Cognoscenti offers new College-specific info session

A first-time tour of Penn’s campus — which contains 20,000 students — can be an overwhelming experience. In an effort to personalize these visits, the College of Arts and Sciences began offering its first school-specific information session this November.

The Cognoscenti program — created in response to similar sessions offered by the Wharton School and the School of Engineering — hosts a question-and-answer panel every weekday for prospective students and their families.

“It’s a fabulous program,” said College senior Rachel Romeo, one of approximately 35 Cognoscenti members.

“Cognoscenti” is derived from a Latin word meaning “men and women in the know,” a name coined by College Dean Dennis DeTurck.

While the Dean’s Advisory Board and College Office began accepting applications for the program last spring, conflicting schedules and training sessions prevented the panel from beginning until November — a time when fewer prospective families come to tour Penn, according to College senior Dave Frankenfield, the program’s student coordinator. This late start prevented some members from participating in any sessions, including College sophomore Jordan Lowe. By the time the program began, “the season for college visits had sort of ended,” Lowe said.

“It’s in its fledgling stages,” said Romeo, who has heard from other members that prospective families find the personal touch of Cognoscenti “immensely helpful.”

College senior and fellow member Carly Levitz also voiced the success of the program in reaching prospective families.

Questions raised by prospective students and families during the Cognescenti panels concern Academically Based Community Service courses, life in Philadelphia and the College advising program, among other topics.

Each panel features three Penn students, who are “usually from diverse academic backgrounds, including the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences,” Frankenfield wrote in an e-mail.

“This is an opportunity for kids and their parents to hear ungarnished information,” DeTurck said of the program, which he believes will have a positive effect on applicants and admissions in 2011.

However, Frankenfield was quick to point out that the program’s goal “is not to increase Penn or College yield or any sort of admission statistic.” Instead, it is a resource for students and families.

College senior Louise Wang, a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board and head of the Cognoscenti committee hopes to make the program independent of the Board by next fall. Ideally, she said, the program would be student-run and overseen by an admissions officer.

Wang also aims to “spread awareness” of the program next semester.

According to Romeo, the Cognoscenti’s personal touch helps convey the idea that Penn is not a “big, daunting, scary college experience, but one that is totally manageable, friendly and open.”

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