How to Succeed as a UPenn Premed
/Learn how to navigate premed at the University of Pennsylvania, including UPenn premed requirements, the best premed extracurriculars, and the UPenn premed acceptance rate
Learn how to get into medical school as a University of Pennsylvania premed
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Part 1: Introduction
Though the University of Pennsylvania is often celebrated as a business-world powerhouse, it is also a top-tier school for premeds. The numbers support this conclusion: Penn (also known as “UPenn”) ranks second among the Ivy League and lands in the top 10 among private universities nationally when it comes to the number of graduates applying to medical school, with over 300 applicants in 2021.
The reasons for this large number of applicants are numerous. Combining an Ivy League undergraduate education with close affiliations with the renowned Perelman School of Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Penn provides the resources that can set you up for premed success. Each of these affiliates are located just steps away from the undergraduate campus, making opportunities for research, volunteering, and shadowing accessible. Plus, Penn’s location in West Philadelphia allows premeds to get deeply involved with the local community, including opportunities to work with a variety of vulnerable populations.
Penn has other unique programs and resources that help it stand out among premed programs. One example is the Vagelos Scholars Program in the Molecular Life Sciences, a specific degree program that provides mentoring and coursework aimed toward a career in biomedical research, with many of its alumni attending top MD and MD/PhD programs such as Johns Hopkins, Harvard, WUSTL, and Stanford, in addition to a large number that have stayed at Penn. The full list of outcomes for this program can be found on their website.
Furthermore, Penn has an incredibly long and storied role in the history of American medicine. The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine traces its founding back to 1765, making it the oldest medical school in the United States. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1874, is the oldest academic hospital in the United States. Even the founder of the university, Benjamin Franklin, made significant contributions to medicine, including writing on the placebo effect and vaccination, identifying several symptoms of lead poisoning, and even inventing a new type of flexible urethral catheter.
Despite the many advantages that come with being a premed at Penn, there can also be significant challenges. Given the top-notch caliber of the undergraduates who attend Penn, competition in premed courses can be fierce, and it can be difficult to maintain a high GPA. Even outside of the classroom, you may be faced with competition for leadership positions in clubs, complicating your goal of creating a strong overall resume.
Taking advantage of the opportunities presented by a Penn education while meeting its challenges requires careful planning and lots of hard work. In this guide, which was created using insight from current Penn premeds and alumni, we’ll offer advice on how to succeed in the classroom, how to cultivate a diverse resume of volunteer activities and extracurriculars that will help your application stand out, and ways to develop your passion for medicine through clinical experiences. Finally, we’ll evaluate where Penn premeds have gone after graduation and what may have led to their outcomes.
Together, this information will provide an excellent template to help you accomplish your goal of becoming yet another successful Penn premed.
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Part 2: UPenn premed requirements
At a school like Penn, you have an incredible array of courses at your fingertips. Penn undergraduates have the ability to take classes in any of the 12 schools on campus through its One University plan, giving you course options in everything from biology to veterinary medicine to business classes at Wharton. These diverse opportunities allow you to explore and develop your own unique interests, and taking advantage of them can help make you a more well-rounded person and, ultimately, medical school applicant.
As a premed, however, you will have to complete specific course requirements in order to apply to medical school. These include courses in math, biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, physics, and English. Penn offers some advice for course selection and scheduling here.
In addition to the guide offered by Penn’s Career Services office above, here’s a table offering suggestions on potential courses that will satisfy the requirements for the majority of medical schools. Be sure to confirm with individual programs, however, for more specific requirements that some schools may have.
| Biology: One year with lab | One of the following sequences: Biology 1101 and 1102 Biology 1121 + 1123 and a 2000-level biology lecture + 1124 |
Biology 2010 | ||||
| General chemistry: One year with lab | Chemistry 1011 or 1012, + 1101 lab Chemistry 1022 + 1102 lab |
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| Organic chemistry: One year with lab | Chemistry 2411 + 2412 Chemistry 2421 + 2422 |
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| Biochemistry: One course | Biology 2810 or Chemistry 2510 | |||||
| Calculus: One course | Math 1400 + 0040 lab or higher | |||||
| Statistics: One course | Statistics 1110, Biology 2510, or another statistics course | |||||
| Physics: One year with lab | One of the following sequences: Physics 0101 and 01012 Physics 0150 and 0151 |
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| College-level English/writing: One year | Writing Seminar, plus one additional English or comparative literature course | |||||
| Courses helpful for MCAT prep: | Psychology 001 Sociology 001 |
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(Suggested reading: Medical School Requirements: The Definitive Guide)
As you can see from the recommendations above, certain subjects offer several classes that will satisfy medical school requirements. For example, for your first semester of general chemistry, you can take either Chemistry 1011 or 1012. Per the course catalog from the Penn Department of Chemistry, 1011 and 1012 will ultimately cover similar material; however, 1011 is designed for students with less high school background in chemistry and mathematics, and will focus more on developing problem-solving strategies.
