<p>[Vagelos</a> Scholars Program in Molecular Life Sciences](<a href=“Biochemistry | Penn Arts & Sciences”>Vagelos Molecular Life Sciences Program | Penn Arts & Sciences)</p>
<p>Anyone else interested in this, or, even better, already doing it/did it? It is pretty much the only factor that makes Penn my 1st or 2nd choice.</p>
<p>only consider the program if you are honestly interested in pursuing research as a career.</p>
<p>it’s very challenging; a lot of people drop out in the first two years because they’d rather not deal with all the work.</p>
<p>you can get kicked out if you’re below a certain gpa, but at the same time, you can’t leave the program once you’ve been funded for research…</p>
<p>but if biochem research (and the dual bs / ms) are really interesting to you, go for it.</p>
<p>thanks for this info… but now i’m pretty scared haha. i read somewhere that students involved take 15 instead of the usual 12 hours for penn students and that didnt sound too bad considering at many other schools people take more than 15.</p>
<p>is there anything that might encourage me to do this program instead of scare me away besides the research opportunities?</p>
<p>haha 15 hours isn’t that bad.</p>
<p>my freshman and sophomore years i took 22-23 hours per semester, but that’s because i’m an engineer…</p>
<p>you get a lot of good advising, i guess? and access to all sorts of great classes…</p>
<p>accepted LSM class of 2012. Don’t be afraid of it.</p>