<p>Point me back if I missed it, but are Asians welcomed in mainstream fraternities these days or is there an Asian frat?</p>
<p>What percentage drink regularly?</p>
<p>there's one asian frat and two asian sororities, but there are asians in just about all the greek organizations as far as i know.</p>
<p>i seem to recall a percentage of only 10% not drinking, but that might be incorrect.</p>
<p>do any current penn kids want to help me answer a question? i got a PM asking for the reputations of the different panhel chapters on campus, and since i'm a) a biased participant and b) technically not supposed to talk about this, i'd like your input!</p>
<p>You guys are awesome-- great answers!</p>
<p>Virgin alluded to the presence of some very wealthy students. I was wondering how much this affected the student body culture. Clearly, this will vary from individual to individual and I realize that many at Penn do not come from über-privileged lifestyles, but is there an effect from kids who have no limit on spending money. Specifically to the girls, how prevalent is the designer clothes/handbag scene on a daily basis? Is there pressure to keep up on those fronts?</p>
<p>On a similar note, is there a general trend as to Spring Break destinations? Do many go somewhere exotic, and if so, do they do that starting freshman year?</p>
<p>Finally, any and all thoughts you might have on any study-abroad experiences.</p>
<p>Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Yes, please do tell us about the study abroad opportunities. Do many students take advantage of that program? Is it easy to coordinate?</p>
<p>Do you know anyone who plays on the club roller hockey team? Just curious.</p>
<p>AFFLUENCE AT PENN
The wealth at Penn is very visible when walking down Locust. You will see multitudes of girls with Longchamp bags, Burberry scarves, and Tory Burch flats, all of which are considered Penn staples. The students particularly in more exclusive social organizations will wear actual non-cliche high fashion. It is a very well-dressed, affluent campus in general. There isn't outright pressure, but because so many people around you are well dressed, you may feel a desire to be so as well. I guess it depends on who you hang out with as well, but it's hard not to notice that tons of people have designer clothes/bags. Are there lots of students who don't wear these things? Sure. It all depends on the social scene you pursue.</p>
<p>It may be hard to hang out with people who like to party a lot/go downtown/eat at restaurants if you don't have loads of disposable income. Some of my friends think nothing of buying rounds for everyone at bars and spending $300 a night. Other people I know never ate outside of the dining halls freshman year. A lot of people I've met, especially in the Greek scene, have no money worries and pursue a good time regardless of price.</p>
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<p>There are the typical spring break locales: Acapulco, Cancun, and the islands. It's not as common freshman year as later, but it still happens. My freshman year I went to Nevis with some of my friends from home, not from Penn.</p>
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<p>Study abroad... I'm not sure of the percentage who go aboard (certainly you can google this) but typically those who want to be officers in organizations will go abroad in the summer through Penn Summer Abroad, which are basically planned for you and super easy to coordinate. They are considered an easy way to boost your GPA while being abroad. Most people I know go abroad in junior fall. The office of transfer credit is a ***** to deal with if you choose to do a non Penn study abroad program, but with persistence, you can get anything done.</p>
<p>University</a> of Pennsylvania's College of General Studies |</p>
<p>There's a club roller hockey team?</p>
<p>Sports in general aren't a big deal at Penn unless you're an athlete or a fan. I have no idea what our sports teams are doing unless I happen to read something in the DP, and I prefer it that way.</p>
<p>That's okay. I didn't expect you to. I just saw a few of the name's on the team's website and wanted to know if you happened to know any of those people, haha.</p>
<p>Great responses -- thanks! A couple more questions, if you will indulge me : )</p>
<p>I have heard that the dining hall food is kind of meh. If you don't have the big bucks to spend on frequent restaurant dining and have somewhat of an eye to healthy food (i.e. don't want to frequent the lunch trucks on a regular basis) can you suggest any strategies? (Especially for first year, where you are required to be on a meal plan, yes?) If you are in the quad, what options do you have on weekends -- can you have a small fridge and microwave in your room, for example?</p>
<p>How are the gym/workout facilities? Is the equipment generally available?
