Admitted to Wharton Class of 2011!

jjright - unfortunately i don't have the name of the individual i spoke to. I guess I got lucky that the operator knew where to direct me to..I would say try again soon.

Regardless if it helps, I got the feeling they are very much behind the ball in terms of processing stuff from Kroll..and everyone will see their verification finish at the same time in a big huge surge..

Anyone receive news about Funding/Fellowships? I remember seeing on the admitted message board that they were supposed to start sending decisions out this week...

I haven't submitted all the related material yet. The essay is a giant pain in the ass.

Same here zoinnk - I am really struggling with the essay.

Why are fellowships important to students? - How can the answer NOT be "uhhh cos students need da money". ANYTHING other than this is an elaborate lie

Hey guys, I am wondering how all the other international students are doing with the visa process.

I started mine yesterday by logging onto that visa form that was sent to me (keep in mind that I am already in the US with a H-1B and just want to do change of status to F-1). A couple of questions sprang to mind:

1. If I plan on taking a loan to finance my first year - do I estimate the amount of loan I will be taking in this form?

2. I am assuming I need to wait for the ANL from the university before filling out the financial information on this form. Can anyone else confirm?

If the answer to the above 2 questions is YES, then that means I will be assigned an I-20, on the trust that I will receive a loan.

Secondly, given that I am already in the US, do I need to wait for anything or I can start shopping around for loans as soon as I have my I-20? I guess what I am asking is if I-20 is the ONLY thing needed to shop for loans or if I need the formal change of status from H-1 to F-1 as well?

I would rather not move to F-1 too quickly as I would like to earn as many paychecks as possible before becoming very very poor...

So the way it goes the process seems to go is:

Step 1: Fill out the I-20 form with an estimation for the amount of loan needed
Step 2: Get I-20
Step 3: Shop for loans
Step 4: Once you have a loan, apply for change of status (when can I apply for this?)
Step 5: Once you obtain the reciept, you need to quit work and can begin school!

Can anyone shed light on this process?

sterny,

how much does the wharton estimate the total cost of attendance to the program in the official forms? I will need to arrange bank reference letters according to.. (hopefully if I'm admitted..)

thanks in advance!

$80,000 flat.

Sterny - yes you need to wait for ANL before filling in the visa form

Speaking of which, can people post here when they receive the ANL ? It should be coming any time in the next few days

Same with the PennKey (which is your password to electronic resources at W)

so if I understand correctly, wharton asks you to secure only the cost of attendance to the first year?

cornell asked me for the cost of "total program".

Don't really know what you're talking about. The student budget is $80,000/year.

I'm an international applicant and to be able to issue an I-20 form, schools ask applicants to secure the cost of attendance to the program.

So I was wondering whether you have to secure the cost of only first year of the program, or the total for the visa.

Hope it clarifies.

Yes, you only need to secure first year cost for Visa purposes.

You should wait and see if you get into W first - every school has a different procedure / requirements. For W, you can only get your visa about 1.5 months (at the earliest) after you're admitted because you need to wait for them to send you the fellowship/financial aid letter, and then you need to send your bank statements to the school etc.....so no point preparing for all that now

Guys some interesting insight today. I called up the Wharton Fin Aid office today to ask them about the loan situation for internationals and came to know the following information:

Even though the fees for the first semester are due by Jul 31, international students will be exempt from this deadline as they can only apply for loans once they are here. Therefore they will walk into Pre-term without paying the fees for the first sem. International students will be asked to pay the fees at a later date once the loans and all have been worked out.

I must say I am kinda pleased that the school does this. Do other schools have the same policy?

Any others still waiting for Kroll to go through?

I know it says W gives about 1/3 of the class some type of fellowship. Does anyone know offhand what an average package tends to look like? Is it on the order of 5-10K or more?

jjright-

Hmm..I would like to know that too. From what I do hear though, the amount that they give is usually very negligible.

BTW..are you still waiting on Kroll? Did you try calling them again?

I ended up emailing the verification email address and the person said they would get back to me at the latest, last Friday. She never got back to me, so we'll see what happens. Its just rather annoying.

Yeah, I've been thinking about the money thing more and more. It seems like it must be an incredibly tough process. I would imagine most Wharton admits to be incredibly talented, and yet, only 1/3 of them receive fellowship aid.