Penn Senior Taking Questions

<p>I have time to kill. Any questions?</p>

<p>how did it feel when you got the acceptance letter?</p>

<p>lol. what a question. trying to live vicariously through him? lol gah i can't believe the decision comes out in 3 weeks.</p>

<p>What type of class rank will not be detrimental to your application? (not necesairly help but just not be a bad area)</p>

<p>top 5%? top 10%?</p>

<p>will mid-600 SAT IIs kill my chance? i'm anticipating a yes...i mean i'm not stellar in any area...top 4%, 2160 SAT, good but not great ECs (i don't have a gazillion awards and president positions).........however i do LOVE my arts supplement...something i'm 99.99999% sure they will not have another like it in a couple of years (or at least this yr).</p>

<p>do they use the weighted rank or unweighted rank?</p>

<p>For those of you asking about admissions questions... I think he is really able/wants to answer questions about life at Penn, assuming he doesn't work for admissions. </p>

<p>I know people have asked a million workload questions... But how is it compared to HIGHSCHOOL? I don't have any clue what people mean when they just say "heavy workload," or "light workload." </p>

<p>Do you have plenty of time to rage even if you're pre-med?</p>

<p>I don't really know whats good with frats... Are they notorious for having clowns who aren't able to maintain a high GPA? Or are there many frats that are strong academically as well as exciting socially?</p>

<p>are students in wharton happy? lol</p>

<p>ok this is not important but when i was visiting i noticed some frats were actually on locust walk (i saw one like right in the middle :P)... this might not seem important but im just wondering about the location of the frats and the condition of the insides of the buildings? (ive never been in one)</p>

<p>Thanks for your time. Feel free to disregard any of the following questions that you don't feel like answering.</p>

<p>What have you liked best at Penn?
What is your least favorite thing?
What, if anything, surprised you about your Penn experience?
What kind of student should not even consider Penn?
How affected is the average student by very affluent, privileged fellow students?
How easy is it to have an enjoyable time at Penn, but not participate all too "hard" in the "play hard" aspect of the social scene?
How good do you think career services are for job placement of College liberal arts majors?
Did you get any internships through the school?
Study abroad experiences?
Overall experience worth the $ over state school?</p>

<p>About frats, when I visited Penn, I stayed overnight with a friend of mine. It was on a Friday..so she took me out to some frat parties. On the way there, I had to use the bathroom, but we didn't want to go back to her dorm. So she just asked one of the guys in a frat if I can borrow their bathroom. And they were pretty nice about it. I haven't been to too many frats, so I don't really know the condition relative to that of other schools. The bathroom was a bit messy though...The other frat I went to was on Sprouce Street, the one with lion heads? It was pretty good, but nothing too spectacular. But then again, this is just two cents from a prospective student.</p>

<p>how ARE the frat guys tho? are they like the 'typical' frats in state schools or little different...i mean the way they act, speak, etc.......</p>

<p>They are nicer maybe?</p>

<p>what classes do u suggest we avoid? which ones are pretty chill and easy for gpa?
are Wharton students nice?
what was ur stats that led to ur acceptance?</p>

<p>Sorry for taking so long to reply. I'm an RA in the Quad and I had to deal with some pre-Thanksgiving issues.</p>

<p>Admission Questions- My guess is as good as yours. I don't know anything about Penn's admission policies.</p>

<p>Work Load- I have personally done more work at Penn than I did in high school. I read A LOT more. I write about the same amount of papers and have fewer tests. However, CLASS TIME + READING TIME is still MUCH LESS than the amount of time I spent sitting in class in high school. My residents are all freshmen and I have asked them how work compares to high school and only about 50% have said that they do more work now. Regardless, the work is more interesting and therefore less painful. Say goodbye to busy work and hello to interesting articles written by your professors and other ground breaking work.</p>

<p>Classes- First is first. CHOOSE CLASSES BASED ON PROFESSOR, NOT SUBJECT! Wherever you go this is true. Trust me. With that said, my favorite classes have been "International Security" with Goldstein, Middle Eastern Politics with Lustick, Constitutional Law with Smith, and Media and Pop Culture with Grazian. I've taken a few small seminars which are always great. If you couldn't tell, I am a Poli Sci major and biased towards the courses in my department. Media and Pop Culture is also one of the easiest classes at Penn along with Criminology and World Music.</p>

<p>On Penn- I love this school. I love it more now than when I was a Freshman. I never liked school before coming here, but Penn taught me to love learning. Plus, the campus is MAD fun. Good luck and Don't stress. I will read some more questions and respond because I forgot the rest.</p>

