<p>Regarding housing - as a parent of a Penn grad I do think it was an issue. My d lived in the Quad, 2 years in the Radian and her last year in a house on Pine. The Radian was great but SO expensive - it gave us peace of mind as we lived overseas and it was nice to know she was safe there - though later I learned that most of the residents had the habit of leaving their apartment doors unlocked - when I helped her move out we went from apartment to apartment looking for items friends had borrowed. Her place on Pine was awful - great location but so rodent infested that they just gave up catching them - landlord did nothing to help since it was a row house and they only owned a few of the houses. The laundry room in the basement was so disgusting that she sent her laundry out - to get there you had to exit the building and go down the outside stairs where the trash was placed for collection. And we paid $900 a month for it.<br>
Freshman year she joined a sorority but it was too late for her to live in the house because she already had a lease and roommates at the Radian. Her house had to draw names to force girls to live in because most had already made housing commitments.<br>
I noticed several recent articles related to off-campus housing:
[The</a> Daily Pennsylvanian :: Students file lawsuit against University trustees](<a href=“http://www.thedp.com/article/2013/01/students-file-lawsuit-against-university-trustees]The”>Students file lawsuit against University trustees | The Daily Pennsylvanian)
[url=<a href=“http://www.thedp.com/article/2013/01/man-charged-in-murder-of-graduate-student]The”>Man charged in murder of graduate student | The Daily Pennsylvanian]The</a> Daily Pennsylvanian :: Man charged in murder of graduate student<a href=“ok%20-%20a%20bit%20extreme%20but%20the%20murderer%20was%20the%20exterminator!”>/url</a></p>
<p>The quad is the best bet for freshman year my son lived there. Lots of activities. Soph year he lived at one of the high rises which was acceptable. Then he lived at his frat house, awful…he wouldn’t let me in there to see the place. Sr. year, he had a rowhouse on Pine, owned by University housing and probably the worst condition. Mice, bugs everywhere. Should have been condemned. And he graduated>5 years ago.</p>
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<p>Why??? You are not a student.</p>
<p>Hey cbreeze, What Frat did he live in? Does a non drinker have any business joining a frat?? Specifically St. A’s??</p>
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<p>You appear to be a ■■■■■, but for those who actually use this site for information about universities, consider this:</p>
<p>Penn does not have walls enclosing its campus because such walls would violate the university’s most prized principles. Penn is an open campus and is a vital link between greater West Philadelphia and Center City. Anyone is allowed on campus because the university believes that it is a part of its surrounding community rather than apart from the community. So you will see homeless men on the street here and there, and there will be beggars outside of Wawa. There is crime, though the vast majority of it is theft rather than violent crime.</p>
<p>Because urban life does have dangers, the security team is quite impressive. North and west of campus, uniformed security guards hired by Penn are positioned on bicycles, typically less than a block apart from each other; University City security guards also patrol. Penn’s police represents the largest private police force in Pennsylvania, and it outnumbers the police forces of every municipality in the commonwealth except for its six largest cities. Each officer of the Penn police is a sworn officer of the law with power of arrest anywhere in Pennsylvania, and in many cases, the officers are of higher quality than the average municipal policeman (higher standards and higher pay).</p>
<p>In four years at Penn, neither I nor any of my friends or acquaintances were the victims of violent crimes of any kind, and crime around campus has steadily declined in the past five years.</p>
<p>rebel, drinking is an integral part of frat life although there may be other alcohol-free frats. My son was a non-drinker until he went to college and it took a while to get used to rampant drinking. However, the frats are involved in charitable fund-raising for low income as well as homeless kids in Philly, they tutor, did clean-ups around the city and other meaningful activities. </p>
<p>One other thing, the dues and fees are not cheap. Several thousands a year.</p>
<p>Cbreeze, My son is a non drinker mainly beacuse it’s illegal. It amazes me that parents allow their underage kids to drink. It will be interesting to see how he adapts to being on his own.</p>
<p>Holy Smoke Rebel after all it’s college and that is where that ends up being a college past time. My daughter doesn’t drink (we don’t drink either) but I suspect Penn is where she will learn, I’m not going to keep my head in the sand. Kids need to grow up and drinking is part of it.</p>
<p>WOW!!! That kind of thinking is what has eroded society. It is illegal for under 21 year olds to drink. The parents who say they’ll do it anyway are the problem.“Drinking is part of growing up” What a load of nonsense.</p>
<p>I don’t like it anymore than you but college kids will be college kids. My hope as a parent is for my daughter to enjoy her time at Penn and because she will be exposed to alcohol. I only hope that she is responsible and realizes her time at Penn is to work hard and enjoy her college years. Living 2000 miles away from Philly isn’t somewhere we can drop in on a regular basis, so all we can hope for is that we raised her to make responsible decisions while she is away from home.</p>
<p>Hey GTB, Your last post is exactly the way I feel.I’ve told my son that he’s been taught the life lessons he needs to lead a life with integrity and honor. Once he hits campus It’s up to him. My wife and I have done our best.We do have the advantage of being 1 hour away via car.</p>
<p>Since we live 3000 miles from Philly, we could only hope and pray that our son would make the proper decision based on the values and morals we taught him. I was very worried about his safety and every night before bed (midnight PST, 3AM EST) I checked whether he signed out on his AOL buddy list (many years ago) so I would know at least he was alive.</p>
<p>Well, nothing bad happened to him and his friends (at far as we know) and they are all gainfully employed and doing very well.</p>
<p>^Hopefully our son will have similar results as yours. He’s prepared and the rest is what it is.</p>