<p>well when I went it was November and soooooo cold...and yet it was still gorgeous...old historical buildings, green lawns. just beautiful.</p>
<p>no one poured water on me though. and a friend of mine who is at Yale took us to this really great thai restaurant with a Yale theme...it was just a great day.</p>
<p>5 days, 19 hours, 32 minutes, and 31 seconds left until I retreat to my room and do not emerge for six days, at which point my eyes will be swollen and red and i'll have dropped twenty pounds from not eating lol</p>
<p>Ew! Dartmouth EDers hear online on the 9th at 3. let's throw things at them.</p>
<p>what? thats not fair! i thought we were finding out earlier than any of the other ivies... at least cornell people have to wait until 5... a couple of my friends are applying there early,and is it just me or does it seem like not-extremely-qualified people apply to cornell early?
and its freakin freezing in dartmouth... they can have fun with that</p>
<p>hahaha so true...i could take the Cornell cold but Dartmouth? forget it. and yes you're right some people i know were talking about applying to cornell and i was like "uh...you only have soccer as an EC...and you're not even a starter."</p>
<p>Students:
I posted this on the parents' forum under the ED Countdown thread but thought I'd share here: </p>
<p>I went onto Penn's campus today to pick up a few "hopeful thinking" items for him (which I hope to give to him on Friday). I wound up hungry and had dinner with 6yr old D in one of the restaurants on campus. I noticed things about the students and school that I had never really noticed before.
1. I was suprised at how well dressed the students were....girls in heels, nice slacks, designer tote bags (looked like a Burberry fashion show); guys in blazers, new jeans, turtlenecks - like a Polo ad.
2. Kids were running around with open laptops, turned on, just moving from place to place in between typing paragraphs which were visible on the screen. Laptops everywhere.
3. Locust walk was lit with tiny white lights in the trees...like a winter wonderland. Beautiful.
4. Lots of frat houses on campus. I never really noticed them before (not sure how I missed them with the huge letters on the front).
5. New restaurant: Cereality....a cereal restaurant. Wait staff wears PJs-fun looking..
6. Even though it feels like it's about 30 degrees here, the campus is busy, busy....people are everywhere. I see why my son likes the "vibe". I've usually visited in summer months, so spending this much time on campus while school is in session really made it feel more alive...and BIG!
7. The view of downtown Philly is amazing from Penn....so close but just far enough to appreciate the skyline lights. </p>
<p>For the first time ever, I got chills as I drove under the big overpass that reads "University of Pennsylvania" (right by the hospital) as I arrived on campus. The place felt differently to me than it has ever felt before.....like everything was more colorful, vibrant and energized than I can ever recall. </p>
<p>Until today, I had been less convinced than my son that this was the place. He's been certain all along. I've been less sure. Now, I'm certain that this place would be FABULOUS for him....and I'm now MORE nervous than ever The dress of the students threw me off a little...but my son, with his flip flops and shorts in 10 degree weather, will probably shrug it off. </p>
<p>Now I know why my son won't set foot on campus until after the 10th. It's too amazing to be "cool" about.</p>
<p>oh gosh, momsdream, you are absolutely right. your description of the lights in the trees on Locust Walk made me picture it and it looks amazing even in my head. I went once in April on a beautiful spring day and the atmosphere was so charged with energy...again on a rainy, chilly August day, despite suboptimal weather the so-called "vibe" was still there. I can't even imagine how wonderful it must be now! Penn at Christmas...and I'm Jewish! lol. Cereality sounds so fun even though everyone makes fun of it. I can't wait until Friday...</p>
<p>Oh yeah...another thing, while we were eating a fire truck pulled up with flashing lights on just outside the restaurant ....firemen seemed unconcerned as they slowly exited almost looking annoyed. The students in the restaurant all started making comments like "here we go again". I guess there's been a problem with false alarms recently. I was in the Chinese restaurant near the quad. Here's an article about the recent problems with alarms...</p>
<p>I don't know where the firemen went....
