Learn how to navigate premed at the University of Pennsylvania, including UPenn premed requirements, the best premed extracurriculars, and the UPenn premed acceptance rate
As a premier research institution affiliated with the nation's oldest medical school, the Perelman School of Medicine, Penn has long been a magnet for ambitious premeds. But what's the reality of being a premed at one of the most competitive universities in the country?
What You'll Learn
Penn Premed Environment
Navigating the University of Pennsylvania’s pre-health culture, academic rigor, and advising resources available through Pre-Health Advising.
Core Science Prerequisites
Fulfilling medical school prerequisite courses in general chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, and writing at Penn.
Multi-Year Course Schedules
Structuring course sequences across undergraduate semesters to complete foundational requirements prior to MCAT preparation and application submission.
GPA Protection & Academic Strategy
Tactics for succeeding in challenging science sequences, managing demanding course loads, and utilizing campus tutoring and academic resources.
Major Selection Flexibility
Evaluating science majors alongside non-science disciplines across Penn’s undergraduate schools while fulfilling prerequisite requirements.
Clinical & Research Opportunities
Accessing clinical volunteering, patient exposure, shadowing, and research positions across the Perelman School of Medicine and Penn Medicine system.
MCAT Timing & Application Pathways
Planning exam preparation schedules, evaluating gap year choices, and navigating the Penn Letter process and admissions benchmarks for Penn applicants.
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Is UPenn good for premed?
The University of Pennsylvania is one of the strongest launchpads to medical school in the country: Penn Career Services reports that 85% of the 300 students and alumni who applied in the 2024–2025 cycle were admitted, roughly double the national matriculation rate of about 43%, with the applicant cohort averaging a 516 MCAT and 3.82 GPA.
Premeds are supported by dedicated Pre-Health Advising through Career Services, a structured application-support process run through its Application Management System, and the immediate proximity of the Perelman School of Medicine, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), all steps from the undergraduate campus. While Penn's curved science courses and modest grade inflation demand disciplined planning, its combination of an Ivy League education, world-class research funding, and deep West Philadelphia community engagement makes its graduates exceptionally competitive medical school applicants.
Penn has other unique programs and resources that help it stand out among premed programs. One example is the Roy and Diana Vagelos Program in the Molecular Life Sciences (Vagelos MLS), which Penn offers by invitation to admitted students with strong interests in the natural sciences. Scholars major in biochemistry, biophysics, chemistry, or physics and conduct stipend-supported research the summers after their second and third years, and the program lists its graduates' outcomes on its website. It is demanding by design: according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, between 35% and 51% of each entering cohort completed the program for the classes of 2015 through 2022.
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.
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UPenn premed quick facts
| UPenn Premed Quick Facts | |
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| UPenn applicants to med school per year | |
| UPenn premed acceptance rate to med school | |
| National medical school matriculation rate | |
| Average MCAT of accepted UPenn premeds | |
| Average GPA of accepted UPenn premeds | |
| Most popular premed major | |
| Prehealth advising available? | |
| Committee letter offered? | |
| Academic system |
UPenn premed course 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. For a full breakdown of what each program expects, see our definitive guide to medical school requirements.
| Biology: One year with lab | One of the following sequences: Biology 1101 and 1102 Biology 1121 + 1123 and a 2000-level biology lecture + 1124 |
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| General chemistry: One year with lab | Chemistry 1011 or 1012 + 1101 lab Chemistry 1021 or 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 1300 or higher calculus | |||||
| Statistics: One course | Statistics 1110, Biology 2510, or another statistics course | |||||
| Physics: One year with lab | One of the following sequences: Physics 0101 and 0102 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: | PSYC 0001 SOCI 1000 |
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Penn notes that AP calculus credit shown on your Penn transcript can satisfy medical school math requirements, though all students should still take statistics.
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 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 + 1101 lab Writing Seminar Biology 1101 |
| Freshman Spring | Chemistry 1022 + 1102 lab Biology 1102 PSYC 0001 |
| Freshman Summer | Physics 0101 Physics 0102 |
| Sophomore Fall | Chemistry 2411 + 2412 MATH 1300 or higher English/writing course |
| Sophomore Spring | Chemistry 2421 + 2422 Biology 2810 |
What’s the best premed major at UPenn?
