Public Health or Pre-law majors at Penn

luckystar88 · 07-12-2006, 02:59 AM

I was wondering if Penn has a good public health or pre-law major. I would also like to know how important SAT scores are for transfers to Penn. Has anyone from a UC (university of California) gotten into Penn as a transfer with around a 1300? Has anyone gotten into Penn as a sophomore transfer that was previously rejected as a freshmen applicant?

JCoveney · 07-12-2006, 09:30 AM

prelaw is not a major

luckystar88 · 07-13-2006, 03:08 AM

what would prospective law students major in at Penn in order to prepare for law school or graduate school? Is the political science major well established and is it a competitve major?

maxc1989 · 07-13-2006, 10:20 AM

they have a Health and Society major which i think is a public health curriculum

maxc1989 · 07-13-2006, 10:21 AM

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/hsoc/home.html <--check out this link

Aurelius · 07-13-2006, 10:28 AM

"what would prospective law students major in at Penn in order to prepare for law school or graduate school?"

Any major that you think you can get a good GPA in.

countrytoconcrete · 07-13-2006, 04:46 PM

HSOC is the best major at Penn. No lie. I struggled for a year to find a major that I liked, then stumbled across it and have absolutely loved every class I have taken in it. The faculty are all amazing, too.

lionofjudah89 · 07-14-2006, 05:57 PM

check this out

http://undergrad.wharton.upenn.edu/...ions/health.cfm

(thanks tm200)

Ooh, health and societies seems like a nice program.

luckystar88 · 07-15-2006, 03:49 AM

Did you decide on your HSOC major in your second year countrytoconcrete? It seems that the capstone research requirement is a big part of the program. If I am able to transfer, would I be able to do research and declare the HSOC major as a junior? At my current school the public health major is competitive and there are GPA requirements to declare it as a major. Is the health and societies major competitive at Penn?

countrytoconcrete · 07-16-2006, 05:01 PM

Yeah, I decided on HSOC during my second year. The major is pretty small, and they don't require any certain GPA or anything (to my knowledge) to be admitted into it. If they do, it's probably very low.

Given its small size, you get a lot of attention from professors and administrators (advisors, etc). You can really shape the major however you want to, and you largely have free reign over what classes you want to take.

I don't see why you wouldn't be able to complete everything if you transfer in your junior year, but you may want to email one of the HSOC administrators to make sure. Dr. Greene or Dr. Barnes would be your best bet (their emails are on the HSOC webpage).

Also, the Capstone requirement really only takes one semester to complete, so it's not a huge part of the program. You can fulfill it by simply taking an upper level class and doing a research project for that class, approved the course prof.

luckystar88 · 07-18-2006, 02:46 AM

Is it possible to go to medical school afterwards with a HSOC major? Do many people apply for HSOC Honors? The 40-80 page scholarly paper seems like it would take a lot of time and familiarity with the subject. Transfers probably wouldnt be able to complete it.

JCoveney · 07-18-2006, 09:47 AM

Is it possible to go to medical school afterwards with a HSOC major?
Why wouldn't it be?

jilenec · 09-28-2008, 09:26 PM

hi I am new to this site but I was searching for more info abt the hsoc major and I came across this post!
So anyway where did u focus your hsoc? Since I was looking at the bioethics branch and omg its like my dream major!
Oh and also which faculty did u especially like and why?Bc Im writing the essays for upenn and idk which professor to write abt yet
Anyways sorry for all the questions but thanks for all the help!