When evaluating whether to enroll at Penn or at another undergraduate school, it is important to consider many factors besides the school's medical school admissions statistics. It is essential to determine whether you will be happy and comfortable at a school, and whether it will provide you the opportunity to gain a good education, to excel as a student, and to grow as an individual. Remember, you are going to college to get an education that prepares you for life, not merely a practical training that prepares you for medical school.
Penn provides exceptionally fine opportunities to gain a broad education while preparing for medical school. On one campus, we provide undergraduate and graduate study in a broad range of fields, from anthropology and bioengineering to multinational finance. Penn also offers courses and majors in a number of health-related fields, including health care management, science, technology and society, health and societies, biological basis of behavior, and human biology. Regardless of their fields, our students have the opportunity to study with some of the finest professors in the world. Our pre-health students have the chance to assist in clinical care and research opportunities at the University's Medical, Dental, and Veterinary Schools, all of which are located on the same campus.
Penn provides an impressive range of student services. We have dedicated pre-health advisors in Career Services as well as a Health Professions Advisory Board that provides a letter in support of each Penn student or alumnus who applies to medical school. As needed, we refer students to colleagues who can help with study skills, writing skills, time management, stress management, and other issues.
Getting into medical school is a very competitive process. Nationally, only 50% of the individuals who applied for fall 2002 admission to allopathic (M.D. degree-granting) medical schools were admitted. However, Penn applicants were much more successful in gaining admission. Among the 261 Penn applicants (both current students and alumni) for fall 2002 admission, 198 of them, or 76%, were accepted. Of the graduating seniors, 83% were admitted that year. Penn has always been a leader in preparing students for the study of medicine. Over the years, it has consistently ranked among the top few undergraduate schools in the number of its alumni who enter M.D. programs in the United States.
