Housing for Internationals

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>I am an international student who will be incoming for the Penn exchange program in the Fall. I'm meant to be looking at my housing applications now but I was wondering what you guys thought about what kind of housing would best suit my situation. Since I'm from Australia, I will know absolutely nobody when I arrive so I want something that is kind of social and lets me meet new people and friends so I am not entirely alone! But at the same time, I'm very used to living privately in my own room and the thought of shared bathrooms and anything like that freaks me out. I could deal with it, but I do enjoy living more privately than what I can gather from the quad descriptions...</p>

<p>From what I can tell, the quad seems like the more social dorm living. I was really considering the highrises before anything else but the prospects of not meeting enough people or becoming close enough to those I do meet is kind of freaking me out. I'm a third year student in my undergraduate degree (which is the equivalent of a Junior/Senior since our degrees only have three years) so I don't want to be surrounded by solely freshman or whatever...</p>

<p>But what do you guys think would give me the best experience? The quad or highrises? Do you think that, living in a highrise I would still make a lot of friends and therefore don't need to worry about changing my mind?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>BY THE WAY the way I wrote that makes it sound like I’m not considering every house anymore but I am! Suggestions about places that are not the quad or highrises are also welcome :)</p>

3

<p>I feel that if you really don’t want to be surrounded by freshmen but actually want to meet people, I would recommend that you apply to residential programs within the highrises. Some of them are pretty involved, and even those that aren’t will probably have more of a community feel than any random floor. You really don’t want to be a junior in the Quad.</p>

4

<p>Thank you! :slight_smile: I think that this would be a good idea /if/ I am allowed to apply to them for such a short period of stay during my exchange. Will look into it.</p>

5

<p>Look at Harnwell’s international residential program, I heard this year there were a few transfer students in it.</p>