First Impressions of Penn

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Just a few things I've noticed/experienced since moving in:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Philly is just about the worst city on the planet. (Very, very, very) Shady people, garbage, excessive crime, and just an overall look of serious urban decay. </p></li>
<li><p>NSO is an utter mess. No one's anywhere. All the events are boring. Most people are just skipping it altogether to hang out with people they knew even before they came to Penn. The museum party was ok, but come on dancing in a museum isn't exactly all that much fun lol. At the end of the day, it's just another museum. And, let's face it, being in Philly it 'aint no special museum. ;) [For comparisons sake, Columbia rented out an island (yes an entire island), took its freshmen to the island via water taxi where they subsequently partied into the night, with the gorgeous manhattan skyline in the background. Now, that's an orientation!]</p></li>
<li><p>Divisions among the student body are already becoming obvious. Engineers with Engineers, College students with College students, and Whartonites with Whartonites. Haven't met a nurse yet.</p></li>
<li><p>The rooms are gross. Mine was unkempt and had dust accumulated everywhere. Took two days of serious cleaning to make it habitable. Most people have complained that there is little to no lighting in the rooms and that they are badly kept, but Penn has so far ignored them.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Classes start on Wednesday. Will update then.</p>

2

<p>Do not feed this ■■■■■. Check out all the other posts they have made…all completely negative before even (reportedly) stepping foot on campus. Likely not even enrolled at Penn.</p>

<p>Let this thread die.</p>

3

<p>^ Honestly I have to agree so far my experience has been pretty awful lol</p>

<h1>1. Franklin Building shouldn’t be closed during move-in days, even on the weekends, I have to wait until Tuesday now to get my Penn ID because I move in on the weekend</h1>

<h1>2. I haven’t been able to go to any of the NSO events because since I moved in on the weekend, houston hall is closed meaning I couldn’t get my wristband</h1>

<h1>3. Bathrooms are dirty lol</h1>

<p>My goals at least as of right now is to do really well or just well my first semester and transfer to a college of around the same prestige/academic standard aka Columbia, I’ll see how my experience goes after classes start and decide if I should transfer or not after that </p>

<p>I’ll also update after classes start on Wednesday</p>

4

<p>I’m not a ■■■■■. Just telling the truth. Penn has far too many of its admissions staff here on CC, and has become very good at marketing itself, and hiding its many, many defects. This is not the school people think it is. It is the absolute worst in the Ivy League when it comes to actually caring about the well-being of its students. The administration couldn’t care less about Penn students.</p>

<p>More random points: My mom got a 200 dollar fine from one of Penn’s employees just because we parked outside for 3 (THREE!!!) minutes longer than the hour limit. A security guard insulted my mom because she couldn’t understand her (language barrier). I got tackled in a line at Wawa (sketchy subway shop that’s kinda on campus) when this huge tattooed dude decided he wanted my place in the line. So many shady types hang around campus that it’s honestly downright frightening after 6pm.</p>

5

<p>Sucks that you guys haven’t had good experiences =( Are you guys in the Quad? In general Fisher-Hassenfeld has good room lighting but horrible bathrooms and Ware has horrible (aka one overhead light by the sink) lighting but pretty decent bathrooms. You can always shower-hop!</p>

6

<p>Lol. Nah, I went out and bought (and survived! :stuck_out_tongue: Ugh, Philly really is terrible - can’t emphasize this ENOUGH!) two floor lamps from the bookstore so that’s made the room better. I can’t help but think Penn has bad lighting in dorm rooms just because they want people to buy their lamps from the bookstore. Think about it. My entire floor has had to buy these lamps because it was so depressingly dark all the time. I mean, they already ripped us off big time with that the $3200 health insurance (Columbia’s is 1700, AND they added it into the cost of attendance while calculating financial aid, unlike Penn which didn’t so it could save on giving out financial aid). Penn is the very definition of a business out to rip-off its customers at every turn.</p>

<p>PS: Really sorry about the constant Columbia comparisons guys. I realize there are other schools, but I know Columbia really well. Hence, it always comes up. :)</p>

7

<p>My bad luck just got worse my tv’s screen cracked because it fell off the cheap small desk Penn provided to my dorm. Philadelphia is an awful city imo. </p>

<p>This school does not care about it’s students, at least from what I’ve seen as of right now.</p>

<p>My insurance waive also got denied, Penn really wants to milk my parents out of all their money, now I have to get it straightened out by September 30th or God knows how much they’ll charge me for insurance. </p>

<p>@Hafsarox: Which collegehouse/dorm are you in?</p>

8

<p>Part of being in college is advocating for yourself, so if you can’t do that yes you will be miserable at Penn, but also in life in general. I have to admit I am sometimes annoyed with housing, but I have gotten by and am happy now because I know how to be independent and seek out the proper guidance. I also try not to dwell on the negative.</p>

<p>As for calling Philly the worst city in the world, people are shot in broad daylight in englewood in Chicago, and there have been flashmobs. Stop saying the people in Philly are shady, they are normal folks trying to mind their own business. Maybe the sense your entitlement and that’s why you get a bad vibe.
My parents and I just drove on spruce through 48th street and saw a very nice pretty neighborhood on the other hand.</p>