<a href="http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/03/41b02611e2e64%5B/url%5D">http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/03/41b02611e2e64</a></p>
<p>that's so odd.</p>
<p>you know, for about an hour no one was posting so i was wandering around the other Ivy boards...and i noted how, just like on this board, the other posters have become very close to their respective forums. I wondered if, had I chosen to apply somewhere else early, would i have made the same friends? and I realized that i would have, but only to an extent...the Yale kids are all similar, because people who want the same thing out of a school have to have some things in common. i think that I really identify with you Penn EDers not just because we're all going through the same things, but because we had similar mindsets in picking this school.</p>
<p>Totally. I think Penn kids are a lot more laid-back and have this mind set of "work-hard, play-hard"...dude, we are so not gonna be like the Harvard kids, and hell, I'm damn proud of that. Before I got in my ED app, I would run to the "SAT/What Are My Chances" threads all the time...now, everytime I log onto CC, I stop here! WooHoo! Go us future Penn Quakers. It'll suck if I get rejected...that means I'll never get to go to school with kids like you guys...:(</p>
<p>When I was eating diner I was listening to students chat with one another around me. There were three girls sitting next to me and one got a call on her cell from her father. She hung up and said "my dad asked me why I'm eating dinner early tonight". Another girl laughed and said "I guess you couldn't tell him that you stayed out all night last night and slept all day, so you're actually having breakfast. Then they all laughed about not having slept since Thursday and that they'll be staying up all night again tonight. Kids all around were on cell phones and making plans for tonight. I got the sense that these kids take their partying just about as seriously as they take their studies.</p>
<p>My interviewer told me, "Penn kids knows when to study and when to have fun. We are...frankly...very fun people"...and "You see kids at the other schools either studying from seven till three in the morning or partying from seven till three in the morning, but at Penn, you study from seven till twelve, and party from twelve till three."...needless to say, I fell more in love with Penn right then and there.:)</p>
<p>I would like to make a post regarding this very moment...apparently, I am the only Penn ED CC'er ONLINE.</p>
<p>GO QUAKERS! GO QUAKERS! GO CC FUTURE QUAKERS! GOSH I WANNA BE A QUAKER 2~!</p>
<p>haha not so fast there, catchy.</p>
<p>you're so right. i love that about Penn kids. They want a top-notch education but aren't so worried about being able to put Hahhhvahhhd on resumes. They're just wonderfully interesting people out to live life to the fullest by having a fantastic 4 years of studying/partying/finding themselves and people just like them.</p>
<p>roar. i'm always online. i never close my firefox window (i use one window for all my forums).
yes. penn students are cool. one of the two people from my school last year that went is probably the most laxed but intelligent person i know</p>
<p>yep! Defintely! I mean, I am def. not the kid that will NEVER GO TO MIT. The thought just makes me ill. I mean, I guess most of the Penn kids are def. not nerdy, and pretty chill n' popular at school. :)</p>
<p>Which reminds me...I swear, my parents' friends think I am a high-school drop out because I don't study 24/7 and dress casually and listen to a lot of music and have a lot of CDs and party a bit and hang out with friends on weekends (all of this...before I mailed away my life for November and December in an ED envelop...<em>sigh</em>)</p>
<p>basically, Penn ain't the Social Ivy for nothing. the second time i visited, i said this already, these two kids on line at the dining hall started chatting me up and invited me out with them later finally they were like 'what's ur major?' and i was like 'oh well i'm in high school but i'm applying early.' and they were like no way, you're in high school? (this confused me as I am 4'11...i'd have thought they'd take me for a middle schooler lol) so they reassured me right away, without knowing anything about me, just by having talked to me for 10 minutes while waiting for pasta, that i was 'definitely getting in, don't worry.' and then gave me their numbers to call them up once i DO get in, lol. just like that, i had 2 new friends. imagine that happening every day!</p>
<p>HAHAHAHHAHAHA omg so true! all my parents' friends' kids go to Bergen Academy, this really prestigious high school, best school in NJ and it's public, too. (this is because in middle school, i hadn't yet learned how to do homework so i didn't even bother taking the qualifying exam.) those kids go to school from like 7 to 4 and some days 7 to 5...and study all the time. i'm like "uh...no. i have a life." i feel bad for some of the asian kids in my grade though, that have to deal with such stringent parents. (and no i'm not racist. there are plenty of black and white kids who also have to deal with strict rents. with asian kids, though, it's more the norm than the exception). like these twins whose father is a pastor...they do nothing but study. and they were like "my parents said if i don't get a scholarship i'm not going to college, case closed." an exciting friday night for them is if they rent a movie from the 40's (probably based on a Jane Austen book) from the public library. my heart breaks for them...</p>
<p>LOL. My Chinese parents, well, my chinese parents are like:
"When are you coming home?"
"I think twelve pops"
"Ok. Just tell your friend to drive safely. Do you have any homework?"
"Yea. A lot. But I don't feel like it. I'll do it in the morning"
"You'll sleep in class again"
"When do I NOT do that dad?"
"That's true...well, be careful"</p>
<p>---I totally feel for some of my Chinese friends/acquaintances. There's this one really WEIRD CHINESE BOY who I detest in my grade. He is socially inept. My friend and I at first felt so sorry for him. Then, we found out that he cheats (he tried to copy our papers!!!), and he isn't smart at all, instead, he drains the pity of the teachers (because he has this terrible terrible accent) so he gets an A with half of the effort. He expects the pity! ANd he is applying to ALL OF THE IVIES and STANFORD, MIT, and CALTECH. Does that not make you sick? And Gosh. And he told everyone that he's the val when...cough cough..I am!! And plus, he was like "If I don't get top three, my parents are going to kill me"....my friend and I laughed...he didn't...I think he was serious.</p>