Hi! Thank you so much for doing this thread! What is the social aspect of Penn like?
@collegeready33
Penn is known as the “social Ivy” for a reason. I haven’t been to all the others yet, so I can’t give superlatives, but Penn is objectively social IN A GOOD WAY.
I was concerned that it might be too social (as in, packs of people going out and partying three nights a week), and that definitely exists, but you can opt out if that’s not your thing. For me, most of my social life is an older friend with an apartment or house saying “hey come over, the Flyers game is on/I made food/I want to hang out”. This past weekend, I went to a friend’s frat on Friday, went to a band event on Saturday where I made brunch plans for Sunday morning, and Sunday night I knocked on my friend’s door and we chatted until midnight.
Depending on where you live, you might have to put different levels of effort into getting integrated into the social scene. If you live in Hill or the Quad you’ll automatically link up with people from your hall. Suites you’re friends with your suitemates. If you live in a single like me, you’ll find friends through clubs – the band was a big one for me, so is the radio station.
Finally, the summer before matriculation there will be a lot of Facebook posts about “who’s in this major”, “who wants to go to this concert,” etc, which can be a good way to go in there feeling like at least you know SOMEONE. I friended 3-ish people from Facebook group conversations over the summer, and one of them is now my Suffer Buddy because we always have our hardest classes together.
@thebetterhawkeye thank you so much for your response!
Hi, thanks for you’re detailed advice so far ! Just a quick question - why if you want a single room will you be put in Stouffer ? I thought that the Quad had single rooms and I think that I saw that Riepe has more singles than doubles ?
@perplexedbrit The Quad is in REALLY high demand, and most of the residential programs are housed there. Most of the Quad singles will be taken by people in residential programs who want a single and are guaranteed a place in the Quad.
Not to mention, pretty much everyone I spoke to who lives in Stouffer said “yeah this was my 5th or 6th choice”.