinely no hurt in like taking the exam and like just seeing how you do on it. Like spend, I, I spent personally like one solid month studying for it and That’s just like, I took it and then that was that.

So if you have some time over the summer, try take, like, try studying for it and then take it.

Lonnie: Okay. Um, what is the social life like at u at up id,

Deepak: yeah. Um, we are a very social school in the sense that like all of us have a lot of friends outside of classes and we love hanging out. There’s like, there’s, there’s a social culture here at Penn that I think is like, sets us apart from a lot of our peer institutions.

Like we. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but we work hard, play hard. Like that’s our, that’s what everybody like tags Penn as. And like, I actually can’t believe I just said that. Um, but it’s true. Like we, we work very hard and we do very well at what we do and like, have like the same opportunities as our peer institutions, but at the same time, like we’re, we are properly enjoying our life the entire time.

Um, so if you want that combination of a good life and also like doing well, then I think like Penn is a great spot for that.

Lonnie: Okay. And our next question is, do you have any study suggestions or anything you wish you knew a year or two ago?

Deepak: Hmm. Well, I’m a senior. If I, I feel like what I’m like, if I, like, if I was going to change, if I wish I knew something two years ago, like probably wouldn’t be very like helpful for you right now.

I’ll say like, if I wish I knew something that I was going through the application process, it would be that like, it would be that like, I already said everything does like happen for a reason. Like, Even if you think like the world is ending and like maybe you don’t get into your dream school, maybe at the end of the day like you go to a school that you weren’t even excited about going to it to begin with like it’s all about what you make of your like college experience that matters not where you’re doing it.

You can have a good experience no matter where you are and I think that you should just like maximize whatever opportunities you’re given no matter where it is. That’s what I would say.

Lonnie: And then how about just any study tips?

Deepak: Yeah, I think just like, understanding things is important. Also like, establishing a really good work ethic and knowing your work ethic in high school is going to be important for college. High school is very rigid. Like, you have your class, you go home, you do your homework, you do a little sport, or you do whatever activity you have.

You go to sleep, you wake up, you do the same thing again. You do that for like four years in a row. In college, like, that’s just like absolutely not the case. Like, there’s very little structure to your day. Right. Like, you go to class if you want, you do the homework if you want, you study if you want, like, everything is very optional in college, and like, your success is like a direct function of how much effort you put into things.

And so, If you don’t have a good work ethic, like college is going to be difficult. Um, like for example, like I don’t have classes Tuesday, Thursday or Friday, but like my Monday and Wednesday is like jam packed with classes. And so like, you can like create your schedule to be exactly how you want it. And I choose to feel like my free time doing other things.

And that’s just kind of like how that works.

Lonnie: Okay, so this question reads, I’m interested in pursuing an ROTC scholarship. So does U Penn, sorry, does U Penn offer them? And if so, is it a realistic option considering U Penn’s rigorous academics?

Deepak: I honestly am not the best person to answer this. This is definitely something you could probably just Google and like find though.

I’m not sure if we do ROTC. Um, I’m sorry. But reach out to PreviewingPen or check out like, you can just DM one of those accounts or like, reach out to somebody like that, somebody in admissions could answer that question for you. I think it’s admissions at Penn. edu if I’m not mistaken.

Lonnie: Thank you. Um, does class selection not in terms of a level of AP slash IB honors, but in terms of actual content matter a lot when it comes to the application evaluation.

So, for example, if I take AP Chem instead of AP Physics C as a senior and I apply for engineering, will that be a disadvantage to me in any way?

Deepak: Um,

I think, well, I mean, I don’t know. It depends what engineering you’re doing. First off, you want to be a chemical engineer, like, probably it’s better for you to take AP Chem. Um, so it generally depends on what you’re studying. At the end of the day, though, like, in terms of admission, they’re just looking for, like, rigor and, like, And understanding, like, why you took courses, like, if you’re going to be a physics major, like, you should be taking physics.

You should be taking those things. All of the same, like, AP courses are offered at Penn, obviously, because AP is college level courses. So you’ll be taking, like, those intro level courses if you need to. So it doesn’t really matter. Like, you can choose to take them in high school as long or you just, or you could choose not to, but as long as there’s like But for like you taking courses that make sense, which are applying to is what I would say is what you should focus on.

