Penn Preview Days, the annual event for admitted students to visit campus and interact with the Penn community, may be in for some changes after admissions decisions are released in the spring.
The Office of Admissions is orchestrating several changes to the preview days, including a new date on April 5 exclusively for students admitted through early decision and a student-run committee on changing specific Penn Preview Days events.
“The early decision students are at a different stage,” said Valerie Marchand Welsh, the Office of Admissions’ associate dean for marketing and communications. “They’re ready for NSO when they get here for Penn Preview Days. They want to talk about what classes they’ll be taking in the fall. They want to talk specifically about student organizations they already know that they’re interested in.”
Though the new Preview Day is specifically limited to early decision students, all admitted students will be able to attend any of the other days. In addition, all Penn Preview Days may be facing changes, as a new student-run committee will begin to make suggestions on changes to some of the days’ events next semester.
Wharton sophomore Christian Cortes, an admissions tour guide and the Undergraduate Assembly’s civic and Philadelphia engagement committee director, will be spearheading the new committee on Penn Preview Days.
“We’ve never gone to a Penn Preview Day as a student, so it’s nice to get the students’ perspective on what they liked about it and what they didn’t like,” Assistant Manager of On-Campus Programs Marissa Meyers said. “Some students felt like they were lost a lot, or there was too much going on during the day and they needed a break.”
The idea for the student committee originated with a discussion paper Cortes wrote for the UA last year about admissions. The UA is now collaborating with the Office of Admissions, On-Campus Programs, and the Admissions Dean’s Advisory Board to reach out to potential committee applicants and select a small group of students to review Penn Preview Days.
The committee is looking for diversity across undergraduate schools and for applicants who aren’t necessarily already involved in admissions, Cortes said. Because of the high number of applications it received, applicants are now also going through an interview process as part of “a very competitive process,” Cortes said.
Once decisions are made, the group will mostly focus on improving Quaker Quest — a scavenger hunt that takes attendees to significant locations around campus — and the various panels about student life.
Cortes said he hopes for a finalized group of committee members sometime during reading days, and for the group to meet for the first time at the beginning of the spring semester.
“We’re looking at types of things we could do during the day that would make it more engaging for students,” Cortes said. “Some people have felt like Penn Preview Days were more like a tour. We want to expand more on the experience and not just provide them with ‘here’s campus.’”
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