University of Pennsylvania Top Questions

If your social, there are only two excuses not to be in a fraternity: 1)If your on a sports team and 2) If you are international and find your group among other international students. I have seen too many great, active, and fun kids fade into loneliness and oblivion because they are the few who are not in a fraternity. The truth is that at an Ivy League school, there is naturally a smaller proportion of the student body that does go out. Combine that with the fact that Penn has a very high rate of students in the Greek scene, and its easy to see why the people who go out and in fraternities or sororities.

Greek life is pretty popular, however, if you're unaffiliated, it doesn't make much of a difference. I'm a member of Sigma Delta Tau, a sorority on campus. Students sometimes leave their doors open. Athletic events are moderately popular. Guys tend to be hardcore about the basketball games (I only went to Penn-Princeton) and when it's nice out, people go to the football games. Performing Arts is huge here. There are a million Performing Arts groups on campus and it's so easy to get involved with them. The shows are great! The dating scene is weird. If you hook up with someone when you're drunk, don't expect to see that person again unless you knew them before. Don't expect a relationship to blossom out of a random hookup. People hook up when they're drunk. That's really it. Relationships seem to be a rarity freshman (and maybe even sophomore) year. I met my closest friends through this kid I knew the first week of school. I'm not friends with him anymore...awkward. I probably wouldn't be awake at 2am on a Tuesday unless I were doing work in Van Pelt. We throw toast at every football game, Spring Fling happens every year...I think that's it. You party as much as you want to. I could easily find a party (house, bar, etc) every night if I wanted to (some of my guy friends do). I only go out 3 nights a week on average. Frats and sororities are great but definitely not a mandatory part of the social scene here at Penn. Last weekend, I went downtown to a bar for a friend's birthday and then came back to a frat on campus on Thursday. Friday, I had a mixer for my sorority, and Saturday, I frat hopped. You can do plenty on a Saturday night that doesn't involve drinking. You can go anywhere and not drink and still have a good time. I go to a lot of parties at clubs downtown. That is a very popular thing to do and it is a welcome change from the frat party scene on campus.

There is so much to do at Penn! You'll find yourself having to skip one event for another and wish there were more hours in a day! If Greek life is your scene, there is a frat for every type of person. There is a great cafe featuring local and popular music as well as occasional political speakers, and if you venture into the Center City you can find anything. In my dorm, everyone props their doors open when they want company or goes out into the study lounge to have big group study sessions. The dorm staff sponsors cookie nights and tv dinner parties to get the dormmates together. Buildings on campus with regular events include the Women's Center, the Writer's House, the LGBT center, the student union, and each college house individually. Also, many sports and clubs have social gatherings to foster a sense of community.

Dorms open: no. Athletic events: football's pretty popular. Guest speakers get good audiences. Theatre... not if they're from the Theatre dept. Closest friends: they live in my residence hall. Awake at 2am: I'm not. I have to go to practice. Fraternities/Sororities: you'll know at least 6 people who are pledging, probably more, and from different groups that you know. Last weekend: went to Center city for a movie. Saturday nights: go to a comedy event, check out Center city, do work.

Frats/sorororitie and performance groups. I study a lot on some weekends and then go out every ngiht on other weekends

Students in dorms leave their doors open for the most part (or at least they did when I was a freshman). The freshmen dorms (particularly the Quad) are great. There is an instant community and they put on tons of activities. There are hundreds of organizations at Penn. In terms of Greek organizations, there is a presence but it is not overbearing. I am in a sorority but most of my closest friends aren't. There is lots to do outside of the Greek system. The social and dating scene here is not my favorite. Penn is renowned for its population of rather unattractive guys. Most college students don't seem to want to 'tie themselves down' though so the lack of a good dating scene may not be a problem. 2am Tuesday I am definitely last-minute writing that essay that's due Wednesday.