9

<p>^ lol no Philly sucks, “It’s Never Sunny in Philadelphia”</p>

10

<p>Poeme, if you can’t criticize Penn about even one thing then I really don’t believe you’re being honest. </p>

<p>Almost all upperclassmen I’ve met have had something or the other that irritates them about Penn. </p>

<p>@mrunderdog: I PM’ed you.</p>

11

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<p>Weather has surprisingly been good all week. But it’s back to usual from next week. 7 days of rain!!</p>

12

<p>i really think you have no right to call philly just about the worst city on the planet. not only are there other amazing parts of philly and people in philly that i love to visit, but i was very impressed when i drove through the penn area.</p>

13

<p>^ that’s cause you’re from new jersey, and lol that was joke so don’t take it too seriously</p>

14

<p>

[quote=betc27]
i really think you have no right to call philly just about the worst city on the planet.</p>

<p>LOL!</p>

<p>But, yeah, Philly is bad. There are maybe a couple places worse than it (Detroit, Compton) but still it’s really, really bad. I would not recommend anyone to come here.</p>

15

<p>maybe I set my standards a little bit too high, but I never thought philadelphia would be disappoint me this much lol</p>

16

<p>yes detroit is one of the only places worse than philadelphia. what in the world was i thinking? btw, what do you know about new jersey? i’m close to new york and to philly, 2 pretty cool cities, even though i like philly more, and i live in a nice, although a little too normal, neighborhood. i’ve visited most of the major cities in the northeast/midwest like nyc and chicago, and all i’m saying is that philly is a great place if you go out and try to have fun. i could say nyc is a terrible place just because of the crime, garbage, etc., but i don’t because i know about broadway, the met, etc.</p>

17

<p>every school has problems…if you actually knew columbia you’d realize they’re no shining beacon from god, and that every person who lives nearby columbia feels threatened by their presence as the school wants to expand further…and there are totally problems with penn—like having some entitled and pretentious students…oh, wait…</p>

18

<p>Hafsarox: So you’ve been here for a few days and have already experienced ‘excessive crime’? You feel comfortable judging the city as the ‘world’s worst’. </p>

<p>Please. </p>

<p>Being afraid of the ‘shady characters’ after 6pm? And I’m sure someone ‘tackled’ you in Wawa… lol It’s almost surreal. All you are doing is ruminatively regurgitating your preconceived notions/fears about your experience here.</p>

<p>With that kind of attitude, I’m sure it is hard to make friends. You need to lighten up and actually talk to people.</p>

19

<p>Okay, so normally I wouldn’t “feed the ■■■■■” or whatever, but I can honestly say that I have had very much the same experience as the original poster. Just for credibility’s sake, I will say that I have taken FULL advantage of NSO (many frat parties/hook ups, along with the tons of regular school sanctioned events). Some other things:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>There are a lot of really quite dumb “****** bags” here, whether they got in through daddy’s money, MAJOR counseling/help on their applications, or sports. It is quite hard to start up a conversation with one of them without referring to “how totally sick” that frat party was last night. Most are VERY apathetic about anything intellectual.</p></li>
<li><p>The campus is quite nice, but philly is quite dirty and, well, smelly. The tap water is absolutely terrible. I come from a large city, so trust me, I’m used to every aspect of “big city” life. Philly is one big unattractive mess (except for penn’s direct campus, and some touristy areas of center city).</p></li>
<li><p>It really is a glorified state school (#52 in Forbes, anyone). So, many people know people from their high schools, because well, for a certain class of high achievers, it is really quite easy to get in here. Be prepared to be immediately “out of it” if you didn’t go to one of the feeder schools from the privileged areas of the US (and India/China of course).</p></li>
<li><p>Boat Shoes (Sperry’s). Ray Bans. Ralph Lauren polos. Ralph Lauren hats. Ralph Lauren pants. Ralph Lauren socks. If you’re wardrobe doesn’t include one or more of these items, good luck finding friends. Note: “Ralph Lauren” is freely interchangeable with other upper-upper-middle-class ******bag clothing brands like “Chaps” and “Nautica”.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>On a side note: I have to admit that the parties during NSO have been pretty sweet and it’s been nice to hook up with so many girls. But, alas, unless you are a raging drunkard (like I’m choosing not to be tonight), Penn (deep down) is not a very fun or welcoming place.</p>

<p>And How To Fix It: More meritocratic admissions (I’m looking at you ED. Go up to any “bro” and ask him the other schools he applied to: "Oh bro, I did early decision, bro), more investment on the inside of college houses (Because we all know from the tours how great the outside looks), and (even more) investment in West Philly which can still get real ugly, real fast.</p>

<p>That’s all folks. Hoping for better once classes start or I am outta’ here.</p>

20

<p>After your first wave of whining I assumed you were maybe nervous and just taking it out as anger but after reading this I think it’s something else. You must be very privileged and entitled if you think Penn’s campus is “shady” or garbage.</p>

<p>I don’t know what to say to the rest of your points. NSO is just supposed to acquaint you with people before classes start, good for Columbia if they want to make it a vacation too. A room being “uninhabitable” because of dust is probably the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard. </p>

<p>As for class divisions that’s simply people talking with people who are studying similar things. That happens literally everywhere</p>

<p>Penn has a lot of things worth *****ing about. OFSA, the required dining plan, the new insurance rules; but your complaints are so petty you come off as very spoiled and selfish.</p>