Questions for current students

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Hey anybody who goes to Penn or knows about student life,
I have ten days now to make this choices (between Penn and Columbia) and a couple questions left.
1. A current student who showed me around says she doesn't go out on the average Friday/Saturday night because she has to do homework (she's in college or arts and sciences). Is this normal for Penn students?
2. Anyone not in greek life feel overwhelmed by its presence? When I toured it seemed like every other beautiful building was a frat house so the greek scene seemed kind of omnipresent and they were also the only kids hanging out outside when I was there.
3. Do people go into Philly regularly? How is it as a college town? Do people see shows there or do internships during the year? (I'm trying to get a sense of the difference between going to school in NYC v. Philly)
4. Do the professors seem to really care about undergrads?
5. Is there school spirit/sense of community? (I don't care about sports spirit really, just that like people are excited to be going to college and care about the school/each other)</p>

<p>Thanks so much.</p>

2

<p>1) I wouldn’t really say it’s “normal” for Penn students. I’d say the average Penn student goes out twice every three weeks (not including first semester of course, when people go out all the time). That being said, I’m a premed and I still go out once or twice every weekend without fear of homework. It all depends on personal preference and in some cases how efficient you are with homework. Some people take hours to do what most can do in minutes. All in all, I wouldn’t say it’s normal. I know way too many M&T and Huntsman kids that go out all the time to say that workload makes you stay in. If you want to go out, you will go out.</p>

<p>2) I am currently in Greek life but I actually didn’t really want to join first semester. I was never really overwhelmed by it, because even if you are not a part of it, you can reap the benefits i.e. parties, meeting people, etc. However, you can also just as easily find your niche outside Greek life in clubs and organizations you find interesting. Greek life definitely has a decently sized presence on campus, but I would say it’s just big enough that others can benefit from it and just small enough that it doesn’t have a monopoly on social scenes on campus.</p>

<p>3) I’d say people go into Philly pretty regularly, whether it’s just for shopping or going to a restaurant in center city. There’s definitely a lot to do in the city, and plenty of people take advantage of that. Of course, I’m not going to say that Philly is on the metropolitan level of NYC, but I would argue that the campus situation is better. I personally also wrestled between picking Columbia and Penn, and the biggest factor in my decision was location of campus. I liked the fact that Penn actually had a campus. Because it’s not in the middle of the big city, there’s actual greenery, common places to gather outside, fields to play sports on, and all the basic things found on a generic college campus while still having center city in your background. I liked that a lot more than Columbia’s campus, which was more of a bunch of buildings Columbia owned that were located close together.</p>

<p>4) I feel like this question will yield the same answer at every college, as I don’t see many differences between professors here and at Columbia. They care about their work and they enjoy teaching, even if it’s just an introductory course. Of course, you’ll always get the occasional professor that absolutely hates teaching, but you’re bound to find him or her at any university.</p>

<p>5) I definitely think there’s a sense of community here. Penn’s a big school, with a variety of people all doing their own things, but above all we know we’re Penn students, and that is easily noticeable wherever you go.</p>

3

<p>Thank you this is incredibly helpful!</p>

4

<p>Does Philly have many internship opportunity? Will UPenn students stay at Philly in summer?</p>

5

<p>The OP’s questions 2 and 5 are very similar, in my experience. Penn has a very fraternal community, which is not to say that it is a “fratty” community. Many of my friends who went to large land grant universities with big time athletic programs identified first with their university and second with their friends/groups. They had a common bond with everyone else in their school, but they didn’t necessarily take great pride in their clubs and activities. </p>

<p>Penn was, in my experience, the opposite. People don’t have very much pride in the athletic programs, and Penn certainly isn’t much for general school spirit since the things Penn is best at aren’t the things that get large groups of people instantly excited (breakthroughs in neuroscience just don’t have the same draw to party in the streets that winning the Big Ten football championship does). With that said, Penn students often get highly involved in their clubs and activities, and they are proud of those clubs/activities. The clubs and activities are often time consuming and almost never result in any tangible benefit (i.e. credit or pay), but people are dedicated.</p>

<p>When I say that the community is fraternal, I mean that people tend to develop lasting friendships through their clubs, sports and activities. Only 30% of students are involved in Greek organizations, but it isn’t a stretch to say that >90% of students are involved in some kind of group that takes up time, has rituals (some very involved, and some as simple as “we go out to dinner twice a month”), and helps them meet new friends.</p>

6

<p>There are many many internships/research positions at Penn, particularly for premeds and business majors</p>

7

<ol>
<li>A current student who showed me around says she doesn’t go out on the average Friday/Saturday night because she has to do homework (she’s in college or arts and sciences). Is this normal for Penn students?</li>
</ol>

<p>Well it all depends on how many classes you have and what time they are. I took 5 and lab this semester and I did homework everyday (2 sciences). But last semester I could get away with not doing anything Friday/Saturday night if I wanted. With heavily curved classes you just need to put in more work to get the grade you want. </p>

<ol>
<li>Anyone not in greek life feel overwhelmed by its presence? When I toured it seemed like every other beautiful building was a frat house so the greek scene seemed kind of omnipresent and they were also the only kids hanging out outside when I was there.</li>
</ol>

<p>I dunno if APO counts as that kind of Greek but I don’t feel like it overwhelms what you can do here. </p>

<ol>
<li>Do people go into Philly regularly? How is it as a college town? Do people see shows there or do internships during the year? (I’m trying to get a sense of the difference between going to school in NYC v. Philly)</li>
</ol>

<p>Center City is a great place to go when you want to get off campus. There are also downtown parties that people host. It’s pretty easy to get off campus and I’d say its a regular thing for a lot of people. Stress escape. Internships are available across all industries for the most part. </p>

<ol>
<li>Do the professors seem to really care about undergrads? </li>
</ol>

<p>That varies from prof to prof but I have yet to have a prof that wasn’t totally interested in what we were doing as students. Some will actively invite you to their office to talk with them about their subject and your life in general. They can be the best source of academic and professional advice you can get. </p>

<ol>
<li>Is there school spirit/sense of community? (I don’t care about sports spirit really, just that like people are excited to be going to college and care about the school/each other)</li>
</ol>

<p>Penn has a lot of traditions that foster that. Like today was Hey Day, where all the juniors are officially moved up to Seniors. It was a giant parade of the junior class that stretched across campus and it was very enthusiastic. There are periodic events like these that make it all seem like one big place where everyone has something in common. Not really a sports place but people are usually pretty happy to rep Penn.</p>