I don't know what the most popular clubs are, but Greek Life is pretty big here - about 25{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the campus is Greek. If you're looking at the people who actually go out and have a social life, the percentage is probably larger. I am in a sorority (Chi Omega) and it has really helped me expand my social circle and world here at Penn. I've met people that I never would have otherwise and I love all the events we have with frats, the downtown parties we throw, and the bonding I get to do with my sisters. I'd say the majority of freshmen leave their doors open - I know we did. And even after that, when I lived in an on-campus apartment sophomore year, our door was always open. Athletic events are marginally popular - "big" games (such as Princeton, the Big 5, etc) are always packed, but only football and basketball actually draw fans. The people who go get really into it, though. Penn usually gets some great guest speakers, so those almost always sell out. We've had Bill and Chelsea Clinton, Whoopi Goldberh, Peyton Manning, etc. The dating scene at Penn is so bipolar. Either you're casually hooking up with someone (or lots of someones) or you're in a serious relationship - there's no middle ground. This annoys me because I'm not looking for anything super serious but guys won't do the "dating" thing. I met my closest friends on my hall freshman year, which I think is pretty standard. I've met more through my sorority though, and added people through those people. On a Tuesday at 2 am, I'm definitely at Blarney (one of our campus bars) playing Quizzo (a bar game that goes on every Tuesday). The game would just be ending and people would be starting to head home. The bar always gets packed and it's so much fun -if you win, you get a $75 bar tab! Spring FLing is the biggest event of the year - basically a weeklong drunk fest. THe school puts on a carnival in the Quad (a freshman dorm area) with moonbounces, dunk tanks, etc and everyone just drinks themselves silly for a week. There's also a concert - my freshman year was O.A.R. and last year was Ben Folds and Third Eye Blind. Other traditions are Hey Day (where juniors march through campus and seniors throw stuff at them to "initiate" them into senior year - this happens on the last day of classes) and Senior Week (the week in between when finals end and graduation where each day seniors have a differnt event to do). I would say people party a lot. There tends to be something going on almost every night of the week. Tuesday is Quizzo at Blarney, Wednesday is Sink or Swim at Smokes, Thursday is either Smokes/Blarney or a downtown club event, Friday is more chill just hanging out at a frat or with your friends, and Saturday is big frat party night. Greek Life is important for those who are in it, but it's not the end of your social life if you're not. I'd say it's more important for a guy to be in a frat than for a girl to be in a sorority. Last weekend I went downtown for a date party my sorority had, and again the next night for a party thrown by a frat on campus; I also hosted a Beer Olympics at my house. On a Saturday night you can go see a movie, hang out with friends, go out to dinner at the amazing restaurants in Philly...

The good thing about Penn is that there's always something going on. Every day, I get emails about interesting events coming up, whether it's a guest speaker (this year we've had Bill Clinton, Teach For America's Wendy Kopp, Karl Rove, and Keenan from "All That", to name a few), a subsidized trip to New York to see a Broadway show, a camping trip with Penn Outdoors, or a party downtown. I never have enough time and/or money to do everything I want to do. The bad news is that most of these alcohol-free activities are during the week. On the weekends, it's completely possible to hang out with friends without alcohol, but it's usually more of a create-your-own-activity sort of thing.

Most popular - Sororities, Fraternities, Penn Dems, Wharton Women, Mask and Wig The F-Word is a feminist literary magazine that publishes an issue each semester. We are a venue to spread the feminist voices of Penn men and women. Campus Crusade for Christ is a nondenominational Christian community. We hold Bible studies and large group meetings every week. Students in the Quad and Hill leave their doors open. Not in the high rises. Basketball games are pretty popular. Guest speakers are popular depending on who it is. Penn kids don't date. They hook-up. I met my closest friends through my religious community and from my freshman hall. 2am on Tuesday - I'm cramming to do my homework for Wednesday. Traditions: Spring Fling, Skimmer, Hey Day, New Student Orientation, Amy Gutmann's Halloween Party people party thursday-saturday on Saturday night you can go downtown for dinner, see a play or the Philadelphia Orchestra, go to a student performance, hang out with friends, study, etc I go downtown all the time. Go to art exhibits, shop at Trader Joe's, shop on Walnut Street, wander around Rittenhouse Square, run along the Skuykill River, etc

The most popular organizations are the frats. It is annoying when one is not a part of one, or doesn't care to be in one. However, it is easy to just ignore it. There are a lot of private house parties on weekends, which are the better ones if you don't like the frats. You can also go off campus to a nice restaurant, to a cheap restaurant, to a club, to a jazz bar, to the movies, etc. There's lots to do. Dating is apparently gender reversed: the guys are the shy ones. I wouldn't know, personally. There are a lot of other dance troupes, accapella, theatre groups, spoken word poetry, and miscellaneous events to attend year round, some of which are very worth it and some are not. I have only lately started to go, and I regret not going before. There are also lots of free events, talks, and conferences, all of which involve free food. In fact, a girl once showed how you can survive on free event food for a week. In all honesty, I have had a hard time making friends, and I don't know if it's because of the culture clash or the actual people at Penn. I believe I have made a total of 10 friends over 4 years, and kept about 5. And most of them are from my same hometown. The cool part though is that I would have never met them back home.

Athletic events are not very popular. Guest speakers are very popular - from political (Clinton) to feminist (Angela Davis). I met my closest friends freshman year - I lived in Hill House, a dorm where everyone bonds very easily because of its small rooms, and because everyone leaves their doors open. The dating scene is awful! Most people just have random hook-ups, and if you do end up dating someone, it' probably the case that they've dated someone you know. The penn traditions are one of the best things about Penn, from Spring Fling, to FebClub, to Hey Day. THe Greek scene is a little too strong on campus for my liking. Now that I'm a senior I go out a lot more on weeknights, but as an underclassman I would go to the library. I also cook with friends often as a sober activity. We try to go downtown to restaurants and bars twice a month.

Students in KCE College House do leave their doors open. Hill is also quite social. The high-rises are less so. Off-campus, there's a metropolitan area of 4 million people to explore. Greek life is here but I generally avoid it.