University of Pennsylvania

Describe the courses of study and the unique characteristics of the University of Pennsylvania that most interest you. Why do these interests make you a good match for Penn? As a young aficionado of poetry and prose, I would love more than anything to develop my skills through a disciplined and distinguished writing program, and … Read more Feeling I Belong

Name a Penn professor with whom you would like to study or conduct research and explain why. (1000 characters) Besides a general fancy for the written word, Professor Josephine Park of the English Department and I share interest in specialties like 20th century American literature. As a fellow Asian-American writer, Doctor Park’s emphasis on Asian-American … Read more Professor Park

A Penn education provides a liberal arts and sciences foundation across multiple disciplines with a practical emphasis in one of four undergraduate schools: the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Nursing, or the Wharton School.Given the undergraduate school to which you are applying, please discuss how … Read more A Penn Education

Ben Franklin once said, “All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.”Which are you?(Please answer in 300-500 words.) From the first day, one thing became painfully obvious–if I didn’t get moving, I would get run over. It started off easy; I made sure to … Read more Moving

Write about a memorable/significant experience. What came first, science or technology?” asked a tall and husky figure, who was dressed in an unbuttoned and rather threadbare lab coat. My initial response was science because I reasoned that technology was the application of science. An articulated voice from the back of the room, however, soon refuted … Read more An Unforgettable Summer

Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you. As I’m sitting criss-cross on my bed, my cats curl up beside me, purring quietly. There’s music playing in the background softly, the melodious kind that floats through the air. It’s so calming that eventually … Read more The Little Things

A topic of your choice. I learned to write essays like prefabricated housing and sensible shoes—standardized, impeccable, identical. No flight of fancy dared disturb the military precision of my supporting arguments as they marched in brigades of four to five sentences, intent upon storming the fortress and seizing the A-plus as a trophy of war. … Read more The Storyteller

Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you. It’s 107 degrees and the sun’s hot rays are beating down on a family trekking through the busy streets of Dhaka. People, rickshaws, and goats alike are all rushing off to reach their respective destinations. … Read more The Power of Exposure

Consider the books you have read in the last year or two either for school or for leisure. Please discuss the way in which one of them changed your understanding of the world, other people, or yourself. I am a traveler, continually guided and inspired by the Homeric hero Odysseus while leading a life marked … Read more Setting Sail

Describe the courses of study and the unique characteristics of the University of Pennsylvania that most interest you. Why do these interests make you a good match for Penn? Maybe, I could be the next Lorene Cary, whose novel, The Price of a Child was selected to unite the city under the 2003 “One Book, … Read more Maybe I Could Be…