Hey y’all - my brother isn’t on CC so he asked me to post this question here. I’m going to Penn this fall and helping him out with his apps right now, and he’s facing a dilemma about where to apply early. His top two options are Harvard (REA) and the Penn Management & Technology dual-degree program (ED). They’re both his first choice (he doesn’t really have a preference between them), and wants to strategize accordingly. Assuming his profile is given equal consideration from both programs, here are the different advantages he has for each:
From Harvard - one of the deans in the Office of Undergraduate Education has offered to write him a LOR after he took multiple mathematics + CS classes with them from the Harvard Extension School and received As in all of them. That dean knows him really well through lecture, office hours, individual appointments, etc.
From Penn M&T - he’s finishing up the M&T Summer Institute for high schoolers this summer, and was one of 90 out of 1400 to get in, so it was very selective. this year. He’s also talked to a lot of the program professors who could end up reading his Penn application, and M&TSI tends to send a disproportionate amount of people into the M&T program relative to the general M&T applicant pool.
If you were him, which option would you choose? He’s looking to study computer science in college, and again, likes both of these schools and their programs equally.
I got some input after posting this on Reddit too, but I’d love to hear more people’s thoughts!