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 Societies. 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?
For a Penn premed not taking a gap year, plan to sit the MCAT in the fall of junior year.
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.
Taking the exam in the fall of junior year allows you to use your first two years at Penn to complete many of the courses tested on the exam, and it gives you the summer before junior year for dedicated study time. It also leaves time to retake the exam if necessary before you submit 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 1021 (or 1022)
Biology 1101 and 1102
Physics 0101 and 0102 (or 0150/0151)
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, PSYC 0001 and SOCI 1000. 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. For the full approach, see our guide to how to get a perfect MCAT score, written by a 528 scorer.
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How do you maintain a high GPA as a UPenn premed?
To maintain a high GPA as a Penn premed, use academic support early, choose your instructors deliberately, and practice with old exams and problem sets. 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, Penn's medical school applicants have a GPA profile similar to the national pool of matriculants (3.82 vs. 3.81), yet 83% of them matriculated in the 2024–2025 cycle, nearly double the national matriculation rate of about 43%, according to Penn Career Services. 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 Penn-specific advice to add to our general guide on how to study as a premed:
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.
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What extracurriculars should you do as a UPenn premed?
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 the right extracurricular activities for medical school?
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.
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 list of resources including opportunities for clinical shadowing and volunteering.
In addition, here’s a list of some organizations at Penn that offer opportunities to work in the local community:
One timing note: MERT's EMT class runs once a year, in the spring, and only freshmen and sophomores can apply. Completing the class guarantees a spot on the team, and students who are already certified EMTs can join through a fall reciprocity application. If MERT interests you, plan to apply by sophomore year.
UPenn premed 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 Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, named to U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals Honor Roll, and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), named to the 2026–2027 Best Children's Hospitals Honor Roll and ranked No. 1 in Pennsylvania.
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.
Penn Medicine's hospitals also run volunteer programs, which build valuable clinical exposure. Note, though, that Penn Medicine says it does not provide job shadowing through these programs, so you'll need to arrange shadowing directly with physicians; our guide on how to ask to shadow a doctor walks you through it. Volunteer programs at nearby hospitals include:
In addition to these hospitals, we also suggest you reach out to physicians in private practice, both in Philadelphia and in your hometown. Smaller practices can often be more flexible about hosting a student for a brief period of time. It is also informative to see what the practice of medicine looks like outside of an academic setting.
UPenn premed 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 fifth-largest amount of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in fiscal 2025 ($722.7 million), according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. 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 completing their first or second 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.
Keep in mind that students in the Vagelos programs, University Scholars, and similar funded research programs aren't eligible for PURM, and students already working with a faculty member are less likely to be chosen, so PURM works best for finding your first lab.
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, and if a lab asks you to apply formally, a strong research assistant cover letter can set you apart.
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Getting into medical school as a UPenn premed
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.
How does Penn's medical school application process work?
Penn runs medical school application support through its Application Management System (AMS). Applicants attend a mandatory Medical School Applicant Orientation, upload their materials to AMS, and submit confidential letters through PrivateFolio, Penn's dossier service, with instructions delivered through the applicant Canvas course. Penn no longer compiles a composite committee letter. Instead, through its Penn Letter Process, Pre-Health Advising issues an institutional "Penn Letter" that accompanies your packet of individual recommendation letters; earning it means attending the Orientation, meeting with an advisor, and submitting an activities list and responses to reflective writing prompts.
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, submitting your transcripts, and completing secondary essays. Our ideal medical school application timeline shows when each of these pieces should be finished.
What Penn's new application system means for applicants
Penn overhauled how it supports medical school applicants: support now runs through the Application Management System (AMS), the Applicant Orientation is mandatory, and as of this year confidential letters flow through PrivateFolio rather than the retired Credentials Inbox. Four practical implications. First, treat the orientation as the real starting gun; you cannot proceed without it, so get it on your calendar the semester before you apply. Second, set up your PrivateFolio account before you ask a single letter writer, so the instructions you send them match the system that will actually collect their letters. Third, when advice conflicts, the applicant Canvas course is the source of truth; guidance published before the transition, older forum threads included, may describe a process that no longer exists. Fourth, know what you are working toward: not a composite committee letter, which Penn retired a few years ago, but an institutional Penn Letter that travels with your letter packet. The reflective writing prompts it requires are worth taking seriously; they are a rehearsal for your personal statement.
