<p>Penn was the most competitive school I was accepted to, so I sort of assumed they would have an "I'm too good to recruit" mentality. However, I've noticed that Penn is by far more personal than any of the other colleges I was accepted to, including smaller schools such as UChicago and Barnard. The morning after I was accepted to Penn (at 7am no less), my interviewer called me up and basically screamed "Congratulations!!" in my ear, hahah. She offered to meet up with me at Starbucks, said how happy she was for me, etc... Then I got a fb message from a girl who applied ED -- apparently she had been prompted by the head of the state alumni association to contact me and act as a guide and friend throughout the process. I also was invited to attend a welcome party at an alumni's house, which sadly I had to miss because it conflicted with my visit to Penn. </p>
<p>To top it all off, I got a handwritten postcard from the assistant dean of admission congratulating me, saying my application was a pleasure to read, my essay was "wonderfully insightful", and she hoped to meet me at the Penn Preview Days. My mom also had a meeting with my future financial aid advisor while I was at the preview day, and she said he was EXTREMELY nice and friendly -- in stark contrast to the UChicago financial aid officer I met with who was so rude I was on the verge of tears by the end of the meeting.</p>
<p>Anyone else feel like Penn goes above and beyond other schools when it comes to just being friendly, welcoming, and personal?</p>
<p>Penn’s friendliness DEFINITELY threw me off guard. I mean, I was expecting them to be friendly. But I was accepted ED, meaning I was bound to them, and they sent me personal handwritten letters with Congrats, I got phone calls from a few current students congratulating me, all of which usually goes to RD students to assure their matriculation. And Penn Preview Day, another wonderful experience. They focused just as much on impressing the ED students as the RD, although they really didn’t need to. The students were all very very friendly, even those I ran into who were NOT involved with the whole Preview thing. I loved Penn before, but my experiences with them just made me a trillion times more excited to go there!</p>
<p>I agree!
I went to the Penn Scholars days. I’m from the South, and pretty poor. So being different from all the other kids, I expected to come home from it feeling lonely and disappointed, but the case was the complete and utter opposite!</p>
<p>I spent a night walking the streets of Philly (right outside the Penn campus) with a group of about 10 other pre-frosh on a quest for a cheesesteak. We joked and acted ridiculous and did not stop laughing the whole time. The fact that I was able to find 10 other kids that I really liked (and were extremely impressive but not one bit stuck up) within two days, was a really big hook for me. Furthermore, these kids represented all four schools (one was even a nurse!)</p>
<p>We also had spent an earlier part of the night hanging out in one of the dean’s apartments within the quad. The dean had freshly baked cookies for everyone, and we hung out with about 5 current students (who had come for cookies and snacks for a study break). The dean was extremely nice, and these students were not only really interested in seeing that we did go to penn, but they were also hilarious.</p>
<p>From what I saw while there, Penn seemed like an awesome place where not only were the students involved and amazing, but they were also fun and full of life. Plus, the campus is absolutely, undeniably beautiful, and Philly itself is bustling and alluring. I urge anyone who is making their college decision to give Penn a really good look ( I met two students at the program that were rejecting Harvard for CAS at Penn, mostly because of the different atmospheres and the people they met at each ).</p>
<p>Take advantage of free stuff while you can… you’ll get it until the end of NSO, and then Penn’s like “muhahahaha we gotchu and now we’ll get your money!” :-P</p>