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We're here with Jordan Pascucci Associate Dean
in Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania.
And we'll be speaking with her today about
the University of Pennsylvania and their application process.
Jordan, thanks for being with us today.
>> Thank you very much.
I'm excited to be here.
>> To begin, we'd like to get to know
you and the University of Pennsylvania a little bit better.
So could you tell us a little about your role as an admission officer?
>> Sure.
It's something that starts from the beginning to end and so it's constantly
evolving and we're always looking at the class that we're about to enroll.
Then we're looking future years ahead trying to reach out to
students that they can start thinking and planning as soon as possible.
What we do in our team of admissions officers at, at the
University of Pennsylvania, is that we spend part of the year reaching
out to students around the world letting them know about the opportunities
at Penn and trying to be counselors in the process of applying.
It's definitely a complex process when you're talking about selective
admissions especially, and so we want to be there as a
resource for not just the students and their families, but
also for guidance counselors in the school communities around the world.
So once we do that we travel the world and we see lots of outreach, then we come back
to campus and then it's time to evaluate and select
the class for that year for the University of Pennsylvania.
>> And just out of curiosity, do you
have a favorite part of being in admissions?
>> I'm very lucky because in part of my role, I get, I
also work with international territory specifically, and
so I love the travel and I
love meeting new people and the
hospitality and being introduced to new cultures
through the school systems and meeting the
students in their school and home environment.
So I'm very lucky in that I get to meet a lot of interesting places and people.
That's my favorite.
>> Now that we know a little bit more about you
can you help us get to know the University of Pennsylvania?
>> Absolutely.
So the University of Pennsylvania is an Ivy League institution, located
in the city of Philadelphia, which is America's fifth largest city.
What's great about it is that we're you know
two hours from New York two hours from Washington
D.C., and have everything that you would need in
a world class city right at our finger tips.
So, the University of Pennsylvania was founded by Ben Franklin
and I bring that up because he was pretty interesting character.
When you think about his own life and the
spirit of innovation that he brought to everything he did.
When he founded the University of Pennsylvania, his vision was to create
a place for people who wanted to make an impact in the world.
A place where people could go to learn how to take
their skills and talents and apply them to solve real world problems.
And so from that, grew out this
wonderful institution that has four undergraduate schools, 12
graduate schools, 164 research centers, 21 libraries,
so many different resources all in one place.
So students come here and they get to
take advantage all of the different schools, courses, opportunities.
So it leads to a combination of majors, minors
and degree programs that simply aren't available anywhere else.
So the fact that we're in the city, what's
beautiful about it is that the campus is all contiguous.
So basically from the center of campus, within five minutes walking,
you can get to every thing that I named plus more.
All the college houses, shops, restaurants.
And so students within the course of the
day can really create limitless opportunities at Penn.
>> Jordan, I always tell students that universities have unique personalities.
How would you describe the personality of Penn?
>> I would definitely describe it as innovative and inspired.
It carries with it, you know, this idea of
Ben Franklin being an innovator himself and he was
a scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, so many different things at
a time in history where that just wasn't the norm.
Students of today what I like to tell them is that by the time they enter the
work force, half of the jobs they will
have in their life time haven't been created yet.
And so Penn is a place that attracts students that get excited about that idea.
Because we have the four undergraduates schools
of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences,
Wharton School of Business, School of Engineering
and Applied Science and School of Nursing.
Students are constantly collaborating together and so students really
enjoy that idea of challenging each other, growing along
with each other and taking advantage of the resources
that come with a really large and diverse undergraduate population.
>> So along those same lines of personality, what
kind of student thrives on campus and who might struggle?
>> That's a really good question and I think it's one that students have
to ask themselves before they apply to schools, is what kind of student am I.
At Penn, we, definitely a student that
succeeds here is a student that understands.
The most successful students are the ones that ask for help.
>> Mm.
>> I think that everybody thinks that they're talented, they've gotten admitted
into a selective institution and they can do it all on their own.
But the reality is that the students that
you're seeing who aren't really struggling, who've adapted good
study habits from the beginning, they're the ones that
sought the resources that exist here and use them.
I like to say that Penn is looking for students
in our applicant pool who display a sense of initiative.
The idea that we have wonderful, tremendous opportunities and
resources, but they don't mean anything unless a student's going to
walk in the front door of the Center for Undergraduate
Research and Fellowship or walk into the Penn Abroad office.
So it's all about you having to put some initiative behind, you know,
everything that's going to come from that work that you put in, in the beginning.
As student who would struggle at the university of Pennsylvania.
>> Mm-hm.
>> I think would be a student who would try to take it on all themselves.
>> Mm-hm.
>> Definitely we expect students to reach out
to faculty and work closely with them here.
Those small classes is for a reason and we want
students to be actively part of this living and learning community.
So reaching out to their peers, their
mentors, their faculty for guidance is essential.
>> With just under 10,000 students, the University of
Pennsylvania officially fits in kind of that mid sized category.
>> Yeah.
>> Can you talk a little bit about what is it like to attend a mid-sized school?
>> Mm-hm.
So the great thing about a mid-sized
school and especially the University of Pennsylvania
is that it serves as the best of both worlds in a lot of ways.
>> Mm-hm.
>> You can find those close knit
specific communities and connect to them right away.
So that everything feels smaller if that's something that you're interested in.
But it's also that there's enough students that there's so
much diversity and so there's sort of a place for everyone
to really belong, but also a place for people to
be challenged and meet people with new ideas and new perspectives.
So at a mid-sized university Penn being in a city is great because
it's, we're also sort of in what I would consider a relatively mid-sized city.
From one end of Center City to the
other in Philadelphia is really only about five kilometers.
>> Mm-hm.
>> And so it's a place where students can really build a
life, and I feel that the same is true for Penn's campus.
>> Mm-hm.
>> Everything is so close together that you can
really connect with other people and you would never really
question the size because I don't think that it ever
really feels large to the student going through the experience.
>> Mm-hm.
>> With that being said, I think that if a student really was into
the wilderness or, [LAUGH] some particular geographic
element that you would want to research a little
bit more because this is a place where there's a lot going on and
there's a lot of ways to fit in, but we are also in a city.
>> Mm-hm.
Of course, many people know Penn for being part of the Ivy League.
>> Yes.
>> What does it mean to be a part of the Ivy League?
>> Sure, so the Ivy League is
actually an athletic conference and it's a formation
of eight schools that make up some of
the oldest, private institutions in the United States.
And, it did definitely start as an
athletic conference and continues to this day.
So, you know, our most cordial and sometimes
fiercely battled athletic rivals exist within this conference.
>> Mm-hm.
Mm-hm.
>> But at the same time, it has definitely evolved to
indicate a certain standard of academic
excellence and also selectivity in admissions.
>> So using Penn as an example, how would the day-to-day life of the student
differ at an Ivy League institution from a non-Ivy League institution.
>> Sure.
So, the, going back to the idea that really students are
going to be most successful when they take initiative and they understand
that they are going to get out of this experience of
higher education what they put into it, that's true at all universities.
>> Mm-hm.
>> So whatever, over 4,000 colleges and universities a student might attend.
>> Mm-hm.
It's up to them to really create the opportunities but
with that being said I think that a highly selective
school or an elite institution a day-to-day occurrence might differ
in the first few weeks of adjustment I think especially.