<p>^You forget to mention the 3rd layer, aka 50% of your grade, which is individual assignments you have control over (write ups, presentations, etc). So it is far from a subjective mess.</p>
<p>With regard to your TA grading you, that’s true, but that’s how life will be. Who gets rewarded and who doesn’t isn’t fully based on merit; it’s often lopsided and unfair. It’s a game you’ll need to get used to, and understand, if you want to get a job and get promotions. I see it halfway justified because of that. </p>
<p>If you’re the type to see a class as nothing other than how certain you can gaurantee an A, you’ll probably feel how breaker is, which is quite unfortunate. True, the grading is more subjective than other classes, but as a 1st semester freshman, you will appreciate a class that will get you a few great friends and do a lot of team-based activities. In that sense, I find it engaging and enjoyable, and entirely redeeming.</p>
<p>I had a long response typed and then it logged me out…</p>
<p>I graduated from Wharton in May. My experience differs significantly from OP. Everyone has their own list of complaints about Penn and I would describe my time there as love-hate, but I do want to address the specific points in the original post.</p>
<p>Making Friends</p>
<p>This is too personal to generalize. Some of my best friends lived on my freshman hall and I lived with three of them for the rest of college. In junior year we moved off-campus into a house of 10 guys. That’s a pretty big “core” group, plus other close friends from classes and clubs, plus the extended network from living in a big house - things were always interesting. I guess I lucked out. You have to be proactive about meeting new people, but I wouldn’t say that you’re SOL or anything as a sophomore. I think people naturally gravitate to an ideal friend group, but it takes time to settle into things and JHS hit the nail on the head.</p>
<p>Wharton Dichotomy</p>
<p>This is the part I don’t really understand. NSO events, Cohorts, and MGMT100 are so trivial in the grand scheme of things. Of course your campus experience is going to be shaped as a function of your school, but that goes for any of the schools or even different majors. This is literally the first time I’ve heard someone say that it’s hard to meet people outside of Wharton. Everyone I know had friends of all majors and schools. There are too many random ways to meet people at Penn for there to be some huge divide between schools. </p>
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<p>I don’t want to say you’re doing something wrong or anything, but c’mon…campus is a 10 minute walk end-to-end and almost everyone lives on campus or within a few blocks. It reads as though Wharton is a huge part of your college identity. There’s logically no reason why being in a different school should be some barrier to meeting someone new. It’s not like your interaction would take place in Huntsman anyway. I can understand this frustration for engineers because of the workload, but Wharton isn’t even that bad. What kind of clubs are you involved with? Almost anything that’s not related to business should have a wide range of people. </p>
<p>Frat Life</p>
<p>True, but only for freshman year. Halfway through sophomore year you won’t even want to go to frat parties. By junior and senior year, people are mostly over the whole Greek scene. A lot of other options open up - bars both on and off-campus once you’re 21 or get a good fake as well as smaller house parties as people move off campus. Ultimately, your friends are your friends regardless of Greek affiliation. I didn’t join a frat and had friends spanning the Greek spectrum. Partying also becomes less sloppy…still sloppy, but not quite freshmen in the basement with jungle juice sloppy. </p>
<p>Sidenote: Everyone becomes more chill as a senior. It’s hard to describe, but I’ve had this conversation with a lot of people - everyone sort of lets their guard down. I met a lot of really cool people senior year who for whatever reason I wouldn’t have clicked with earlier. I guess there’s so little at stake, and no social ladder left to climb, that people can just hang out and appreciate each other for their company. </p>
<p>The City</p>
<p>Haters gonna hate. I love Philadelphia. The city has HUGE problems, no doubt, but those don’t really affect the student experience. I think Penn is the perfect blend of having a defined campus and access to an exciting city. Philadelphia has tons of cool neighborhoods, events, great bars, great restaurants, and there’s just so much to explore. I only started going out in Northern Liberties and Fishtown senior year and I always had a blast.</p>
