S3E12: How to Succeed with the Penn Supplements (2024)
Today's question of the week: "How should I approach the Penn Supplement?”
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Today's question of the week: “How should I approach the Penn supplement?"
Introduction: In this episode of the "Admittedly" podcast, host Thomas Caleel dives into the Penn supplement, focusing on the two required essays for all applicants: the thank you letter and the community essay. He also provides tips for navigating the school-specific essays depending on the program you're applying to.
Summary of Key Points:
1. The Thank You Letter: This 150-200 word essay requires you to write a thank you note to someone who has meaningfully impacted your life. Thomas emphasizes the importance of choosing someone who truly represents an aspect of your journey, and he stresses that you must share the letter with the person and reflect on their response in your essay.
2. Exploring Community at Penn: The second required essay asks how you will explore and contribute to the community at Penn. Thomas advises students to do thorough research, envision themselves on campus, and consider both continuing high school activities and trying new ones, all while connecting their community involvement to their identity and future goals at Penn.
3. School-Specific Essays: For applicants to Penn’s various schools, additional essays are required. Thomas encourages students to deeply personalize these essays by researching faculty, courses, and opportunities specific to their intended major or program. The goal is to show a clear, individualized path through Penn that aligns with your academic and professional aspirations.
4. Personalization is Key: Across all essays, Thomas highlights the importance of going beyond generic statements. He urges applicants to make their essays as personal as possible, connecting their past experiences and future goals to the unique offerings at Penn.
Conclusion: The Penn supplement provides a valuable opportunity for applicants to showcase their gratitude, community involvement, and academic goals. By following Thomas Caleel’s advice, students can craft essays that resonate with admissions officers and clearly demonstrate why Penn is the right fit for them.
Have your own question you want answered? Leave us a comment on social media @admittedlypodcast for a chance to be featured.
About Thomas Caleel:
Thomas is an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania. After earning his MBA at the Wharton School of Business in 2003, he moved to Silicon Valley. For three years, he was Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid at Wharton. He worked closely with admissions professionals, students, alumni, and professors to curate the best possible MBA class. Thomas has been an entrepreneur his entire life in the fields of finance, agriculture, wellness, and sporting goods. As the founder of Global Education Opportunities LLC, he works as a high-level admissions advisor to help families and students achieve their education goals. Thomas started the podcast Admittedly because he is passionate about demystifying the application process for all parents and applicants.
Related Links
Apply to be a guest: www.thomascaleel.com/apply-for-podcast
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Let's talk about the Penn supplement. There are two essays required of everyone, the thank you letter and the community at Penn. And then each school will have its own specific essay about that program. We're going to talk about the first two, which is writing a short thank you note. It's 150 to 200 words. Most people get very lost on this because they're not sure who they should be writing this letter to. And they also miss the most important part, which is we encourage you to share the letter with this person, if possible, and reflect on the experience. I can't tell you how many essays I've read where they just completely disregard this second half. And it's very, very important. So what do you want to do? You want to think about.
Think about who in your life illustrates something that you want to convey to the admissions committee. What is it? Is it an element of your extracurricular activities? Is it a particular teacher who moved and inspired you? Is it a boss that you've worked for over the summer or during the school year? Think carefully. Don't make it a generic thank you mom and dad. I know how that sounds. I know I get a lot of grief on social media for this. But the reality is it should be somebody who has meaningfully impacted and changed your life. And you want to thank them, not just in the general sense, but really communicating to them how they have affected you, how they have helped you grow.
And the important thing, again, is when you share it with them, really be aware of their reaction. Ideally, you can do it face to face. If not, read their response carefully or think about what they say to you on the phone or over Zoom. And include that at least as one sentence, preferably two or three sentences, at the end of this essay. This is a very important part of showing your growth, showing your humility, and showing how people have helped you become the person and the candidate you are today. The second question that everybody needs to answer is how will you explore community at Penn? And this is very important because you can take it a lot of different directions. In essence, it's asking you how you will get involved at Penn.
And there are so many ways to do that. So I encourage you, you need to do your research. You need to really dig in. You need to think about, OK, I'm standing on Locust Walk. It's fall. There's all these booths, all these opportunities to get involved in the community. Which booth do I talk to first? Which students attract my attention? And some of these things will be continuation from what you've done in high school. And some of them might be brand new. So you might have been very involved in theater, for example, in high school, and you want to continue that. But you also want to try rowing, or you want to try lacrosse, or you want to try the writer's house. So there's a lot here that you really need to put yourself on the ground.
This could also be about your identity. You could talk about your community as your identity, either your ethnic identity, your racial identity, gender identity. These are all ways for you to communicate something about who you are. Also, you can't just talk about it in relation to you. You need to bring it forward to you as a student at Penn and how you look forward to continuing and deepening that while you are a student. Then you might have a third and or fourth essay talking about a particular school. If you are applying to the college, they will ask you about the curriculum, fostering connections. If engineering, they'll talk to you. They'll ask you about, you know, how it works. How your path through the school will be impacted by the opportunities.
