I chose it because of the research group. I was interested in doing theoretical mechanobiology.
Course Curriculum
Courses are not as rigorous as I had in IISc but they give more freedom to explore the subject on your own. They focus more on practical examples and the grading is easier in my opinion
Exams
My scores: GRE 157 Verbal 170 Quant 4.0 Writing; TOEFL 105/120. Minimum score is around 310 for GRE and 90 for TOEFL though GRE was waived due to COVID.
Placement
As I am in a research program our placements are usually people getting good postdocs and getting academic positions. Every doctoral student from UPenn gets a decent post doc offer or joins a reputed institution as a faculty.
Internship
No yet.
Fees
doctoral programs don't have tuition fees as they are usually covered by the fellowships
Scholarship
Yes, I get a graduate fellowship which is 35,000$ per year. It came along with my admission offer.
Faculty
Faculty student ratio is 1:6 which is pretty good. They are very accessible and friendly and you can approach them anytime. Penn is a relatively small university and the engineering community is pretty closed knit.
Campus Life
This is a urban campus located in Philadelphia which is USA's 4th largest city. You get a lot of option to go out and have fun. It is also pretty convenient in terms of transportation. There are Ice skating rinks and rowing trails around the city. Libraries on campus as well as free library of Philadelphia are pretty awesome. Penn has a large infrastructure dedicated to sports facilities, there are olympic size pools and multi storeyed gym for students.
Hostel
I live in a 3Bed 3Bath apartment and pay 800$ per month for my rent. The infra of apartments is awesome and there are modern appliances that come with the apartment. As it is a big city there are options starting from as low as 500$/month to 2000$ or even higher per month for luxurious housing.
