Letter to the Editor: Does Penn want us to stay?

To the Editor:

Like many undergraduate students planning their futures, I was also faced with the decision to stay at Penn or head elsewhere for my dental school education. Your article ("After four years at Penn, few stay for grad programs," The Daily Pennsylvanian, 2/17/05) rang true as two of my classmates/close friends and I applying to dental school opted to move to Boston and attend Tufts University School of Dental Medicine.

The three of us agreed that Penn Dental made no attempt to keep us on campus and did not offer Penn undergrads tours or information as prospective students. During our interviews, we were treated somewhat like strangers. I even recall receiving a travel guide to Philly and map with directions to the Dental School although I lived virtually across the street. To make matters worse, Penn Dental was doubtful of our academic and leadership abilities, marginalizing the value of the undergraduate education.

Four years later, after graduating Tufts Dental with high honors, becoming a national student leader and completing a residency at Harvard, I returned to Penn Dental to interview for a residency position in postgraduate endodontics. I hoped my experience would be different the second time around. I couldn't have been more insulted as an alumnus of the University. One of the directors made anti-Semitic comments and direct insults to professors at Tufts and cared little for what I had to say. The experience was horrifying for myself and other interviewees and embarrassing for Penn as a university.

My Penn education was excellent and worth every last cent. I couldn't be happier with my undergraduate experience and have visited the campus numerous times since graduation, most recently for our fifth-year reunion. But as I walked around that day, I figured I'd just stay towards the College Hall end of campus.

Michael Joseph

College '99

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