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Applied Graduate Student Chat - March 21, 2019
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AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:00
Good day, all. My name is Will Fenton and I'm the Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions at Penn Engineering. I'm here to answer questions you may have about our Graduate Programs, life as a graduate student at Penn and living in Philadelphia.
10:01
DECISIONS: All applicants will receive a decision. PhD Decisions are still being made at this time. Master's decisions will be released on the dates you can find here: https://gradadm.seas.upenn.edu/how-to-apply/
Where do you live?

United States (50% | 12 votes)
 
China (25% | 6 votes)
 
India (12.5% | 3 votes)
 
Europe (0% | 0 votes)
 
Middle East (0% | 0 votes)
 
Another Region (12.5% | 3 votes)
 

Total Votes: 24
10:03
What questions to you have for me today?
Meng
10:03
Hi, Will!
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:03
Hi Meng
Yu
10:04
good morning, Will.
Zihang Zeng
10:04
Hi coordinator will, this is zihang zeng. I have submitted application for MCIT for Round 2. I wonder when I would hear decision
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:04
Zihang, Zeng, there are 4 dates the decisions will be released: April 5, April 19, May 1 or May 15. You'll get them on one of those dates.
Nick Georgiou
10:04
Good morning! Thank you for doing this! I have applied to the Computer and Information Science PhD program and have not heard anything back yet. I was wondering when is the latest that decisions will be made because other schools have acceptance deadlines coming up soon.
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:05
Nick, we do our best to have the programs release the decisions before April 15, but I can't guarantee that, unfortunately. Honestly, they can be released up until the end of May, as June 1 is our enrollment deadline.
Nicole
10:05
Good morning Will, I applied for the MCIT program by the March 15th deadline and I heard that acceptance rates drop after the November deadline. Is that true?
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:06
Nicole, this is true, as we usually have more people apply for the 2nd deadline, so more people = lower acceptance rate.
Zihang Zeng
10:06
Hi, Will, thanks for your information
cool 2
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:06
You're welcome, Zihang Zeng.
Victoria
10:06
Good morning Will and thank you for hosting! I submitted an application to the BME PHD program in December. I'm curious if all applicants will be interviewed before a descision is made?
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:06
Victoria, not all applicants will be interviewed, to my knowledge. Ultimately, this is a dept specific decision.
jincenzi wu
10:06
hello
Zheng
10:06
Hi Will, as you mentioned, PhD decisions are still being made at this time. Is it possible for me to know my rank in the waiting list?
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:07
Zheng, we don't usually employ a waiting list - if we did, you'd be notified that you were on it.
Hubery
10:07
Hi Will,
Sam Bauter
10:07
Hi Will, I've applied to MCIT on campus. I was wondering if you can apply to both campus and online. If so, do you need two separate apps?
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:07
Sam, you would need to submit two separate applications.
Victoria
10:07
Thank you!
cool 1
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:07
You're welcome, Victoria
Sam Bauter
10:07
Thanks Will!
cool 1
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:07
You're welcome, Sam
Nick Georgiou
10:08
Thanks for the answer! Another question I have is why does it take longer for some applicants to be notified than others?
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:08
Nick, it's up to when the dept makes a decision on the application. Unfortunately, I can't say more than that.
Nick Georgiou
10:09
Ok, thanks!
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:09
You're welcome, Nick.
Yu
10:09
ISSS has recently issued my I20 for the F1 visa. When requesting its shipment, I found out there were only autherized pick-up (not possible) and express divery options. The later option will cost over 70 USD to deliver to China. Is it normally possible for I20 to be posted via normal air mail? I found out a number of schools do it for free for students. I have emailed ISSS for suggestion, but haven't heard back yet. It'd be nice if you are familiar with this process? Many thanks
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:10
Yu, this is a question that can only be answered by ISSS, unfortunately. I'm sorry, but Grad Admissions doesn't handle the I-20 process at all. You can email the Engineering Graduate School liason, Chao-Hung Chung at chaoch@upenn.edu. She may be able to assist.
cool 1
Yu
10:11
thanks, Will
Hubery
10:11
Hi, Will. I heard that we have the chance to transfer to another program after the first semester. From what I know, some programs may have different deadline for such applications. I wonder can I apply for transferring to like two programs at the same time and decide to choose one after I get both results. Or am I allowed to transfer twice during my graduate study.
AvatarWill Fenton, Asst Dir
10:13
Hubery, you can find the specific rules/procedure regarding applying to transfer once you're an enrolled student here: https://grad.seas.upenn.edu/student-handbook/academic-options/ scroll down about half-way on the page.
Kim Lincoln
10:13
Good morning, Will. Can you let me know if payment plans are available for students who enroll in online MCIT program part-time?
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