<p>It's pretty easy to pick out the positives of Penn -- Philly, top students and programs, etc. But what are some of the negatives? Could any current/former students share some things that have disappointed/frustrated them? </p>
<p>Thanks :)</p>
<p>cutthroat Wharton competetiveness?? :P</p>
<p>the pretentious students</p>
<p>AstonMartin?</p>
<p>Unfortunately there are many things about Penn that have been very disappointing so far:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The dining halls are dirty and the food is absolutely revolting. To top it off, the dining hall staff are extremely rude and unfriendly.</p></li>
<li><p>With the exception of the Quad, housing is very subpar. The rooms are for the most part cramped and dirty and I personally know of multiple people who have mice and cockroach problems. Also, it’s very hard to get good on campus housing as an upperclassman. </p></li>
<li><p>Many of my professors have degrees from world renowned universities, but are simply unable to teach. My math professors have been awful and my TA’s have been even worse. </p></li>
<li><p>The sports teams here are terrible. I was told the Penn had good school spirit for an ivy, but practically nobody shows up for football and basketball games. Also, the intramural sports program is poorly run and Penn’s playing fields are in complete disrepair (however I think they are being redone sometime in the near future)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The quad is actually one of the dirtier and more cramped places. The high rises are much nicer. I’m staying at the Radian so I have no complaints</p>
<p>I agree that the food here is pretty bad though. I usually order from campusfood or go downtown</p>
<p>Edit: As for cars, I didn’t bother getting one since taxis are much more convenient. I use Philly car share if I ever need to go to King of Prussia or something</p>
<p>The fact that I’d have a hard time keeping a car there.</p>
<p>^^It is actually very possible to keep a car there. There is plenty of on-street parking. It might not be right in front of your housing, but it is available.
I think the comments about the dorms, the food, the TAs and the math profs are very valid. It gets a lot better after freshman year.</p>
<p>I am on UPENN waitlist.</p>
<p>It’s definitely a nice campus, but many others that I visited were prettier. I didn’t choose where to apply based on aesthetics.</p>
<p>Also, the housing is kind of eh, but again, it seemed silly to make something like that a huge factor in my decision.</p>
<p>The only other thing I dislike is having to explain to everyone what “Penn” is… it just gets kind of irritating. Sometimes I just let the really confused believe that it’s Penn State.</p>
<p>So does that mean math majors at penn have a hard time learning?</p>
<p>I think it would be safe to say that the intro math classes are pretty dull (104, 114, maybe even 240). These are most likely the math professors barca was referring to. Most students, including myself, don’t go any higher than 240. However, I’ve heard that higher level math classes are significantly more interesting. </p>
<p>That being said, I think math is generally a pretty boring subject because you focus so much on the theoretical rather than practical applications. I would say I can appreciate math, but I have never had a math class I really enjoyed</p>
<p>Would u say math majors in general are at a disadvantage here compared to those at schools like columbia or duke?</p>
<p>I’m staying with a host at the high rises and I thought they were really nice. I’m a pre frosh. I mean, I haven’t lived in the dorms yet obviously, but they looked nice from what they showed us.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I mean, I guess it’s just personal preference. In the fall, I visited like brown, columbia, yale, dartmouth, cornell, princeton, mit, vassar, bc, wesleyan, etc and penn’s campus was my favorite by far. It has a good mix of traditional and modern architecture I think. The campus is quite big IMO compared to others, but it is still pretty easy to navigate because everything is kind of centralized around the gorgeous locust. jmo</p>
<p>^I completely agree about the campus aesthetics. I hate Princeton b/c it’s so depressing and too much of the place has been preserved for its historical value. Columbia was too cramped and if you guys are complaining about disrepair at Penn well you should just walk into a few Columbia buildings (same philosophy as Princeton I suppose?). Cornell was alright I guess (oh god, that’s just ■■■■■ ammunition right there). Penn was my favorite for all the same reasons cited by hcvops.</p>
<p>I’ve also heard that Ivy Leauge schools in general take a more theoretical focus on their math instructionm, rather than taking a pratical focus (solving equations) like most other schools. People tell me this makes math extremely difficult.</p>
<p>hahaha what? we don’t solve equations? =p</p>
<p>but no, at the more advanced levels any school goes theoretical, at penn one of the favorite topics is galois theory</p>
<p>[Galois</a> theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galois_theory]Galois”>Galois theory - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>i would think any math department at advanced undergraduate or graduate level is less practical, because that would be more of an applied math / engineering area</p>
<p>
See I really don’t see where this is coming from, because women’s lacrosse is ranked #3 in the nation, the wrestling team I believe is also nationally ranked, and the football team finished tied for second place in the Ivy League last year with a team of primarily underclassmen. Franklin Field is also probably the premier athletic stadium in the Ivy League, and the Penn Relays are one of the most anticipated and highest profile track and field events in the world. I mean I understand where you are coming from in that the men’s basketball, baseball, and lacrosse teams are having bad years, but what do you expect? For an Ivy League school with no athletic scholarships competing against DI programs Penn is doing alright.</p>
<p>Sports spirit is relative to the rest of the ivy league, not to penn state…</p>
<p>Things I don’t like are:
-Being confused with Penn State
-Having to explain how awesome Penn is rather than having them know already.
-not being at Penn anymore :(</p>
<p>I got in RD, and let’s see…</p>
<p>-NOBODY knows anything about Penn, and I live in Maryland. A guidance counselor and several teachers at my school even confused it with Penn State. Barely any common person I’ve talked to knows that Penn is a prestigious Ivy League school. I’m not a prestige wh0re or anything, but it’s really annoying when people don’t even know the first thing about a great school you were accepted to. </p>
<p>-Their campus is nice, nothing AMAZING. I visited Columbia a couple days after Penn, and there’s really no comparison. Penn just never gave me that same breathtaking feeling that I got at Columbia. Maybe it was just the weather, these things are all opinion anyways. Penn’s campus was a lot more spread out and open though, and a lot of people would prefer that.</p>
<p>-There didn’t appear to be much diversity. Now, I hate to use another school to “bash” Penn, but I’m going to tell it like it is… when I went to Penn’s Preview Day, we broke off into groups by College and I was the only black male in the engineering group. The only one. Out of 50+ students in the room. And there were like 2 non-Asian girls. </p>
<p>When I went to Columbia’s SEAS preview day, I was expecting pretty much the same layout… after all, it’s engineering, and the stereotypical engineering student is not very diverse. Instead, I was surprised to see that at least half of the students in the room were black, Hispanic, or some variation of non-caucasian/non-Asian. And there were a lot more girls there than I was expecting. </p>
<p>Penn prides itself in being diverse (on the surface), but it would be nice if they could put a little more effort into actually making that a reality in the school. Columbia is significantly more diverse than Penn, and they have no problem bringing in classes with equal or greater SAT ranges than Penn. I know some of you guys won’t care, but as someone who has always been a minority, I take note of these things and they play a significant role in determining where I want to go to college. </p>
<p>…
Penn is obviously still a great school, but those were probably the main reasons why I declined Penn’s offer of admission in favor of another great school (Columbia).</p>