Definitely not a bad idea to rush!! There are many sororities that take sophomores and none have set rules against taking them. There actually is no harm in rushing as a sophomore- if you don’t like it, you can drop out.

There will be a fair number of sophomores rushing because they either didn’t get what they wanted as a freshman, or because they want a change of social scene.

Just try it!

Hey, PennFresh! I just got accepted to Penn ED, and I am so excited. I just found your blog and it is so helpful (although it’s getting me a little too excited when I have to wait to long to come).

Anyways, I have a couple of kind of silly questions (if they’ve already been answered feel free not to answer, I’ll probably find them in the archives later).

Congratulations! You made the best choice- Penn is awesome.

1. What is the “style” at Penn for girls? I know there probably isn’t a typical student, but generally what groups of styles do you see around campus?

Visitors to Penn comment that everyone on campus dresses pretty well; however, that’s not entirely true. You can find every style on penn’s campus: pajamas, sweats, workout clothing, dresses, etc. Most of my friends dress pretty well, but that’s just personal preference. A lot of girls wear boots, jeans and sweaters in the winter, sundresses or shorts and tshirts in the warm months. Honestly, anything you are comfortable wearing will fit in here. There’s no dress code, and no expectations, so whatever you want goes!

2. Would you recommend living in a triple? Do you know the pros and cons of living in a triple vs. living in a double?

Pros: always having friends around.

Cons: Having to worry about one more person’s hookups kicking you out at night, tiptoeing around one more person in the morning when they want to sleep in, etc. Basically, living in a double is fun because you always have someone to hang with, but there isn’t really a time when you get to be by yourself. Each additional roommate adds another person who you have to live your life around, which sometimes can get tiring. The majority of people do doubles and get along just fine.

3. What kind of the specialized programs within the dorms have you heard about? I’m interested in the Mentors program, but I’m hesitant because I think it might be all girls, do you know what the boy/girl ratio is for some of these programs?

Actually, I don’t really know. The programs don’t have a strong presence in the Quad– very few actually do anything for their “program.” The groups are also interspersed with non-program kids in the quad, so even if you program is girl-heavy, you’ll have guys right next door. The only program that I do know tends to be overwhelmingly female is healthy living.

4. Are rain boots a good idea to bring, in other words, does it rain enough for rain boots to be a good investment vs. regular boots?

YES. PHILLY IS RAINY. Rain boots are a MUST. When it rains in Philadelphia, the last thing you will want is to walk around in sopping wet shoes all day. You will see rain boots everywhere if it even threatens to rain. I have gone through three pairs in my four years.

The English House rooms do not have closets that have a door. Instead, they have a bar to hang clothes on and then shelves and drawers built into the wall (the wall with the sink.) there are six smallish drawers for each person in the middle, and then on either side of them there are the bars for your hangers. above the hangers are safes on a shelf. These are 3 cubby like shelves that stretch across the drawers and the bars for clothes. then on the top there is more places to put stuff, suitcases, etc. There is also two long boards on the opposite wall that are used as shelves, the desks have drawers and you have a bookcase. You can always put a curtain up in front of your stuff. I know a few people that did this for privacy. hope this helps.

Thank you reader!

NSO parties are hosted by upperclassmen. Freshman can’t have large parties in their dorms during NSO because they are not allowed to have alcohol in freshman dorms, and the noise usually attracts RAs who will write you and all your guests up.

You’ll get fliers under your doors advertising parties, and you’ll also see big spray painted sheets on fraternity houses with dates and themes of their parties. If you see an advertisement that says some variation of “18 to enter, 21 to drink,” it means that it’s a University sponsored party and that you’ll have to show ID at the door to get a wrist band. They’re usually pretty lax about identification, but you do need some if you want to get something to drink. Other parties will be “non-University sanctioned” which means that they will have a higher chance of being shut down, but that there isn’t any carding at the door.

To find a party, you just have to walk above 38th street and you’ll see crowds of freshman outside a house. That’s a clear sign that there is a party. You’ll also see groups of 40 freshman on each street corner, trying to figure out what party to go to; just join the crowd and follow them to their next destination.

Totally variable. My closet was a hole. I had a bar that was two feet wide and that was it. I got a spring pole to put in underneath it, adding an extra row of hanging space. Some kids, however, get lucky and get huge closets that have 6 feet of horizontal hanging space. Don’t be surprised if you get a crummy closet. There are plenty of ways to supplement lack of closet space. You can raise your bed up with bed-risers (available at the book store) and put plastic drawers under your bed. You can also pick off extra sets of drawers from people who don’t want theirs in their rooms.  You can always get stuff at the book store or online once you get to school and assess your room’s situation. Mine was probably the worst-possible scenario: barely a closet, and a bed that couldn’t be put on risers, with broken drawers underneath. I had to get my own sets of drawers to supplement, but could hardly fit them into my room. However, it worked fine enough.

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!

