<p>Why Penn?</p>
<p>What do you think of people moving off campus after freshman year? How does that lend itself to still having a Penn community if everyone isn't living in the same space?</p>
<p>Greek life?</p>
<p>Grad students?</p>
<p>There are a million reasons to go to Penn and a million not to go to Penn. I chose Penn because I wanted a good school in an urban area. That made the list Penn, Columbia, and Northwestern. As someone from DC, that made Penn and Columbia more desirable. After visiting the two I decided I liked Penn more. I probably would be equally happy at any of these schools though.</p>
<p>Most of the people who move off campus sophomore year live in frats, sororities, or the Radian. You need to get a lease together by the end of first semester, so it’s not likely you’ll have a group of people to live with if you’re living outside of a Greek system.<br>
Look at Penn’s campus on Google Maps. The main upper classmen dorms are the High Rises at 39th and Locust. Off campus housing usually ranges from 39th to 42ndish and Baltimore to Chestnut. It’s all really close to campus. You’ll be like a 5 minute walk from everyone. Most people go on campus to study anyway in Van Pelt or Huntsman.</p>
<p>Greek life is what you make of it. Something like 1/3 of all Penn students are Greek. If you want to join a frat or a sorority, you can find one for you. If you choose not to, you can still have fun. I have good friends who are Greek and good friends who aren’t Greek. Frats are the focal point of your social life freshman year when you have nothing to do, no real way of getting booze, and no fake. Frats are places to go and drink and party. As you get older, you tend to party with your friends either in a dorm room, a house, or at a club downtown.</p>
<p>Grad students are what you make of them. Freshman year you might have a grad student as an RA. I had one freshman and sophomore year. They were both nice guys who didn’t really care if we partied in the dorms. Grad students are poor, so they become RAs for the free housing, not the power trips. You’ll also have grad students for TAs in classes. For large intro classes that means they run a recitation section (small discussion based section to supplement a large lecture). Some speak English. Others do not. Grad students are good if you are interested in research. They are usually the ones you work with. I’ve worked with one grad student last year at a bio lab and I’m starting to work with another this summer for business research. They’re both nice guys and helped me learn a lot.</p>