<p>So I've been on this site since I was a sophmore, but that stopped once I had decided which school I was going to attend. I'm currently a freshman at Penn and I love it. If I knew what i know now, I would've applied ED to wharton. I always told myself that I was going to come back here and give advice once I was in school, but I never did and I'm kind of bored and have some free time so here goes.</p>
<p>I want to specifically talk about the social scene at Penn. This is probably the aspect that I love the most about Penn and one that I wish i knew about when I was deciding between colleges. First a little background info on me when I was in high school. I was a 3 sport varsity athlete and the captain of 2. That was basically it for ECs as those 3 sports basically dominated my free time. I could've played and was recruited by D2 schools in all of those sports but never pursued recruitment by ivies because I didnt want to play a varsity sport in college. I was fairly popular in high school and partied my fair share. I wasn't really your typical smart kid. Anyways, I was accepted to several ivies and other top schools and received no outright rejections (waitlisted at 1 though. Who needs harvard anyway?). After my decisions came, I narrowed it down to 2 schools, neither of which were Penn. I had actually visited Penn for an accepted students day thing, and I hated it. The city, the feel, basically everything. As the deposit deadline approached, them more i thought about Penn, the more I liked it/realized I was being biased because I had visited and had friends at other colleges. Even though I still didnt completely like Penn, for whatever reason I chose it. Don't ask me why or if the decision even made sense, but I just chose it. Yes I had liked it more, but it still wasn't my top choice, but I'm so glad I choose it. But anyway, enough about me and more on the social scene.</p>
<p>If you partied at high school, Penn is the school for you. No where else will you find a top schools that has the social scene that Penn has. I have friends at and visited Duke(ive visited around 4 times), Columbia, and Boston University and Penn is just flat out better (although Duke is pretty good as well, but not as good as Penn's). I've also had people from Dartmouth, Georgetown and Notre Dame visit, and they both have liked Penn's scene better. Now to specifics about Penn's social scene...</p>
<p>Yes, the social scene is dominated by frat life. It is basically necessary for guys (not so much with girls). Can you party and have fun without joining a frat? Absolutely, but it will be a lot harder and you might feel left out, especially when most of your friends are in frats and cant hang out because they have frat specific things to do. I know this will scare a lot of kids who don't feel comfortable with the thought of fraternity life, but you guys need to remember, this is an Ivy League school. Everyone's smart. These arent your typical state school frats. I can't tell you how many friends were absolutely closed to the idea of joining a frat (i dont want to pay to have friends, i dont want to be a dumb frat bro, I dont like the idea of having my life controlled by a frat, etc.) and are now rushing. For future Penn students, please keep your mind open about frats until its time to rush and then make your decision about them</p>
<p>Now to what makes the social scene so good and fun. First, the location. Most parties occur in a 2x5 block radius. Because it is a major city, everythings close and dense. I can't tell you how convenient it is to be able to walk down the street to another party when one gets busted/becomes dead. Especially when you are drunk or it is cold. Second, Penn and Penn police. Penn honestly cares about your safety. The could care less that you are 18 and drinking alcohol at an off-campus frat house. The only time Penn police close down a party is if someone is in need of medical attention, someone called for a noise complaint, or because at 2 AM they usually bust really big parties. They know damn well that the majority of people are underage, but they still never do anything. 've heard horror stories from people at other schools where they've gotten in trouble for underage drinking which just causes people not to stop drinking, but to go further off-campus and pre-game more at their dorms. Third, the variety of the scene. There is literally something for everyone. There are around 30 something frats and you will find one that fits you. There are international frats, waspy frats, jew frats, multicultural frats, typical state school frats and literally anything you can think of. Also there is a lot of variety in the type partying. Every thursday, frats will throw "downtowns". This is where a frat will rent out a club in downtown philly. Now I've been clubbing at home and everything and usually its ok. But these downtowns are so much fun because you know or have seen almost half of the people in the club. Almost everybody there is a penn student. No other school does this, or if they do, they're not at good clubs (Philly clubs>>>Durham clubs). Also in philadelphia you have BYOs. These are restaurents where you can bring your own alcohol and they never ID. These are a blast to go to, especially with a group of close friends. Then you have your typical frat parties. These have the greatest variety. You can go to parties where everyones playing beer bong and just hanging out or you can go to parties where everyone's grinding and dancing with each other. Parties that have live bands, where hip hop is mostly played, or where all you hear is house music. They can be open to everyone or exclusive to the point where you need to know someone to get in. Yea you may go to some that are lame, but on the whole, you will have fun and dance your ass off. </p>
<p>So I know a lot of parents/kids who arent into partying maybe worried that Penn's too much of a party school. Relax, its still an ivy league school. I'll say 70% of the school doesnt party or party every once in a while. Also, its called time-management. i myself had absolutely no free time but I partied around 3-4 times a week this semester, took some classes that people say are some of the hardest to take as a freshman, in s couple of club sports and clubs and I'm still going to have around a 3.5 GPA. Oh and for those worrying about academics, Penn isnt that hard. The only people who i found who thought that Penn was really hard were engineers and people who were the smartest in their school and thought they were going to receive close to a 4.0 at Penn. Sorry, but most likely its not gonna happen. Welcome to the ivy league. </p>
<p>P.S. I wrote this very quickly and it got to the point where I just started ranting. Im sure i made tons of spelling and grammar mistakes in my post, but i really dont care/ am way too lazy to go back and proofread it. Gotta love winter break.</p>