<p>Hey, everyone!<br>
I’m a homeschooled student and I want to go into epidemiology, but I also want to go to college at a younger than usual age. I had a few questions about the University of Pennsylvania.<br>
Is Penn a good school for epidemiology? I know it’s an Ivy League school, but I didn’t know if it was a good choice for epidemiology specifically.<br>
Is Penn okay with homeschooled/younger students?<br>
Are there internships/research assistantships?<br>
What’s the atmosphere like? Is it strongly competitive or comparatively relaxed?<br>
What’s the most important thing I should know about Penn before I apply? What do you wish you had known when you were applying?<br>
Thanks for answering my questions, everyone!
– Asher</p>
<p>I wasn’t homeschooled, but I did take classes at Penn when in high school through their Young Scholars Program. I started taking classes there at 16 my junior year of high school, and took a course per semester til graduation. I don’t think Penn should care to much of age, since I was 16 and my professors knew that. I got As regardless.</p>
<p>Yes, it is pretty competitive, but not in the sense that everyone is out to get you. A lot of classes are based on a curve, so you could basically get 85s on the tests, but if the class average is a 95, then you could end up with a C. So yes, you will be “fighting” to get the highest grades on each test. The other classmates are just as smart so it can get pretty competitive and challenging.</p>
<p>Most important thing you need to know is that you don’t need a 2400 on the SATs to get in. You need heart and soul. Don’t get me wrong, test scores matter, but not as much as people think. If you have about 2100+, they know you are pretty bright. Then they look at class rank, and teacher recommendations. Make sure you are able to get AMAZING recommendations. Most of the people that apply have good test scores, so you need to stick out through your essay and recommendations.</p>
<p>In response to your question about epidemiology, very few schools have epidemiology programs for undergraduates. In fact very few have public health undergraduate programs. I don’t think Penn has epi for undegraduates, but I do not know for sure. I believe its program is graduate only (i.e masters/Phd). Usually Epi is studied in a masters program. Three schools that I know have undegraduate progams in public health are Univ of Rochester, NYU and Georgetown (albeit their program is International Public Health). NYU and Georgetown do not have epi majors but do teach it in their public health programs. Rochester does have an undergaduate epi major.</p>
<p>Please note that programs are changing all the time and this information may be a little bit stale. My info is a few years old and is based on my daughters search for epi. She is an epi major and a junior at Rochester. She chose Rochester because it was the only place that let her be an epi major and pre-med. I know about Penn becasue my son will be attending Penn this fall. I know about NYU and Georgetown because those were her other choices and I am a Georgetown alum.</p>
<p>hello, Penn actually does have its own version of public health. It’s called Health & Societies, which you can then concentrate in Public Health. It’s very flexible and you can basically choose any public health classes and take upper level grad courses.</p>
Thank you very much!</p>