First Impressions of Penn

<p>collegeman3000 cleverly disguising his trolling by saying he normally wouldn’t “feed the ■■■■■” lol and neither will I.</p>

<p>^ But everyone’s “entitled” to their own opinion?..</p>

<p>I’ve had a wonderful NSO so far, and you would too if you don’t highlight ever flaw you see in Penn. If you come with such a negative attitude to any school, you’re going to like it less no matter how good or bad it actually is. Your characterization of Philly is just so ignorant. After having visited and lived in some of the worst slums in the world, I could hardly see this city as bad. I actually think its perfect for me, and much better for college than New York. </p>

<p>I really hope you transfer so you can spam some other school’s forum.</p>

<p>If Philly and Penn are so obnoxious to you, why don’t you just transfer out? There are tons of students who wish they could be in the school. Be thankful for what you have.</p>

<p>Who even looks at the Forbes rankings?? Obviously, you have not studied their methodology.</p>

<p>^^^^ Agree.</p>

<p>Hafsa…sorry to hear about the ticket, but apparently you didn’t realize:<br>
Because of Move-In traffic and normal street congestion on-campus, access to the College Houses will be for unloading only. Families can take advantage of day-long parking at campus lots as soon as they’ve unloaded…</p>

<p>If everyone parked for an hour or more, no one would get moved in.</p>

<p>And regarding lamps…the website listed those as something to bring.</p>

<p>Yes, but none of my criticisms would be unique to Penn. Yes I have had some bad experiences here, but the people here helped me get through them. Penn is extremely supportive if you give them the chance. The house deans and faculty are great people to have as allies, they’ve done so much for me and I am incredibly grateful that I was able to reach out to them.</p>

<p>So far I enjoy the campus and the energy at Penn, but the people I know do seem a little anti-intellectual…kinda says something when I’m the only one I know who read the summer reading. (and the only one I know who enjoys reading) Hopefully things get better when classes start, I’m withholding judgment until then. I don’t find the rooms THAT bad so yeah, and I like Philadelphia, so I hope the student body is cool.</p>

<p>I think the majority of students at Penn have intellectual interests, it’s just that sometimes it’s harder to see it at first. People who know consider me a highly intellectual person and I am very happy and have found many friends at Penn from all over, classes, some from NSO (but I did not meet them until the very end, I was kind of wandering around the whole time but then on the last night I found a group I have stayed friends with ever since and who have helped me meet many other close friends). I think I kind of bring out the inner intellectual in everyone because I’ve had fascinating conversations with people from all majors and schools, even with many people in Wharton who in my experience are much more intellectual than they are given credit for. I just had a conversation with two people from class last semester who I randomly saw and we pretty much talked about math for like 20 minutes.</p>

<p>If you’re this pessimistic about Penn, can you just drop-out and stop posting your ******** on the forums?</p>

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<p>So true. The people here, in general, have seemed extremely anti-intellectual.</p>

<p>Listen up, prospective students: If you want to be laughed at for bringing up M Friedman during an everyday conversation, COME TO PENN! That is, if you can survive the drive here. ;)</p>

<p>Seriously, I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this school to anyone. The other posters don’t seem very genuine to me if they can’t even point to one bad experience when the entire freshman class is practically already thinking of leaving.</p>

<p>This post is kind of sad, honestly.</p>

<p>So I feel pretty silly being on CC during NSO, but I have the uncanny ability to wake up at 8 AM and go to the gym after consecutive nights of party-hopping, while the rest of my floor sleeps in. So yeah, not much else to do right now.</p>

<p>Anyway, I HONESTLY don’t see how people are having trouble making friends here. There are some kids who don’t seem too receptive to this, just because of their friendships from high school, but it’s so freaking easy to talk to people here. I’ve been able to have an intellectual conversation with everyone, and I’ve also been able to trade awesome party stories with everyone. And if I’m ever walking alone somewhere, I’ll honestly just walk up to a random person or group of people and start chatting. Most people are receptive to it, even if they’re already in a group.</p>

<p>Colleges hanging out with each other? Funny. I did go out with an M&Ter last night, but everyone else in our little entourage was in the College. It’s pretty much been the same on the other nights. I walk with M&T or Wharton kids sometimes, but hey, I also walk with College kids very often!</p>