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.
Penn Career Services reports that 85% of the 300 Penn students and alumni who applied in the 2024–2025 cycle were admitted to medical school, and 83% matriculated, roughly double the national matriculation rate of about 43%, a reminder of how hard it is to get into medical school. Penn applicants averaged a 516 MCAT, a 3.82 total GPA, and a 3.76 science GPA, compared with national applicant averages of 506.3, 3.67, and 3.57.
The data is clear 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.
In the 2024–2025 cycle, the single largest destination for Penn premeds was Penn's own Perelman School of Medicine, with 21 matriculants, followed by Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson (16), Albert Einstein (12), Columbia Vagelos (9), and Temple's Lewis Katz (8). Schools drawing five or more Penn matriculants also included Harvard, Case Western, Emory, Duke, Baylor, Yale, Miami, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Hofstra/Northwell, New York Medical College, and Weill Cornell. A full breakdown, including a matriculants-by-state map, is available on Penn Career Services' medical school admission statistics page.
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?
According to Penn's own data from the 2024–2025 cycle, 21 Penn students matriculated into the Perelman School of Medicine, more than at any other medical school. Since Perelman matriculates ~153 students per class, this represents roughly 14% of the entering class.
At 3.94 and 521.7, 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. For a deeper look, see our guide on how to get into Perelman School of Medicine.
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Frequently asked questions
Is UPenn good for premed?
Yes. Penn combines an Ivy League education with a reported 85% medical school acceptance rate for its 2024–2025 applicants, dedicated Pre-Health Advising, a structured application-support process, and the Perelman School of Medicine, HUP, and CHOP within walking distance of the undergraduate campus, giving premeds unusually direct access to clinical, research, and shadowing opportunities.
Does UPenn have a premed major?
No. Penn premeds may major in anything across the university's undergraduate schools while completing medical school prerequisites; successful applicants have come from biology and chemistry as well as French, anthropology, and Wharton. Popular choices include biology, neuroscience (formerly Biological Basis of Behavior), and Health and Societies.
What is UPenn's premed acceptance rate?
Penn reports that 85% of its 300 applicants in the 2024–2025 cycle were admitted to medical school, roughly double the national matriculation rate of about 43%. The applicant cohort averaged a 516 MCAT and 3.82 GPA.
Does UPenn offer prehealth advising?
Yes. Pre-Health Advising through Penn Career Services offers 30-minute advisor appointments (scheduled via Handshake), walk-in hours, a pre-health newsletter, and application-year support.
How does UPenn support medical school applicants?
Through its Application Management System (AMS): applicants attend a mandatory Medical School Applicant Orientation, upload their materials to AMS, and submit confidential letters of recommendation through PrivateFolio, Penn's dossier service, with instructions delivered through the applicant Canvas course.
Does UPenn provide a committee letter?
No. Penn stopped compiling composite committee letters a few years ago. Instead, through its Penn Letter Process, Pre-Health Advising provides an institutional "Penn Letter" that accompanies your packet of individual letters, earned by attending the mandatory Applicant Orientation, meeting with an advisor, and submitting an activities list and reflective writing responses.
When should UPenn premeds take the MCAT?
For students not planning a gap year, fall of junior year: the first two years cover most tested coursework, the preceding summer provides dedicated study time, and a fall date leaves room for a retake before applications.
Do UPenn premeds take gap years?
Most do. Only 18% of Penn's 2024–2025 applicants went straight through; 46% took one gap year, 21% took two, and 16% took three or more. Penn's pre-health advising is available to alumni applicants as well as current students.
Is it easier to get into Perelman as a Penn undergrad?
Penn undergraduates matriculate to Perelman in meaningful numbers (21 in the 2024–2025 cycle, roughly 14% of the entering class), but Perelman's averages (3.94 GPA, 521.7 MCAT per SAC's Perelman guide) mean strong academic performance is required regardless of any home-school familiarity.
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 over 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.
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