JotCast | Prospective Graduate Student Chat, January 23, 2020

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Gaurav Prabhakar

10:45

It was for a period of a year but that also included other classroom courses

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:47

Gaurav, if this is for counting your research experience, you should only count the time you were actually doing research. Part-time research, for example during the school year, should be converted to full time (e.g., 15 hrs/week for 8 months = 3 months). Labs associated with a course, such as an organic chemistry course lab, should be excluded. Does this help?

samartha

10:47

A photocopy of the scores is sufficient?

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:47

No, it is not. We request that the official scores be submitted to us. A photocopy isn't official.

Sanchit

10:47

Perfect Will. Completely clears my doubt

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:48

Excellent!

Guest

10:47

For the MSE in Robotics program, do most students opt for a thesis based Masters?

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:48

Guest, no, most students do not do a thesis.

Khalid Alharbi

10:47

Another query. The required TOEFL score is 100 as it appears in the Graduate Page. Could people still apply and have a chance for a review if their score is slightly less than that score? Or their application will be eliminated directly?

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:49

Khalid, this is not required, but recommended. We do accept students with lower scores. However, we usually recommend that other parts of the application be that much more impressive.

Sanchit

10:47

My last query, Will!
In my current organization, I have served at two positions. Do I need to add both the positions under 'Position Title' in 'Employment' section in page 7, or do I just have to provide details about the current position?

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:49

Sanchit, it is up to you. If the two positions were different enough in their duties, we recommend listing them as separate positions.

Gaurav Prabhakar

10:48

Yes Sir, got it :-)

10:49

One Last query, In the transcripts do i need to attach the Degree too along with the 'score' transcript?

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:50

If your transcript does not mention the degree you were awarded, then yes, we would ask that you attach it.

Jinge

10:50

Hi Will, where can I find the admission statistics of Master in system engineering program? I cannot find it in the admission page of Penn Engineering.

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:50

Jinge, our Systems program doesn't publish admissions statistics. I can share a few, what are you looking for?

Bragadeesh

10:50

Hey Will, thanks for you time!
The university system under which i get my degree has a fixed number of credits with fixed subjects.
However, because of my interest in the field, I was able to take an extra subject relevent to Bioengineering. This is the MSE program I'm applying to.

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:51

Bragadeesh, ok. Can you specify your question for me?

Sanchit

10:51

Thanks a lot, Will. Really appreciate your help! I had sent an email regarding these queries to admissions1@seas.upenn.edu. However, these are resolved now

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:51

Sanchit, I'm glad to hear that I was able to resolve your queries. Best of luck to you!

Gaurav Prabhakar

10:51

Got it Sir, thanks for answering all the queries so patiently! You have always been helpful for the past course of few months! Have a great day.

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:52

Gaurav, thank you for your positive feedback. We do our best to make sure you have the answers you need. Have a great day as well and good luck.

Bragadeesh

10:51

Does the admissions office give special consideration to this initiative?

Sorry about the disconnect between the text

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:53

Bragadeesh, not a problem. And I don't know if I'd say you'd receive "special consideration." All applications are reviewed in full, and we hope that everyone that applies is doing their best in their academic studies to be amazing students and, subsequently, awesome candidates for our programs. I hope that helps.

Chang woo

10:53

Hello Will, I'm a prospective student for the Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering program. If I send two GRE scores, how does UPenn evaluates that? Can I be evaluated by best scores of each section?

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:54

Hi Chang Woo. We use SUPER Scoring for GRE scores, so we would look at the best score for each section, as long as the overall scores are valid.

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:53

Where would you plan to live?

On campus (0% | 0 votes)

Off campus, but near UPenn (16.7% | 1 vote)

Off campus in West Philadelphia/University City (0% | 0 votes)

Off campus in Center City/Downtown (0% | 0 votes)

I have no idea, help! (83.3% | 5 votes)

Total Votes: 6

Bragadeesh

10:54

Got it Will, thank you!

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:55

You're welcome. Best of luck to you.

Jinge

10:55

Thank you so much! I want to know the history admission rate and the median of gpa, toefl, and gre score.

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:56

Have you been to UPenn or Philadelphia

Yes, I live here (0% | 0 votes)

Yes, both (0% | 0 votes)

Philadelphia, but not UPenn (0% | 0 votes)

THe US, but not Philadelphia (50% | 1 vote)

I've never been to the US (50% | 1 vote)

Total Votes: 2

Jinge, unfortunately, we don't have the median GPA, GRE and TOEFL scores to share. I can tell you that the median TOEFL would be over 100. As for admission rates, the rate was approximately 45% last year and approximately 48% the year before.

Gaurav Prabhakar

10:57

Thankyou :-)

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:57

You're welcome.

Khalid Alharbi

10:57

Another question, Will. A student went to another university for one semester during his undergrad as an exchange student. His scores were low for some reasons. Is it better not to mention it in the academic background section in the application?

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:58

Khalid, if the student received academic credit for any courses taken during that semester, we require that they are disclosed as part of the application process. And in the personal statement, perhaps the student could discuss what they learned about themselves due to the lower scores and how it helped them ultimately succeed and graduate?

Michael

10:58

Will is it possible for you to disclose the accpetance rate for Robotics M.S.E

Will Fenton, Enrollment Specialist

10:59

Hi Michael, yes it is. Last year the acceptance rate was 16%.

Guest

10:59

Hi Will,

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