<p>Gotta love being called a ****** because I choose to wear Polo / BB / Sperry. You know, it’s funny because you probably wouldn’t think I was intelligent if you saw me; you’d probably think I was just another one of the “dumb ****** bags”. Looks can be extremely deceiving. People were accepted here for a reason.</p>

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<p>God I can just see you walking up to somebody and being like “SOOOOOOO, what do you guys think about Milton Friedman!” Ahahahahahaha. That’d be funny.</p>

<p>So basically, the complaints that I see are nothing more than superficiality, priorly formed judgments, and introversion. Obviously I’ll concede that parts of Philly suck, but campus itself is gorgeous. My floor walked to Rittenhouse Square a couple of days ago and that walk and destination were anything but ghetto.</p>

<p>But at any rate, I do feel really bad that you guys are having trouble making friends. If you need someone to just chill with, shoot me a PM with your house and room number and I can drop by next time I have a free moment. And if it makes you feel better, it’ll definitely be easier to make friends once classes start.</p>

<p>Oh, and this point was pretty disjointed, so my apologies.</p>

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<p>^ lol what? That never happened. :)</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice though.</p>

<p>Yeah I know it never happened, but that was just the first thing that popped into my head when you said you got laughed at for bringing up Friedman. It was quite the funny mental image I assure you. Alright I’m off, good luck with everything!</p>

<p>Wow Keasbey Nights, give me some of your magic! I make conversation with people but the relationship doesn’t ‘stick’ - after we talk we leave and never see each other again. Thanks for the advice though. I am a pretty huge introvert.</p>

<p>^ Also, give out your number when you meet someone. If you have a BB, give out your BBM so people can add you there. I’ve met a few people that way.</p>

<p>It’s worked for me and I’m an introvert too. :)</p>

<p>Actually being at Penn has been great for me socially, Hafsarox, even though I am very “intellectual” and an “introvert”. It’s helped me come out of my shell in ways that would probably not have been possible had I went to a school like UChicago (not trying to insult them, it’s a great school but they do have a very strong reputation for what I’m alluding to). A lot of my friends chose Penn for the same reason, it feels very friendly and it’s helped them expand socially. I’m not saying I haven’t met several kids who I don’t like and have nothing in common with (some private school kids are a little snobby), but I would have met the same sort or kids at any Ivy league school, it’s a product of the culture, not Penn. </p>

<p>NSO can be very stressful, I know it was for me, but in they end if you look hard enough you will find people who will become good friends. I actually did have one very negative experience during NSO that was very hard to deal with, but when I made friends they were incredibly supportive and I felt a lot better. </p>

<p>I would also like to emphasize that you should not judge a book by its cover. Some people who you are labeling as people who only party and care nothing about school are actually very nice openminded and outgoing people. You need to become more self-sufficient and less entitled if you want to be happy here. Opportunities and friends don’t just come to you, you need to make an effort, not just at Penn but absolutely everywhere.</p>

<p>Penn is a mess though. The administration really has their work cut out for them to fix it. </p>

<p>But it’s easily the worst bureaucracy in the Ivy League, so I don’t see it happening anytime soon.</p>

<p>LOL HafsaRox…you obviously are a glass half empty kind of person. You should be out signing up for clubs, playing basketball, exercising in the gym, joining in house activities. </p>

<p>Haven’t had any issues with admin…DS is out enjoying the activities he wants to go to or staying in dorm doing other things…as least that’s what I heard from him this am (1 txt).</p>

<p>I thought the Quad was the place to be…join in. Great thoughts Poeme.</p>

<p>“But it’s easily the worst bureaucracy in the Ivy League, so I don’t see it happening anytime soon.”</p>

<p>Now I’m not gonna pretend that Penn doesn’t have its problems. But you’re gonna get the same problems at every top school, and you’re ignorant to think otherwise. You’ll find kids who were all wound up in high school get to college and be like wow, i’m all alone, no parents, im gonna go nuts and pretend i’m not the nerd that i was that got me into this school in the first place.</p>

<p>saying that penn is the worst bureaucracy in the ivy league is an absurd comment coming from you (a freshman also who’s been here a resounding 4 days…), someone who knows nothing of the inner workings of a university. not only are you speaking from a complete lack of experience, but in saying something SO stupid and ignorant you discredit every other argument you make (which, admittedly, were flimsy in the first place).</p>

<p>feel free to provide actual proof rather than your “thoughts” and anecdotes, and then i’ll take you much more seriously than i do now.</p>

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<p>Aw…that was my plan :(</p>