<p>What are some basic things to buy for dorms?</p>
<p>@kbolisetty23 i live relatively close to penn (2 hours, approximately), so mine came the day after i was accepted!! it was super exciting, of course 
it probably depends on where you are located and how far away you live from penn, but probably no more than a week if you’re international</p>
<p>@obbypen it really depends on where you end up living next year. when you get your acceptance packet they’ll have a brochure for housing options. each house is VERY different, well, except for fisher, ware, and riepe (yay!) which are in the quad. when it comes to quad houses, for example, you do NOT need fans or heaters, all rooms come with ac and stuff. but, i have friends in kings court/english and they don’t have ac so they had to bring fans. basic things, though, i would get a foam topper for your bed, lots of storage boxes (like rubbermaid) that you can put under your bed, DONT get risers, at least not until you see your bed, because my bed and the ones in my hall are very high to begin with so i didn’t need to buy the 6" risers, but i know people in other parts of the quad that do have risers because they’re beds are low. get thin hangers for your clothes, desk lamps (LOTS OF LAMPS!!), the lighting is pretty bad and not really adequate, so definitely bring as much lighting as you can/want. other than that, rooms are (usually, and i’m only speaking for the quad, don’t know about the other houses) supplied with a desk, closet/wardrobe, bed, chair, and drawers for your desk and another one for clothes. basic bedding, of course. hmm i’m trying to think of everything else but honestly just get as much as you can at home (given that you live driving distance from penn), and then the penn bookstore (36th and spruce) has a TON of dorm/school supplies on their second floor, and most are not overpriced. there’s also a place right next to the penn bookstore that has super cheap dorm stuff, too. if you’re international or flying to penn definitely use the bookstore or order online at bed bath and beyond and you can pick up your stuff at the store in philly so you don’t have to lug it on the plane…that’s what most of my friends did that live far away.</p>
<p>Thank you :)</p>
<p>Do you know anyone deferred who got accepted? I really want to come to Penn, but yeah, deferral to acceptance doesn’t seem to happen very often by the looks of it.</p>
<p>^ It happened to 99 deferred ED applicants last year:</p>
<p>[Incoming</a> Class Profile - Penn Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/incoming-class-profile]Incoming”>http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/incoming-class-profile)</p>
<p>@obbypen no problem! glad to help :)</p>
<p>@deathblade127 i know quite a few people that were accepted after getting deferred, but not many. like 45 percenter posted, unfortunately not many applicants get accepted after a deferral, but i definitely believe you have a higher chance than RD applicants because you applied ED. penn wants to take students that will matriculate, so if you applied ED it obviously shows that penn was your first choice, so when RD rounds begin, I would send a letter to penn around mid February reiterating that penn is your first choice, and then attach another sheet with “updates,” which would basically be things you have accomplished since ED rounds to show that you haven’t slacked off or caught senioritis. I didn’t apply ED to penn, but it was my first choice and i feel the cover letter and updates greatly improved my chances of being accepted.</p>
<p>Thanks for doing this oceane and Honeybooboo143!</p>
<p>I was browsing the Penn Housing site, and saw numerous options. I was just wondering: which ones are actually available for freshmen?</p>
<p>@yoyo17, I was curious about that as well. I believe only in the quad</p>
<p>lol I did some research and I found out the answer myself. Essentially there are a bunch of dorms, and all of the college houses have some freshman in them, with four or five having a majority of freshmen. My next question, and this is something that I’m sure a lot of people are curious about: what do you think personally is the best dorm for freshmen?</p>
<p>Unequivocally the Quad, unless you’re an engineer, then a case could be made for hill (location). I’ve heard that the FreshEx program in one of the highrises is nice, but the Quad is the place to be.</p>
<p>haha penn trolled me so hard, the acceptance package was super thin.</p>
<p>@camelneedswater In what area do you live…I still have not received my package?</p>
<p>If I recall correctly, camelneedswater, you’ll also get a fat package along with all of the RD acceptees in the Spring. So twice the fun!</p>
<p>[One of the current frosh needs to fact-check me on that. :)]</p>
<p>Quad is definitely the best place to be if you are super social. It’s essentially 99% freshman and close to the central part of campus. If you’re an engineer, like 10nisman94 said, hill might be better. BOTH (from my understanding of friends at hill) are very social. Kings Court/English holds a decent amount of freshman too, I believe. Freshman are dispersed around the high rises, so if I had to rank top dorms for Freshman, it would be 1)Quad (by a mile) 2)Hill (only because it is mostly Freshman as well) 3) highrises/kings court english</p>
<p>I currently live in Riepe (one of three houses in the quad) and it has been AMAZING! My hall is extremely social, fun, and are some of my closest friends here. </p>
<p>If you’re really adamant on getting into the quad, I highly suggest applying for a residence program. Also, if you’re in BFS (ben franklin scholar), and I could totally be wrong about this, but I believe they all live in Riepe because all BFS students are also in the Integrated Studies residence program. Also, certain houses have different aspects about them that you might love! For example, Riepe is known as the “foodie dorm.” Every Wednesday night Dean DeTurk invites us to his apartment (which is in Riepe) and he bakes the whole house cookies! There is also the 11th hour grotto, which is open from 8 pm to 2 am every night and serves snacks, coffee etc. I can’t really speak for other houses and what they offer but I’m sure they all do really cool stuff!</p>
<p>What is it like using shared bathrooms? Are they clean/dirty/etc.?</p>
<p>Would you recommend not doing FreshEX?</p>
<p>the bathrooms, are not coed, at least in the quad. they’re okay, definitely pretty clean, and someone comes to clean them at least once a week. most come equipped with two showers and two toilets, and there are usually about 20 people on a hall so ten people sharing a bathroom, approximately. </p>
<p>honestly, i don’t know anything about FreshEX, and I don’t have any friends that did it. I would HIGHLY suggest trying to get a room in the Quad or Hill, as that is where 99% of the Freshman live.</p>
<p>^Riepe looks awesome! Thanks for the info!</p>
<p>no prob! happy to help :)</p>
<p>
I’d just like to add that, at least in Ware(part of the quad), about every third bathroom on the street side is coed.</p>
<p>i should have specified that i’m only talking about riepe… whoops!</p>