Lonnie: Okay. And someone asked what was your SAT or ACT scores when you entered?

Deepak: I would say the same exact thing I said for the GPA question. Um, there’s not a target you have to hit. There’s a range of scores that are on the website. You definitely don’t need to like, Okay. Get perfect scores on these things like you’re fine.

Um, I would just go through this process Take them and if you’re like in the lower half or on the lower quintile then probably not or lower quartile Maybe just don’t submit like there’s no reason to if it’s test optional

Lonnie: Are there any interesting traditions at UPenn?

Deepak: There are, um, we do heyday for juniors.

So when you go from like your junior to senior year, we all walk down like locusts, which is like the heart of our campus. We carry like straw hats and, um, It’s a super fun, like, it’s a super fun tradition. It’s like marking the transition from like junior to senior year, freshman year convocation. It’s on like the heart of our campus in front of college hall.

Um, we have like a little like, uh, celebration for that. We do, um, we throw toast at our football games. So like at the end of the third quarter, we like throw toast out into the field. Um, there’s a lot of fun traditions here at Penn. Like we’re not like, Our school spirit is nothing like anybody in the Big Ten.

And honestly, that’s my biggest pet peeve. I wish we had like some sort of school spirit, but we do have super fun traditions and all of us like enjoy doing things together.

Lonnie: Yeah, those are some pretty fun traditions. I like it. Um,

Deepak: do you all like,

Lonnie: you all like literally toast the bread or like, where’s the toast, the toast?

Deepak: They, so there are clubs that come and like, they actually fundraise. So they’ll like sell you pieces of bread and then you pay for them and it’s like their club fundraising and at the end of the third quarter, um, We used to sing a song, it’s called, like, Highball, and at the end of it, like, there’s a verse that goes, like, Here’s a toast to dear old Penn.

Back in the day, they would, like, cheers beer, and then, like, chug it, and it’d be crazy for the fourth quarter. But then they banned alcohol from the stadium, and so we were like, okay, we need to come up with a solution to this now. So now we say, here’s a toast to dear old bread, and then, like, dear old Penn, and then chuck bread into the football stadium.

Lonnie: That’s hilarious. That’s hilarious. Yeah. And so the next question is, if the school doesn’t provide like AP subjects, um, is it advised to take it outside of school? Um, and will it have a negative impact, um, if it’s, if I don’t take, you know, any AP subjects?

Deepak: So you’re, you are getting viewed based on the context of your school.

If your school doesn’t offer AP classes, then like, Penn is not going to expect you to be taking AP classes. They just want to see you take rigorous courses in the context of your school. Now, however, taking courses at a nearby college or taking courses. It’s never going to hurt your application because it shows that, like, you understood that you’re limited by the school that you’re in, but then you went and took extra hard classes at a nearby institution.

Like, that’s a way to show that you, like, are, um, that’s a way to show that you are, like, intellectually curious and, like, want to be stimulated. So there’s no wrong answer there, but like definitely don’t feel like you need to do that. Cause like if it’s not financially accessible or things like that, like, you definitely don’t need to do that.

Lonnie: Um, are there any extracurriculars you would recommend? And then they also, they also thank you for your insight.

Deepak: Oh, thanks. I appreciate that. Um, so one of my favorite extracurriculars is Penn International Impact Consulting. Um, I, I’ve been in peak, short form this peak, since my freshman year. We work with international NGOs and non profits across the globe, um, through year long engagements.

And so my sophomore year, my freshman year, we worked with a Peruvian NGO, um, Combating plastic waste. And we also worked with the Peruvian government to pass some legislation. My junior, my sophomore year, I worked with a Brazilian NGO focused on agricultural sustainability. And so I was working with indigenous communities in the Amazon and I actually traveled to the Amazon for two weeks and like lived with them, um, and saw the way that they farmed and saw the way that their lives were, and that was like, just super, super cool.

Um, because like a lot of our. like recommendations were aligned with like their agricultural practices. Um, and then last year I led a team to the Philippines. Um, so we worked with Filipino farmers, something like similar to what we did in the Amazon. Cause I love that experience so much that I wanted to replicate it somewhere else in the world.