Are the offerings somewhat comparable to a decent health club?</p>
<p>I know this is kind of esoteric, but I like to get a sense if it is possible (and by this I mean "doable" as opposed to "technically" possible) for a College student to take a couple of classes at Wharton, or even put together a concentration in Wharton classes with a College degree. I know that there are official minors between the schools, but are there classes at Wharton that a non-mathy liberal arts students could take w/out wrecking GPA?</p>
<ol>
<li>Dining halls aren't <em>that</em> bad. I almost finished my meal plan (1 dining dollar and 5 meals) this past semester which is a lot better than many freshman. Dining halls are actually pretty good if you want to eat healthy. The only problem is variety (or lack thereof). The food gets old fast. In Commons they don't have forks or knives half the time. The lines are long. They stop serving food before the dining hall closes. However, if you go at the right times you can get food and eat a good meal. You can also have a fridge and microwave in your room which should allow you to keep your food and eat what you want.</li>
</ol>
<p>The gym has great facilities. The availability of machines depends on when you go. If you go after class it tends to be full, but if you go early in the morning or late at night i hear it's more empty.</p>
<p>Wharton does not offer a minor. SAS is putting together a Liberal Arts Business type minor. In either case you are open to taking lots of Wharton courses while at Penn. Not all are math based (I think only accounting and finance will be math based) and if you are competitive enough you should get a decent grade in the class depending on which one you take and how much work you put into it.</p>
<p>To broetchen:</p>
<p>I would look for courses within the Wharton departments that aren't quant heavy: Marketing, BPUB, LGST, etc. There are many courses college students can take without needing intro Wharton courses as prereqs. In regards to courses that will be kind to your GPA, ditto the above post.</p>
<p>Great advice, everyone. Thanks!</p>
<p>like a virgin- Can you give more details about the honors program you're in?</p>
<p>Sure. I'm a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and a University Scholar. I was asked to be a BFS by admissions in April of my senior year, and I applied to be a University Scholar at the end of freshman year. BFS requires that you graduate with a 3.4 and that you take a Benjamin Franklin Seminar every year. These seminars are intimate and intense and there are 20+ of them offered every semester. This is more of the typical honors program one would find at a college.</p>
<p>University Scholars is also a program that you get asked to join, or you can apply when you're here. It is heavily research based, and you have to start undergoing undergraduate research by the end of sophomore year. It is meant to be for those who have a specific interest they wish to pursue usually into graduate work. You are pretty much guaranteed funding what you do as long as it is legitimate. There are weekly lunch meetings at which this research is presented. You get a topic-specific faculty advisor who helps you with your research. And... there is free catered lunch, which rocks!</p>
<p>Okay, a little concerned now about the affluence at Penn. Is the campus really that heavily filled with designer stuff or just a small percentage? Not sure the glitzy, showy look would be a great fit. Pretty casual, here.</p>
<p>Oh and thanks for all the great answers to our questions -- very helpful!</p>
<p>You all are victims of your own success -- sorry about all the questions, but this is just <em>too</em> helpful!</p>
<p>What about internships, particularly for the summer? How good is placement to these? Do you have any experience (or second hand knowledge) with Career Services either for internships or anything else?</p>
<p>And you know that this always comes up when it comes to a Penn discussion, my apologies, but.... are you worried about crime; do you feel less safe at Penn than you would on another campus?</p>
<p>Virgin, you mentioned that the students were not really all rah-rah on the sports aspect, aside from the Greek system, what would you say are the most "popular" activities (excluding partying) -- intramural sports, I take it would not be a top choice? Student government, DP, service orgs, etc. do people gravitate to any of these things more than others?</p>
<p>As always, much appreciated.</p>
<p>Since I'm bored...</p>
<p>There are many rich looking kids wearing rich looking things but I wouldn't say it's that common. Keep in mind there are 10K undergrads so it's definitely a small percentage of the campus that appears really wealthy. I've never thought of affluence as any kind of problem; there's no pressure to dress a certain way. People wear sweats to class all the time. So I guess the only way this would be a problem is if that's the crowd you wanted to hang with, otherwise you'll be fine.</p>
<p>Affluence at Penn is very subtle sometimes - I don't really notice it when I'm on campus, but when I go home and visit Ohio State it's really obvious. I'd never walk around Penn and see everyone in t-shirts or jerseys and jeans. People at Penn spend so much more on movies, dinner, and shopping in general, but you just grow accustomed to paying more for things (like $12+ movies at the bridge). We drink more expensive alcohol (frat parties still have cheap beer though) but I'm not going to complain about that. I think Penn students do a lot of the same things people at other colleges do, but then you remember that it's 45k a year for school on top of that. It's not something you really notice on campus, but it weirds me out a bit when I go elsewhere (and when I started making friends at Drexel). </p>
<p>Career Services is one of the best of its kind - we have amazing On Campus Recruiting. It's a good place to find jobs/internships, but you have to be independent to attend info sessions and apply to jobs. It's also very competitive because it's so easy to use - lots of kids only look at Career Services OCR when they look for jobs, so it inflates the competitiveness and the truth is that there are many other ways to find jobs that often result in better jobs with less competitive applications. (This is only a very small downside to what is one of the best Career Services depts in the country)</p>
<p>I'm never really worried about crime; I'd say the best strategy to feeling safe has been getting to know the campus and area, and developing some basic precautions: never going off-campus alone at night, and remembering to lock my door/etc. College campuses in general can be targets for crime because there's so many naive kids with disposable income around, and that's something you have to remember at any school. </p>
<p>I'd say that (spectator, at least) sports are pretty popular and well-attended. Football games are free and a great way to spend a saturday afternoon, and basketball is very popular and a lot of fun (and they'll never be as bad a team as they are this year, again :-)) and I really recommend camping out in the palestra as a great way to get in with a big penn tradition. Other popular activities: performing arts is huge with lots of a cappella groups, there are lots of theatre groups, and there are even more cultural versions of these groups. There are a lot of academic/professional clubs, and service orgs are very popular. You'll find participation in all kinds of activities, and many people define themselves that way. Some people really build their friends out of people they meet in clubs, others out of their dorms, and others out of their major.</p>
<p>There are many people here who are very wealthy. There are also many people here who are not so well off. Penn has all types of people. The thing is you are more likely to notice someone wearing expensive clothes who never goes to the dining halls and goes clubbing every weekend instead of someone who is very conservative with his/her money.</p>