Somewhat nervous about my recs… I chose a history teacher and an art teacher. The history teacher I had sophomore year for American Studies and junior year for my independent study in philosophy, so he knows my intellect very well. I’ve had a class with the art teacher freshman, junior, and senior years, but stayed close with him throughout all four. He’s seen me grow a lot as an artist and might be even better than the history guy… They’ll both be fantastic, but I’m nervous because Penn suggests one math/science. I understand that they qualify this by saying choose the teacher you know best, but it still bugs me!
I chose a math and science
@c777123 We have more in common than I thought. I also had an independent study in philosophy my junior year. What major are you trying to pursue?
@jarrett211 Awesome! I’d be heading to Penn for architecture with a minor in cinema studies (possibly double major in english, but we’ll see). My brother graduated from TCNJ with a degree in philosophy and he has shown me that it’s not really something I want to concentrate my energy on… especially after the independent study and a metaphysics class at Rutgers last summer. What areas did you cover in your IS?
for the record, to those worrying about lack of AP classes at their school: it’s reflection in your School Profile, a document sent to Penn along with your report. They see how well you utilized the APs available in your school, and how rigorous your curriculum was. In a school with 2 APs, it’s probably not a huge deal if you don’t take any (esp. if they’re not of interest to you). But in a school like mine, with 27 AP classes, not taking any or only taking one will look bad.
@c777123 I focused my study on more or less on two topics: I did a term studying the question: Why does the world exist? and the second half I focused my study on ancient and modern ethics and epistemology. I never studied at an actual college for a philosophy class (wish I could have though). I settled for several online college courses in political philosophy, intellectual history, the meaning of life, nomadic history, ancient history, and archaeology, among others.
Personally, I love the subject and would be majoring in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics if I get into Penn. Why did your brother not like majoring in philosophy? I feel like it would be a wonderful subject to study in college.
@jarrett211 I was unclear… he loved it and always talks about how great TCNJ’s department is. But since he never wanted to go into academia or law in any manner, he’s been doing a lot of retail. Eventually wants to start his own beverage company… Although I still don’t want to major in it myself, I do believe that you can really do anything with a philosophy degree. I’ve always found those PPE majors fascinating.
In my independent study, I dedicated my first marking period to ethics, second to metaphysics, third to religion, and last to film. I had to write a ten-page paper each marking period which was pretty straightforward. “Criticisms of Mill’s ‘Utilitarianism’”, “Three Perspectives on Free Will in A Clockwork Orange”, etc… Lots of fun!
@shivaya new york! if ur in a different state and they said the same thing then essays are probably what penn is looking for across the board
@c777123 Ahhh very interesting. Perhaps because I want to go into either law or academia (or work as an archaeologist) that would probably be the difference. Your independent study seems really interesting (and way more in-depth than mine lol). Thankfully Penn isn’t asking me for that 20-page thesis I never wrote. Personally, I am most interested in ethics and political philosophy. That stuff always seems to fascinate me. I’m curious, since you seem to be very interested in film, what did you study that combined philosophy with film?
@jarrett211 I basically watched A Clockwork Orange, analyzed it in terms of Alex’s free will (basically), and also watched Dr. Strangelove, analyzed it in terms of Anatol Rapoport’s three teleological conventions of war. Each of those was 5 pages… If you’re interested at all I can link you privately haha. But I’m actually super interested in filmmaking, the closest thing I have to a childhood dream is to be a director or screenwriter
I love ethics too, and I actually think it’s a growing field esp medical ethics and so on
Anyone applying to Dartmouth RD? My friend let me read the peer rec she wrote for me and I almost cried. It so sweet, and made me sound about 1000x cooler than I actually am.
Hey guys, random question. So one of my top choices after Penn is NYU. Also on my list, however, is Tufts, along with a few other universities ranked higher than NYU. The thing is I would rather go to NYU than Tufts and these other universities for various reasons. And NYU is easier to get accepted to than these other schools. However, my dad really wants me to apply to these harder schools even though I would rather go to NYU which is easier to get into. If you were me, would you apply to these schools anyways (I have like 4 other RD schools I would have to do in a span of ~2.5 weeks I have after getting back Penn decisions) in addition to NYU, or would you just apply to NYU? It feels like so much extra work for schools that, even if I were to get in, I wouldn’t go to over NYU. In other words, would you take the chance on getting to NYU (college of arts and sciences) over schools with acceptance rates of let’s say, 10-20%, when NYU’s acceptance rate is ~33% and from my high school it’s around 40-45%? Would you also submit the other applications, or would you just go on logic that basically says if I don’t get into a school with a greater acceptance rate, I’m not going to get into these other schools that are more competitive?
@jarrett211 College admissions are weird. I know someone who was rejected by Michigan but got into Dartmouth. I know someone who was rejected by UCLA (in state) and got into Yale. I would apply to the other schools.
@c777123 Sounds interesting to me. I see how you got the film in there. Where did the love of architecture come from? Seems to me to be two complete opposite ends of the spectrum. Also, medical ethics (and science in general) doesn’t really interest me actually, but all other kinds of ethics do. Being an ethicist would be really cool, but I would have to say a dream job for me would be an archaeologist, but unfortunately, it isn’t really feasible in the U.S. (we don’t have anything old other than Native American weapon heads and that really doesn’t interest me much), and also it really isn’t a secure job in that you can’t really remain in one place, so we’ll have to see what happens. Definitely want to pursue some kind of archaeology in college though, whether it be through field work abroad or through museum internships or something else.
I put Undeclared as my major of interest for CAS… and it was only until after I submitted my application that people told me that it’s not a good idea to put undeclared as they are more prone to reject you… Is that true?
@zagongshow It doesn’t necessarily mean an automatic reject; there are undeclared students who get accepted. However, it does tend to put your application in the gray zone because can imply that you don’t have a “goal” set beyond your graduation from that university. If you applied undeclared, your “why Penn” essay should have explained in great detail why you applied undecided and what opportunities you are going to find/take at the university that may help you change from “undecided” to “decided”.
If I took the November SAT subject tests but it will not be sent in time to Penn, will Penn automatically defer me because they are waiting for subject scores? (They have received my SAT score, just not subject tests).
@girl1425 Did you say that you were planning to take those tests on CommonApp? Did you list Penn as a score recipient when you signed up for the tests? If yes for both, don’t worry. If no for the either, you’re going to have to talk to admissions about it.
Yes, but the score didn’t go through it’s still pending and for some reason it says the wrong date (it says “pending May 12” when I took it in November,). The weird thing is I sent my free score reports to four schools and Penn is the only one that it has a weird date/hasn’t processed for).
But either way they don’t need the SAT subject scores because they have my SAT right? On Penn’s website it says that SAT subjects are recommended but not required. @toffys