Is Your Child Headed for Penn?
If the answer is yes, the future Penn applicant should get in touch with director Harriet Joseph and her staff at the Alumni Council on Admissions. The ACA guides children and grandchildren of alumni through every step of the undergraduate admissions process. It’s a way of personalizing and extending the relationship of alumni families to their alma mater.
High schoolers should enroll in their schools’ most rigorous courses. Call the Council office, if you have questions. By junior year, when standardized tests such as the SAT are taken, students should be thinking about what course of study they’d like to pursue after graduation and which college or university can best provide the educational experience they are looking for. Information sessions and campus tours are offered everyday through the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.
At the end of junior year, legacy children should contact the ACA to schedule an interview, which includes counseling for families about curriculum, extracurricular activities, and the admissions process. It’s the only on-campus interview for undergraduate applicants to Penn. Joseph encourages future candidates to set up interviews between the end of junior year in high school and the beginning of senior year, when the ACA’s schedule is most flexible. The best use of the alumni connection, says Joseph, is for legacy children to apply under Penn’s Early Decision Plan. But, she cautions, students should apply early only if they are 100 percent sure they want to come to Penn.
"We are the on-campus resource for children and grandchildren of alumni," says Joseph. "We provide an important service, and we hope families will use it in the best way they can."
Alumni Council on Admissions
E. Craig Sweeten House
3533 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104
215-898-6888