Um, so we were working with bamboo and mango farmers in the Philippines. And again, like, that’s a great way for you to get like, a global perspective. And I hinted at this earlier, like, how I’m like, how, like, I really like that international experience, like, through peak, I’ve been able to learn about so many different cultures and travel across the world and, like, work with NGOs from across the world and meet people from all across the world.

Lonnie: Have you taken any ABC courses, academically based community service courses, or do you have any insight about them?

Deepak: Yes, I’m taking an ABCS course right now, actually. It’s called, um, Latinx Environmental Justice. Um, it’s part of my minor for Hispanic Studies. We work, so we’re learning about like, The class is taught in Spanish, and we’re also learning about, um, essentially, like, environmental justice as it pertains to, like, like, the Latin X community here in the States.

Um, and then at the same time, we’re also working with, like, organizations that serve primarily Latin X communities. Um, and so I’m working with, like, a food insecurity, a food bank in New Jersey to help, um, like, combat food insecurity for the region that it serves many of whom are, uh, who come from Latin X descent.

Lonnie: Okay. So the ABCS

Deepak: course is awesome. Also, like, for those of you who don’t know, ABCS is Academically Based Community Service. They’re courses where you take a course for the entire semester, but then there’s also some sort of, like, service based component to it, so it’s like, you’re doing good for the world while also learning at the same time, and it’s a full credit, you get, it’s counting your GPA, the professors are usually phenomenal, um, and you’re also, like, able to volunteer, and, like, I volunteered a lot in high school, and, like, that was important to me, and I knew that I wanted to continue that in college.

Lonnie: Okay, and this is gonna be our final question. Um, what type of extracurriculars did you have when you apply? And were there any that you voluntarily left out?

Deepak: Um, so I just did things that I was excited by. Like, if I didn’t like something, I generally just quit it. Um, I don’t know why, but I was under this, like, strong impression that, like, you absolutely needed to play a sport in high school to, like, round out your application.

Like, that is just so false. Like, I hated the sport that I was playing and I dropped it. And my application process was very, like, very fine, um, despite me dropping what I thought I needed on my application. So there’s no, like, there’s no extracurriculars that you absolutely need to have. There’s nothing that you need to do to get into these schools.

Do what excites you. Do what you find interesting. Do something like doing nothing is definitely not the solution. Just showing that you have interest and you’re excited by things is important. And I also really do want to address the 2nd half of the question, which was like, did you leave out things on your application that you were a part of?

And there was like, some explanation about like, stereotypical race based things. Like, for example, like, I was in a youth group for like, Like Indian youth and that would be like something that you think maybe I should have left out because I’m an Indian male and I’m applying to institutions that like may like select against me and all that stuff.

The truth is, you should be comfortable applying with like what, who you are, like being Indian is a huge part of my life and like a huge part of my high school experience is working with that youth group and being involved in like the Indian community and like, Penn does not, Penn absolutely does not discount you because you’re Indian or because like you’re Asian or because you’re XYZ.

Like I, I don’t need to get into this whole like debate about affirmative action and race based admissions, but Penn is not discounting anybody for who they are. They’re simply trying to like develop a class that represents people from all across the world. And the college experience at Penn and at elite institutions is so, so phenomenal because you’re, In classrooms with people from all across the world.

And because like, it’s diverse. So trying to fabricate an application that like doesn’t count, like doesn’t showcase that part of you is just doing yourself a disservice and you absolutely should not feel like you you’re too Asian or you’re too XYZ on your application. That’s, that’s some crazy talk.

Lonnie: I love it.

I love it. Love it. Great, great question to finalize our webinar. So with that. Thank you so much for, I would also agree as one of our audience members said, really insightful, um, sharing about your experience, giving our audience advice as they get ready to apply, um, for their colleges. And the last announcement that I wanted to share is we do have, um, a few upcoming webinars for September.

We’re actually getting ready to publish our webinars for October and all of our webinars are geared towards supporting you through the college application process. Just another reminder at the end of this webinar, there will be an additional screen that comes up. And if you’re interested, which we highly encourage to speak to one of our representatives.

Learn more about our services within CollegeAdvisor. Uh, so with that, everyone have a great night and thank you to pop and we’ll feature webinar.

Deepak: Thank you so much. It was awesome doing this and I appreciate all of the great questions.

Lonnie: Yes. Good night.

Deepak: Good night.