<p>I also don’t think safety is a huge issue in terms of the places a student might hang out. There are incidents here and there on campus, but I’ve never felt unsafe on campus, or even in other parts of the city…and I’ve been out at all hours of the night in various neighborhoods. Even Westbound, the area around Baltimore all the way down to 50th is safe. The ONE time I felt sketched out was walking back from the Mann Center through deep West Philly at night with two friends. That was just dumb on our part.</p>
<p>^ EXCELLENT post–glad you took the time to do it twice. And very similar to my own experience (albeit when Ben Franklin was still around :p), and those of the many Penn students and alums with whom I’ve interacted since–including someone VERY close who’s in the OP’s class. ;)</p>
<p>Yes, that was really dumb. I walked around lots of West Philadelphia at night when I lived there, but you would have to be really clueless to walk from the Mann Center back to Penn. You would be walking through some of the most stressed neighborhoods in the whole city (but quite some distance from Penn).</p>
<p>We weren’t clueless, which makes it even worse. Let’s just say it was one of the longest hours of my life and I was extremely angry for being put in that situation. The streets were almost deserted the entire way back. It’s terrifying that reaching 50th and Market (still a bad area, for anyone unfamiliar with Philly) was a relief, if only because there were people on the streets.</p>
<p>Thank god nothing happened, but all it takes is one bad encounter for everything to go horribly wrong. So, uh, lesson to potential or current Penn kids: don’t walk back to campus from the Mann Center.</p>
<p>@zentiger — as someone very pro-Greek life at Penn, I recommend that you ask yourself why you really want to join a fraternity. My brothers and I found ourselves drawn to the personal growth aspect of Greek life; the pledge process really matures you.</p>
<p>You distinctly should not want to join a fraternity because of out-group bias. That’s kind of a silly reason, since fraternities are about much more than open parties. But to explain the whole ratio / brothers at the door logic from an insider’s perspective…we’re paying dues (a lot more people than you think pay fraternity dues out of pocket) which go toward that party. You can imagine that we don’t necessarily want to subsidize Saturday night out for every freshman on campus.</p>
<p>I think a great reason to join Greek life is to help eradicate the Wharton in-group bias, actually. Since I’m in M&T, most of my friends are Wharton or SEAS (or both). The fraternity certainly helped diversify my friend group, for which I am extremely thankful.</p>
<p>Feel free to drop me a message if you want to talk about fall rush, since Penn doesn’t really publicize fall rush too well.</p>
<p>Also, as a rising sophomore who just completed MGMT 100, I would say @zentiger 's comments are quite on the spot. That’s not to say that @breaker746 's aren’t correct (ex. they rank the teams, and your spot in the team), but understanding the “game” aspect and subjectiveness of MGMT 100 that zentiger comments on is arguably one of the best things MGMT 100 can teach us as freshmen. Namely, that no matter what industry you go onto after graduation, promotions, job offers, etc. aren’t purely based on merit; networking, who you know, how you’re viewed (personality, like-ability, etc.) all count!</p>
<p>@Keasbey
Actually I never really stated why I want to join a frat, and it certainly isn’t because of the outgroup bias haha. In the end probably boils down to wanting a few more close buds and a nice network of friends to have. It also looks like a lot of fun and something I won’t have a chance at any other time in my life. Frat parties are almost done, anyways. And I’d definitely appreciate branching out to other parts of penn.</p>
as well as smaller house parties as people move off campus. Ultimately, your friends are your friends regardless of Greek affiliation. I didn’t join a frat and had friends spanning the Greek spectrum. Partying also becomes less sloppy…still sloppy, but not quite freshmen in the basement with jungle juice sloppy. </p>
And very similar to my own experience (albeit when Ben Franklin was still around :p), and those of the many Penn students and alums with whom I’ve interacted since–including someone VERY close who’s in the OP’s class. ;)</p>