University of Pennsylvania Top Questions

Penn is a master of advertisement. It makes itself seem like some resource rich in a phenomenal city with a burgeoning social scene. Lies. Most of the resources are worthless and fraught with incompetence, Philadelphia is a violent and dirty hole in the ground and the social scene at Penn is, for the most part, about as grand as a box turtle since most people are so dull.

Beautiful, cohesive campus in the middle of big city. People worry that the amount of people at Penn inherently means that the student body is fragmented, but in reality the number of people does not detract from the campus' unity. Locust walk is where most students spend their time: either walking between classes, sitting at a table or on the green eating lunch, or flyering for their club. The college town is amazing. Each day you have the choice of enjoying activities on-campus at university city or off-campus in the city of Philadelphia. Everyone loves Penn's administration, ask anyone on Locust how they feel about Amy Guttman and you'll understand. She hosts an unforgettable halloween party every year. The biggest recent controversy was last year when a person dressed as a suicide bomber for halloween party wanted to take a picture with his "gun" at Guttman's head. There is a lot of school pride! Everyone camps out for season tickets to the basketball games and makes toast to throw on the field at football games. I will always remember when I was at Penn for accepted student days, one of the guys flyering for a party invited my mom. If that isn't exemplary of the student body, I don't know what is. We love to have fun.

I guess this my time to rant on UPenn. From how the university deals with clubs and fraternities, to how they accomodate living situations and campus dining, I constantly feel like I am being robbed and slapped in the face by an administration that does not care about its undergraduate students. The school considers its students a nuisance, that about somes it up. The quality of student here is outstanding, personalities and ambitions in all, but in my mind the students are the only thing that holds up the shoddy infrasture and administration of the school.

It's a city school but it still has a beautiful campus. I wouldn't change anything. At times, Penn can feel too large, however, once you settle down with your group of friends, it doesn't feel large anymore. It becomes pretty intimate pretty quickly once you find your crowd. When I tell people I go to UPenn, they say "Main Campus?" to which I respond, "Penn, not Penn State". As a freshman, I spend most of my time in the Quad. We live in the city, there's no such thing as a college town here. UPenn's administration is fine. The biggest recent controversy was when Stetson, the Dean of Admissions, just up and left and we still don't know why. There's a decent amount of school pride, especially during sports games (against Princeton). The most unusual thing about UPenn is that the social circles tend to feel very small and everyone knows everyone and everyone talks about everyone. People are very gossipy. I'll always (kind of) remember my first Spring Fling. Unforgettable.

The best thing about Penn is the opportunity to do just about everything. My activities range from costume designing for musicals to singing light opera to the sport of curling to being a big sister for a student in West Philly. Being in the city provides a great outlet for many of the classes and extra curriculars - there are classes about the art, music, and architecture just to start. But there is enough going on on campus that you needn't go into center Philly if you don't want to. Penn is an Ivy, and a good one at that, so the work load is consistantly heavy. But, as evidenced from how involved everyone is, work rarely gets too overwhelming. And activity groups know that school wrok comes first, exxpecially during Mid-terms and Finals. One of the things I love most about Penn is the sense of community. The dorms have a lot of programming to get the Halls together and involved. Also, each activity gets you involved in a community. It's really easy to make really strong friendships this way.

Best thing about Penn: location. One thing I'd change: the admission rate. Size: just right. How people react: they immediately become more interested in what I'm saying because they assume I'm a genius. Where I spend most of my time: at the boathouse. College town mos def. School pride: I think so. Most frequent student complaints: dining.

The reputation and academics are the best. I'd change the diversity. Too small. They don't know it's Ivy League. Studying in a study room. Not a college town. Admistration tries to be helpful. Controversy regarding Islamo Facism Week. Not much school pride. Not really. My friends. Too hard/too much work.

The first thing to understand about Penn is that its in Philadelphia- WEST Philadelphia. While Philadelphia has a lot to offer as a city, West Philadelphia has never felt like the nicest nor safest area to live in, despite Penn's efforts to increase public safety. It is also separated from center city Philadelphia by a river, so a lot of students tend to stay near campus. The neighborhood and its separation from the city action are probably the biggest downsides of Penn (tied with the fact that most of the kids here are pretty sheltered and freshman year think that drinking themselves into a stupor constitutes "fun")... The good news is that the school is a perfect size and the campus is nice. There is a central walk so you often run into people you know on the way to class, and never feel lost in the crowd. There is a pretty good amount of internal school pride, but unfortunately a lot of people outside the Penn community seem to have never heard of Penn. We have t-shirts that say "Not Penn State" for this exact reason. If I could change anything at Penn I would change this. It has proven to be a setback when applying for jobs to be lumped in with all the other state school applicants.

Hmm, I think Penn is just right in size for me - not too large or small. The ten minute walk between Engineering and the high rise dorms is just bearable enough, and the public transportation, albeit a little shitty, is so incredibly convenient. Downtown Philly is awesome, although I do wish I had more time to check it out. School pride is not very big here, which is kinda sad - probably because our sports teams (in particular, football) aren't very good and the focus is on academics. Anything unusual? Well nothing that would make me live here for the rest of my life, but I think Penn has its own loving embrace and Locust Walk on the first night of deep fall and in the spring is simply beautiful.

The best thing about Penn is its social scene - we have a great mixture of scenes and there's something for everyone. You can go downtown into downtown Philadelphia and party at a club, go to one of the many campus bars, or head to a frat party. Also there's always something going on, regardless of what day of the week it is. When I tell people I go to Penn, what they say really depends. The average person will immediately say, "Oh, Penn State?" or just assume that it's Penn State and ask me something about our football team. However, most people who "matter" (i.e. people who you want to know about Penn such as employers and what not) are always impressed, especially if you're in Wharton. I spend most of time either at the one or two frats in which I know the most guys or at one of two campus bars, Blarney and Smokes (when I go out). University City (aka West Philadelphia, where Penn is) is a great balance of college town/not college town. We have the city right there, within walking distance when it's nice out (or a 5 dollar cab ride when it's not!) so we can do that. But at the same time, Penn has a distinct campus and everyone living in this area is for the most part affiliated with the University. It's great to have bars to go to where everyone is in college. I think the administration of Penn is fine, but they're a little bureaucratic - but then again, what administration isn't? Change tends to take a long time around here, even if it seems it's something that should obviously be done. The biggest recent controversy is the departure of our Dean of Admissions, Lee Stetson. No one was told why he left - it's this giant secret - but everyone kind of assumes it was for something illegal, like sexual harassment or something. it's making the school look really bad because they're doing this giant cover up. I don't think Penn has that much school pride. As far as sports go, there are certain groups of people who get into it, and I definitely like going to football and basketball games(no one cares about any other sport). We have traditions that we do at each game, and Penn itself has some great traditions (i.e. Spring Fling, Hey Day, Senior Week, etc), but in general people are sort of apathetic about school spirit.