A similar choice is present for introductory biology. You can choose between Biology 1101 and 1121, with 1121 being suited to students with a stronger background in biology.
In addition to deciding what courses to take, deciding when you take them can be just as important. If you plan on applying to medical school without taking a gap year, you will inevitably have some semesters that require taking multiple premed courses simultaneously—for instance, taking both biology and general chemistry, or physics and biochemistry, at the same time. Since these courses are often difficult and the grades you earn in them will be important, it is key to plan ahead and mitigate these conflicts as much as possible.
Some factors to consider when planning your courses:
Courses required for your major(s), minor(s), and any other certificates
Whether you intend to study abroad
General Education requirements for graduation, including your Foundational Approaches (including foreign language) and Sectors of Knowledge
Prerequisites for some premed courses (consult the course catalog for specific requirements)
When you plan to take the MCAT (more on this below)
If you intend to take a gap year, since this will allow additional time to complete your requirements
Balancing more difficult courses (often your premed requirements) with less challenging courses (often your graduation requirements)
Sample UPenn premed two-year course plan
To help with your course selection, here’s one potential schedule for a Penn premed who intends to take the MCAT during the fall or winter of junior year and apply to medical school during senior year (i.e., without taking a gap year before medical school).
| Freshman Fall | Chemistry 1011 + 1011 lab Writing Seminar Biology 1101 |
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| Freshman Spring | Chemistry 1022 + 1102 lab Biology 1102 Psychology 001 |
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| Freshman Summer | Physics 0101 Physics 0102 |
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| Sophomore Fall | Chemistry 2411 + 2412 Math 1400 English/writing course |
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| Sophomore Spring | Chemistry 2421 + 2422 Biology 2810 |
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How to maintain a high GPA as a UPenn premed
Being a premed student at Penn can be extremely difficult, especially when it comes to maintaining a high GPA. Premed courses tackle challenging subjects like organic chemistry, which employ skills you haven’t been exposed to in the past, such as thinking in three-dimensional space or working backwards through a complex synthesis of a molecule.
This difficulty can be compounded by the fact that many of your classes will be graded on a curve, putting you in competition with your peers. This is especially true at Penn, where just to gain admission as an undergraduate requires top-notch academic abilities. Plus, Penn isn’t particularly known for having grade inflation, which can make obtaining the GPA necessary for medical school admission an obstacle for many.
While the challenges of maintaining a high GPA as a Penn premed are considerable, there are also significant advantages to the type of coursework you will complete:
First, there are numerous opportunities for academic support that can help you identify and address your weaknesses.
Second, the difficult coursework at Penn can be excellent preparation for the material on the MCAT, as well as a great primer in how to study for the difficult courses you can expect in medical school.
Finally, when it comes to getting into medical school, applicants from Penn over-perform applicants nationally with similar GPAs, as seen by data on the Career Services website. This suggests that medical schools do, to some degree, take into account the difficulty that comes with being a Penn premed.
Nevertheless, here is some advice for premed success at Penn:
Use academic support. Penn offers a wide variety of options for finding support in your courses. The Weingarten Center offers tutoring services in many common premed subjects, such as chemistry, physics, and organic chemistry. They also offer workshops to improve your study habits and even full one-on-one sessions with learning consultants.
Talk to your professors and TAs. Nearly all courses will have office hours, often with both professors and TAs. These can be great sessions for practicing extra problems or getting additional insight into a topic you might be struggling with.
Choose the right professor for your class. Many courses employ multiple instructors for a single course or change instructors from year to year. Utilize resources like older students, the Penn subreddit, and Rate My Professor in order to find out more about individual professors’ teaching styles, and choose accordingly.
