<p>Does anybody know FOR SURE whether a Penn undergrad can cross-register for courses at Penn’s grad schools? More specifically, I’m applying to CAS but I’ve always been very interested in education and have done plenty of ECA’s related to education (including teaching in an afterschool program alongside my colleagues who were ALL college undergrads). I’ve seen a list of Penn’s education courses at the undergrad level, but I was just wondering whether Penn is like Harvard in that undergrads can take classes at their grad schools…? Thanks in advance for your insights/comments!</p>
<p>Yeah you can, though in some cases you might need instructor permission.</p>
<p>I would also look at the Urban Education minor through the Urban Studies program. There are also unlimited amounts of community service opportunities with schools in the area.</p>
<p>Penn sticks to the “one campus” ideal. That means that you are permitted to take classes in any of the schools (four undergraduate and I believe something like 13 graduate?) on campus. </p>
<p>There are a few different grades of courses that are “graduate” courses. One is a cross listed course – LGST220 is crosslisted as LGST820, International Business Ethics, which translates into a single course with half undergraduate students and half executive MBA students; further, of the undergraduates, probably 75% are in Wharton and 25% are in the College! Another is a 400 level course, which is designated by Penn as a course for undergraduates but which graduate students may take; that is to say that if a graduate student took this course, it would count toward a graduate degree, not just a free elective. In a similar vein is a 500 level course, which is designated as a course for graduate students but which undergraduates may take, usually without permission. Finally, any undergraduate can petition to take any course with the permission of the instructor.</p>
<p>An added benefit of the “one campus” idea is the ability of undergraduates to submatriculate into a graduate program. I have had two friends do this; one graduated with a bachelor’s degree AND a master’s degree in Chemistry; another did the same thing with Mathematics, and both of them did it in four total years. I have another friend who is going to graduate a semester late but with a master’s in Bioengineering as well as his bachelor’s.</p>
<p>It is even possible to submatriculate into professional school. It is VERY difficult but not completely unheard of for undergraduates to apply to and enroll in the Penn Law school. Penn’s policy is such that you just have to make sure to complete your undergraduate requirements to graduate, but that you can use graduate/professional classes to fulfill a certain number of these requirements.</p>
<p>Penn undergrads can take courses at most of the grad schools, including even the law school:</p>
<p>[Penn</a> Law: Law Classes are not just for Law Students](<a href=“http://www.law.upenn.edu/registrar/lawcourses.html]Penn”>Penn Students & Staff • Registrar • Penn Carey Law)</p>
<p>At Penn, undergrads are encouraged to take courses in the grad schools (and other undergrad schools) to a degree not found at virtually any other university (including Harvard :)). Interdisciplinary study and research–and crossing the traditional boundaries between disciplines–is a hallmark of Penn, and is deeply and historically embedded in its institutional DNA (think Ben Franklin, first medical school, first collegiate business school, etc.).</p>