<p>Fraternities- There are a variety of Frats on campus. If you ask anyone, they will be able to tell you which are the most prestigious and which are the least. However, you can ask 10 different people which fraternities have the most fun parties or coolest guys and you'll get 10 different answers. Some frats (I',m including unofficial frats) have nerdier, nicer guys like DY and EN, others are known for holding their liqueur (DTD), and others have the trust fund babies and spend oodles of money on parties (Owls, OZ, Zets).</p>

<p>In my opinion, fraternities provide a valuable and fun option on a Thur-Sat night. They have crowded parties which are sometimes fine and sometimes pretty crappy. I have had an awesome college experience not in a Frat (most of my friends are not) but those who are love their brothers and treat none brothers with respect. Did I answer your question?</p>

<p>What have you liked best at Penn?
Professors are very accessible and very willing to let you do research with them. The student body knows how to have fun and will randomly break out into deep/academic convos at lunch/parties/etc. I learn just as much out of class as in class.</p>

<p>What is your least favorite thing?
Leggings, Aviators, and Uggs. If you come here... you'll know what I mean. For the sake of being more informative, at any top school you have a contingent of students who act entitled. They are annoying but they come with the territory at any top school.</p>

<p>What, if anything, surprised you about your Penn experience?
Hmmm. Great question. I knew that I would be meeting diverse people, but I did not realize how diverse. The first student I met when I moved in freshman year was a Pakistani in the States for the first time, the second was a Costa Rican Jahovah's Witness, and the third was a HS QB from Texas.
What kind of student should not even consider Penn?
Visit a small liberal arts school like Swarthmore. If you fall in love with the small campus and the community in which everyone knows each other, then Penn probably is not the place for you. Penn is in a terrific city and it has the most campusy city campus that I have seen, but you will not have the same experience that you would have at a Swarthmore.
How affected is the average student by very affluent, privileged fellow students?
They are a part of the Penn community but so are hundreds of other kinds of people. I'm not sure how to really answer this question. I don't feel particularly "affected." I many affluent friends and non-affluent friends. As stated above, there are some really annoying students who act entitled, but they stick to themselves and don't get in the way if you don't let them. Once again, you have that at EVERY school.
How easy is it to have an enjoyable time at Penn, but not participate all too "hard" in the "play hard" aspect of the social scene?
Not hard at all. Out of my 25 residents, 7 don;t drink at all and a bunch more rarely drink. I think they are having the most fun of all. I have friends who didn;t drink till they were 21 but had fun at campus events and downtown. I'll choose great convos> drunken vomit any night (except for Halloween and Flag day of course)
How good do you think career services are for job placement of College liberal arts majors?
OCR (On Campus Recruiting) is baller!! Because of Wharton, businesses love coming to Penn and liberal arts students can get interviews just as readily and Whartonites. Great Great school for future career decisions. They helped me find internships with COngress, in NY, and with the Obama Campaign and I'm a liberal arts student. Likewise, they really held my hand when applying to law school.
Did you get any internships through the school?
Yes. Alumni connections go a long way. You have to ask for help, but you'll receive it
Study abroad experiences?
A large percentage of Penn students study abroad. I did not so anything I say would be BS.
Overall experience worth the $ over state school?
No question! The research opportunities, the BEAUTIFUL buildings, the alumni connections... man there's too much. You only go to college once (unless you are Palin). Sit inside the Quad on a Spring day and watch the students chilling, studying, playing frisbee... You'll fall in love with this school.</p>

<p>I'm going to bed, but I'll answer two last questions.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Being accepted felt great. I hope you have that experience some day too.</p></li>
<li><p>Whartonites do have fun. Most of the "cut throat" talk is BS. They probably party harder than anyone else. I've taken a few Wharton classes and have learned a lot, done SIGNIFICANTLY less work than I do in my poli sci classes, and have done well in all of them..</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Referring to one of my previous posts. I must admit...</p>

<p>I don't hate the leggings, aviators, and uggs. They grow on you and I actually think I'll miss them next year.</p>

<p>LOL</p>

<p>thanks, unbiasedfanboy. Great responses.
If you get a chance to answer -- one more for you.
As an RA- what would are your recommendations as to dorm choices?
For freshman -- any of the houses?
for upperclassmen?
Thanks -- good luck with finals.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot for your responses, Unbiasedfanboys. They've been really informative.</p>