I know at a lot of schools NSO involves a lot of “getting to know each other” activities–like name games and other games that are supposed to get us to put ourselves out there and be silly. Does Penn NSO involve a lot of this or is more laid back just getting to know each other and going to a few meetings? Also, how to kids get split up during NSO? Are we hanging out a lot with our hall mates or are we meeting new people all the time? Or is it more up to us how who we choose to see and go to meetings with?
Penn NSO is pretty laid back. The day you get to your dorm, your GA or RA will host a “get to know you” session where you will play the silly activities like two truths and a lie. This will be the only time you’ll have to do this stuff.. your RA just wants you to get to know your fellow hall-mates. Other mandatory things include the big college-house meeting that you’ll have, a safety meeting, freshman reading day, and convocation. It’s really not that much. The rest of the days and nights are filled with optional events that I’d recommend taking advantage of. You’ll get free food and giveaways at the Penn-hosted events, which is always awesome. You can also go to the Penn events and then go partying, so you don’t have to choose one over the other.
You will definitely go to some meetings with your hall, because that’s an easy and natural way to split up groups of freshman. When I was a freshman, we were also split up into two groups, red and blue. Since there are so many freshman, they would have all the red kids be at a meeting while the blue were free, and then switch. You don’t really have to stick by the red and blue since no one is really checking for wrist bands or any identifying information. You will constantly be meeting new people, and aside from the mandatory events, you can choose to go to anything you like with anyone new you meet, regardless of what hall they are on. There is plenty of time to meet people and spent time with them– not to worry!
