As high-school seniors choose between colleges this month, accepted students' days have played a major role in the decision-making process.
Dean of Admissions Eric Furda described Penn Previews as "an anchor" in the admissions recruiting program because it is the University's main way of attracting accepted seniors to Penn.
"We want to encourage people to come visit the actual campus," he said. "The primary focus is on bringing people here so that they can see what our school is all about."
In honor of the class of 2013, Penn pulled out all the stops, including surprise visits by Penn President Amy Gutmann and the Penn Quaker.
Additionally, Penn showered the admitted students with free gifts, including tote bags, Penn pins and school-specific items such as Wharton thermoses.
Unlike Penn, many peer institutions, including Harvard, Yale and Columbia universities, have overnight programs for accepted students.
Furda said Penn "is looking into expanding Penn Previews" in future years to potentially include similar overnight visits.
Buckley School senior Willy Korcheck came to Penn Previews "with no idea of where I wanted to go to college - a complete blank slate - and left knowing that I wanted - more than anything - to go to Penn next fall," he wrote in an e-mail.
Korcheck planned on attending Georgetown University's accepted students' day after Penn, but found Previews so impressive that he decided on Penn before even visiting other institutions.
"I was entirely impressed by the day: It was seamlessly run and very informative," he wrote.
Karolina Puskarczyk, a senior at the Governor's School For Science and Mathematics in New Jersey, attended Duke University's Blue Devil Days in addition to Penn Previews.
She said she found the two to be "very similar" but noted that at Duke, "it lasted two days and every student got a copy of the classes he or she could attend, which I thought was a plus."
She enjoyed that Penn Previews was the less structured of the two, leaving students more free time to do what they wanted and were interested in.
"Duke had much more going on and so it was hard to choose what you wanted to do," Puskarczyk said.
Sam Stolowitz, a senior from Horace Greeley High School in New York, had only one criticism of Previews: group size.
"I feel like they could improve upon the day if you were assigned a group of around 15 and one tour guide/current student that you stayed with for the entire day," he wrote in an e-mail.
Otherwise, he found the day to be "well structured," and it ultimately made him decide to matriculate at Penn this fall.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.