Make use of old exams and problem sets. Both old exams and problem sets offer a window into the mind of your professor and can give you a strong sense of the type of questions likely to appear on your exam. Try to use at least some of these questions to simulate your exam by completing the questions without resources or the answer key. After you complete the questions, focus on where your thinking was incorrect to try to address your deficits.
Consider pre-studying. If you are concerned about a specific course, consider getting a head start on the material prior to the semester. If you can, find and utilize materials from the course you are planning to take, but if those are not available, there are frequently similar courses offered at other schools that are available on YouTube or OpenCourseware.
Consider taking courses in the summer. Taking classes over the summer provides the benefit of spreading your course load out over a longer period of time and decreasing the overlap between often-challenging premed requirements. It is also commonly thought that summer courses have an easier curve than those during the school year, though that is not always the case. While we recommend taking the majority of your classes at Penn, classes taken at other universities during the summer may also be easier than the same course at Penn.
Don’t take an unnecessarily challenging course load. At Penn, it can be easy to fall into the temptation of pursuing an extra class or even an extra major or minor. While additional courses can be rewarding, be cautious when adding onto your workload, as this may make it more difficult to participate in extracurricular activities, shadow, conduct research, or even keep up your GPA. Try to maintain a relatively even number of courses per semester to avoid overextending yourself.
Work hard. Being a premed at Penn is not easy. Achieving top grades will require a significant amount of time devoted not just to memorizing the material, but also to fully understanding and applying complex concepts. This can be a challenge for even the brightest of students, so prepare yourself for some long nights and early mornings.
(Suggested reading: How to Study as a Premed)
What’s the best premed major at Penn?
Among premeds, rumors commonly spread that your chances of getting into medical school are significantly different based on your major. Some say that medical schools value the rigor of a degree in the life sciences, while others suggest that programs actually want unique or well-rounded students from a nontraditional major. In reality, the data shows that students from a wide variety of majors have successfully applied to medical school and that there isn’t one overall best major for premeds.
At Penn, you have an incredible array of majors that you can pursue. Successful applicants have come from the traditional premed majors of chemistry and biology but also from fields as varied as French, anthropology, and even Wharton (i.e., business). Here’s an article from the Daily Pennsylvanian about a few premeds who pursued more unusual majors.
Despite this, in general, premeds at Penn major in many of the same areas as premeds nationally, typically in the life sciences. This is not only because students in medicine are commonly interested in the sciences, but also because the requirements for this type of major will overlap significantly with your premed courses. That’s not to say you cannot major in something without significant overlap, but doing so will involve completing a larger number of courses.
Other relatively common majors among premeds that are more specific to Penn include neuroscience (formerly biological basis of behavior or BBB), as well as health and society. The latter can be a great major for a potential premed since it combines the scientific rigor of your premed courses with a focus on the social context of health through training in history, sociology, and anthropology.
Choosing your major comes down to answering a few questions:
Where do my passions lie?
Can I complete my degree and my premed courses?
Can I maintain a high GPA?
When should you take the MCAT?
Just as it’s important to plan out the ideal time to take each of your premed courses, it’s also important to consider when to take the MCAT. This planning should incorporate your individual goals and preparation, including your coursework, time available for dedicated study, and plans for gap years, if any.
For a student at Penn who does not intend to take a gap year, we suggest taking the exam during the fall of your junior year. This timing allows you to utilize your first two years at Penn to complete many of the courses tested on the exam, and it provides you with the summer prior to junior year for dedicated study time. By taking the MCAT in the fall, you’d also allow yourself time to retake the exam if necessary prior to submitting your application, eliminating the potential need to add a gap year.
As a test that combines material from a variety of different subjects, it’s important to build in time to either take a formal course or self-study each topic. At Penn, here’s a list of courses that encompass the majority of tested material and which you should consider taking prior to the MCAT:
Chemistry 1011 (or 1012) and 1022
Biology 1101 and 1102
Physics 0101 and 0102 (or 150/151)
Chemistry 2411/2412 and 2421/2422
Chemistry 2510 (or Biology 2810)
In addition to these courses, you may also consider taking introductory classes in psychology and sociology—for example, Psychology 001 and Sociology 001. Both sociology and psychology are present on the MCAT, though only to a minor degree relative to the topics recommended above. Therefore, many students find that this material can be self-studied in lieu of taking a formal class.
