<p>Are incoming freshman to the College of Arts and Sciences required to complete summer reading or any sort of assignment before arrival on campus for classes beginning in September 2011?</p>
<p>Yes, there is a book they pick for you to read over the summer. They will send it to you in the mail.</p>
<p>And you certainly must “read” it, as everyone else does.</p>
<p>25 pages and you’re good for the discussion; any more and that’s just good for you. :-P</p>
<p>So not fair that my year had a “painting” for the Penn Reading Project…I totally would have read an actual book!! Still makes me mad =P</p>
<p>I’m just gonna sparksnote it like every other book lol</p>
<p>it’s not going to be something you can sparknotes, shaheirunderdog. They usually pick a really recent, relevant book. I think it’s some book about games this year, actually…looks interesting. And as far as I know, recent, relevant books don’t have sparknotes (though I could be wrong…I think I used sparknotes only twice in my life =P)</p>
<p><a href=“https://secure.www.upenn.edu/themeyear/games/penn-reading-project.html[/url]”>https://secure.www.upenn.edu/themeyear/games/penn-reading-project.html</a>
Looks interesting!</p>
<p>Yeah… unlike in high school, you don’t get graded at ALL on the Penn Reading Project. It’s used as a way of introducing you to a small seminar at Penn. You go into a classroom with random other freshmen, and you talk about the book. The conversation goes where it wants, and that’s that. If you read it, or read parts of it, you can participate. Otherwise you don’t. It’s not like the book matters for your GPA or anything, nor like you could somehow get off on the wrong foot if you didn’t read it.</p>
<p>That said, my freshman year it was a book about the food supply in the United States, specifically how corn has infiltrated every aspect of our food chain. I didn’t intend on reading it, but when I picked it up, I wound up reading a solid 60% of the book before my summer got busier and I couldn’t finish it. Many people experience the same thing… the books are designed to begin conversations, which means they need to be interesting! If you go on Sparknotes, you honestly are just cheating yourself, and you’d probably seem like more of a fool than you would if you just didn’t read the book or have any idea about it at all.</p>
<p>Sorry I know this says CAS but its unclear; does everyone read this, or just College people?</p>
<p>@shaheirunderdog: haha…I’m relieved that I’m not the only Penn 15’er who uses sparknotes. But I think I’m actually going to read this book (for once)…it sounds pretty interesting:)</p>
<p>this kind of a different question, but when can we start registering for classes for the Fall of 2011 and when are they officially due?</p>
<p>Daretorun, It was my understanding during admit day, that the year’s theme (games for '15) is a sort of unifying deal for the entire undergrad freshman class. So, everyone will have to read it.</p>
<p>i am excited</p>
<p>Just be happy that your book is not about human waste as it was last year. Very interesting from a public health perspective but a little awkward to discuss.</p>