Since the MCAT will require you to apply concepts from courses you may have taken early in your college career, it is also important to focus on retention rather than just memorization in these courses.
Finally, while these courses at Penn will cover the vast majority of material on the exam, it is also important to utilize other resources when studying for the MCAT. College-level science courses in some cases may miss basic concepts that might be tested and, in other cases, may teach at a higher level than is necessary for acing the exam. Thus, adding specific test preparation materials can be important.
(Suggested reading: How to Get a Perfect MCAT Score: Strategies From a 528 Scorer)
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Part 3: UPenn premed extracurriculars
At Penn, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of different opportunities available outside the classroom. In fact, the Penn Clubs website currently lists nearly 1,000 different organizations on campus. These organizations span the gamut from the more traditional premed societies, Greek life, and club sports to things you’re likely to only find at Penn, such as the Social Deduction Club, Penn Beekeeping Club, and Platypus Penn.
Given all these different opportunities, how should you choose your extracurriculars?
First, be sure not to overextend yourself, especially given the academic rigor required to be at Penn.
Second, try to focus more of your energy on a few things that are most important to you, rather than putting a smaller amount of effort into many things. By putting work into a few activities, you’re much more likely to develop leadership roles, accomplishments, and connections that can be both personally fulfilling and a major plus on your medical school application.
Finally, try to find activities that you pursue not just for your medical school application, but also because you genuinely enjoy them. Given the challenge of being a premed at Penn, fulfilling activities can be invaluable for your mental well-being.
To get you started, here’s a list of some activities that premeds at Penn often pursue. Given that there are nearly 1,000 student groups on campus, it’s likely that there are also other opportunities that may interest you on the Penn Clubs website. If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, consider starting your own group or expanding on the mission of a similar existing organization.
In addition to the opportunities available at Penn, we also encourage you to look for activities in the broader Philadelphia community. West Philadelphia, where Penn is located, faces significant challenges, many of which directly relate to health. Working with nonprofits and other organizations in these communities can be an excellent way to broaden your horizons and bring you into contact with the struggles your patients will likely also face.
(Suggested reading: How to Choose the Right Extracurricular Activities for Medical School)
UPenn clinical and community volunteering
The Penn Career Services office publishes a pre-health email newsletter that will have up-to-date information on clinical volunteering opportunities. They also provide this handy FAQ on clinical shadowing and volunteering.
In addition, here’s a list of some organizations at Penn that offer opportunities to work in the local community:
UPenn shadowing
As a premed, finding doctors to shadow is a crucial part of your application process. At Penn, this is made easy as there are several hospitals directly adjacent to campus. These include the top-20-ranked Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian and the #2 children’s hospital, Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP).
Outside of these nearby hospitals, the Philadelphia metro area has some of the highest concentrations of teaching hospitals in the country, with one-sixth of all physicians doing some portion of their training in Philadelphia.
Here are some local hospitals where students may be able to find opportunities:
In addition to these hospitals, we also suggest you reach out to physicians in private practice, both in Philadelphia and in your hometown. Especially with COVID regulations, these practices may be more willing to allow you to shadow for a brief period of time. It is also informative to see what the practice of medicine looks like outside of an academic setting.
(Suggested reading: How to Ask to Shadow a Doctor)
UPenn research
As a premed at Penn, your opportunities for research are abundant. Penn is one of the largest biomedical research institutions in the world, receiving the sixth-largest amount of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in 2021. Penn also has the advantage of having the vast majority of its research labs within walking distance of the undergraduate campus, greatly decreasing the barrier to entry for pursuing significant research.
At Penn, you also have programs created by the university to help you locate research. One such program is the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program (PURM). This program allows faculty members to propose research projects for prospective students, which are compiled into a database. Students, usually in their freshman or sophomore year, then apply to several projects and, if selected, are matched with faculty and provided with a $5,000 stipend to pursue ten weeks of research over the summer. This is an excellent opportunity not only for finding a lab for the ten weeks, but also for forming relationships with faculty who you can continue to work with or who can potentially provide you with a letter of recommendation.
Even with all these potential avenues for research, finding a position might still be difficult. The Penn Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowship (CURF) can be an excellent resource for connecting with faculty. They offer a research directory (Penn key required) that can help you locate faculty who may have open space in their laboratory. If you’ve explored these resources and are still looking for a position, here are a few additional tips:
Use your connections. Talk to other premeds and classmates about research opportunities that they may be aware of but which haven’t been formally posted yet. These people can also put in a good word for you to help you get your foot in the door.
Talk to your professors and advisors. Many of your professors and academic advisors also run research groups and may have openings. Even if they don’t, they may have a colleague with availability who they could refer you to.
Take an upper-level course. While it can be tough to make a strong connection with a faculty member in your intro classes, taking an upper-level, smaller course can be a great way to get connected with a faculty member. This is especially true for upper-level lab courses, which can put you directly in research situations that can often translate into additional opportunities even after the class is over.
Send cold emails to faculty. After you’ve exhausted your connections and looked through the formal postings for research positions, the next step is to contact professors directly to inquire about research openings. It often takes many of these emails before you will find a position, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t immediately find success. Penn’s CURF office also offers a guide for how to send these emails.
(Suggested reading: How to Write a Great Research Assistant Cover Letter)
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Part 4: Getting into medical school from UPenn
As you prepare to apply to medical school, the Penn Career Services Pre-Medicine office will be an excellent resource. At Penn you have the option to schedule 30-minute meetings with pre-health advisors to discuss a wide range of topics including course planning, GPA and MCAT concerns, letters of recommendation, and general questions. These appointments can be scheduled through Handshake. In a pinch, Penn also offers walk-in hours that will allow you to get a question answered quickly.
As you enter the year in which you intend to apply, you enter the HPAB process. This system will consist of orientation sessions, a short essay packet, personal statement draft, advisor meetings, and letters of recommendations. These letters will ultimately allow Penn to compose a committee letter that will represent you as you apply. A full timeline of the process is available here.
Despite the abundance of resources available through the career office, much of the process of applying to medical school from Penn is the same as at any other undergraduate institution. This includes composing a compelling personal statement, putting together your AMCAS Work & Activities section, gathering your letters of recommendation for the committee, submitting your transcripts, and completing secondary essays.
(Suggested reading: The Ideal Medical School Application Timeline)
UPenn premed acceptance rate and admissions statistics
Given all the advantages that come with being a premed at Penn, how do Penn premeds fare when they apply to medical school? Here we’ll briefly review the published Penn premed admissions statistics.
Looking at the numbers overall, Penn reports an admissions rate for its alumni and undergraduates of 72% in 2021, drastically higher than the national average of 38%. And despite dramatically higher admissions rates, students at Penn actually had a slightly lower average GPA (3.63 at Penn vs. 3.66 nationally), though the Penn average MCAT of 517 was significantly higher than the national average, 512.
This data suggests that, in general, students at Penn perform better than average on the MCAT. It may also suggest that Penn’s reputation and resources can positively impact your chances of medical school acceptance, though higher-than-average MCAT scores undoubtedly play a role as well.
Penn also provides some data to show where its premeds end up. Medical schools with five or more Penn grads in 2020–2021 included Case Western, Columbia, Emory, Hackensack Meridian, Johns Hopkins, New York Medical College, Temple, and Thomas Jefferson, as well as Penn’s own Perelman School of Medicine. To see a broader view of where Penn students matriculated, check out this map, which highlights all the schools attended by Penn premeds in 2020–2021.
(Suggested reading: How Hard Is It to Get into Medical School?)
Getting into Perelman School of Medicine as a UPenn premed
A common question students ask is: does being a premed at Penn help you gain acceptance to the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Perelman School of Medicine?
While official data for Penn applicants to Perelman is not available, by looking at the map of Penn students in 2020–2021, we can see that 14 graduates of Penn enrolled at Perelman in 2021—the highest number to matriculate to a single medical school that year. Since Perelman matriculates 156 students per class, this would represent 9% of the entering class.
At 3.92 and 521.9, Perelman’s average GPA and MCAT are sky-high. While we cannot conclusively say whether or not being a Penn premed provides an admissions boost, it’s clear that getting into Perelman will require an excellent academic performance regardless.
(Suggested reading: How to Get Into Perelman School of Medicine: Requirements and Strategies)
Final thoughts
The University of Pennsylvania has been able to place itself among the top producers of premeds in the country by combining an Ivy League education with an abundance of extracurriculars, clinical experiences, and research. Students who successfully take advantage of these opportunities have found success at many of the top medical schools in the United States, including Perelman, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford. By using the resources recommended by this guide, you too can find success as a Penn premed.
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.