I’ve heard some people bring safes to college. Is this necessary? It seems like overkill but do people actually keep things in safes?

People definitely feel a safe sense of security when they are in college. You have to swipe into your dorm, you need a key to get in the front door, and then another key to get into your own room. However, thousands of kids who you don’t know have swipe access, a thousand have the same key to get into the front door, and then you (and your roommate) have the key to your own room. There WILL be thefts at college– it’s just a matter of when they will happen and who they will happen to. If you have a single and you are extremely diligent about locking your room, then you will be fine and probably don’t need a safe. However, if you have a roommate, you don’t know if they are always going to lock the door, and you don’t know who they are inviting into your room when you aren’t there. I would recommend a safe for valuables like jewelry or electronics. Some kids get desk locks for their laptops. This might be overkill, but I’m sure it’s saved a few laptops over the years from being stolen.

Just know the risk you take by not having a safe. I didn’t have one, but I also had a single and always kept my door locked. Every college kid has a false sense of security at college and tend to ignore warnings about being safe. However, you’re being warned for a reason: it has happened to someone before.

There is definitely a strong Jewish population on campus, but not in an obnoxious way. Maybe I feel that way because I’m Jewish and don’t feel pressured to go to Hillel, but I believe that the campus is that way too. Having a large Jewish population won’t really change your college experience in any way, it just might open  you up to a new group of people and culture.

Nothing is exclusively Jewish. Non-Jewish people are always encouraged to eat at Hillel (FYI: Hillel is BY FAR the best on-campus dining option) and join in the Sabbath festivities.

None of the sororities or fraternities are exclusively Jewish, either. There ARE greek organizations that are Jewish in their history (like Sigma Delta Tau, ZBT, or AEPi). This does NOT mean that you have to be jewish to join, and does not mean that they are completely jew-populated. It just means that there is a predominant Jewish group within those fraternities and sororities. But that’s to be expected: people self segregate and feel comfortable with people with similar backgrounds. It’s nothing to do with racism, religion-ism, or anything; that’s just how people tend to socialize. You will definitely find people who you are comfortable to spend time with, whether they are Jewish or not will just work itself our naturally.

I’m going to start by copying an old post from 2009 about making friends:

“It’s been a while since Barney sang us a song and made the task of making friends sound so simple. He did teach me invaluable lesson of how to clean up (which many people have since forgotten). The night before college I was thinking to myself how long it had been since I had to make friends, starting from scratch. Looking back on it, there was never a moment of NSO during which I thought, “I have no friends. Where should I go now in order to meet someone?” because people are EVERYWHERE.

I certainly made friends in my classes. Unlike the kids on your hall, which are placed randomly, the kids in your classes are more likely to either have more in common with you, or at least have the same requirements to fulfill. Some large classes have “major sections,” which are open only to students who are considering that major. The writing seminars and Freshman seminars tend to be filled with freshman (you might be thinking I’m an idiot, but there ARE some sophomores that manage to get into Freshman seminars, don’t ask me how), and they are great people to grab lunch/dinner with after class. You’ll also meet a lot of people at club meetings or if you are a member of any type of team (club, varsity, etc). You can also try Hillel, Starbucks, or any grassy area outside your housing where groups of students will surely be relaxing.

The first month is kind of a friend-frenzy. You will meet a ton of people, and you will forget most of their names (don’t worry, you don’t have early-onset memory loss, it’s just memory overload). Seriously, it’s hard to remember them all. At the end of the day, most friends fall into your lap (figuratively, although sometimes literally) without trying. New people will be ALL around you, and most will be looking to make friends. So no fear! You’ll have friends in no time, just let it happen!”

Popular is definitely a thing of high school. There are definitely going to be people who throw money around and think they are cool, but that’s their prerogative. Since there are 10,000 undergraduates, people are going to form loose groups of forms based on who they like to hang out with. However, with such a large amount of students, people are going to have a wide variety of friends from different places: classes, halls, nearby dorms, friends of friends, etc. My friends range from girls in my sorority to kids in my classes, to people I’ve just met through friends. It’s great because every time you go out with people, you’ll meet and make new friends who you’d never encountered before! People who form cliques, if they can manage to do that, are just doing themselves a disservice because they are shutting out all the great possibilities of people!

I’ve actually never heard of a specific class that you can take. However, I know that there ARE courts that are free for students to use down by Franklin Field (near DRL). There is a club tennis team, and I’m sure that there are students who would be willing to teach lessons.

I did look it up online, and noticed the following link:

http://www.upenn.edu/athletics/levy/clinics.html

It advertises a Penn-run tennis clinic. The “beginner Adult class” is $140 for four two-hour sessions. For a student, it seems a bit steep, but I figured I would publish it anyway. My recommendation is to find a friend who plays tennis, since it is a pretty common sport, you’ll easily find someone, and see if they will hit around with you and give you some pointers.

If you can’t find anyone to teach you, head down to the courts and see if anyone is interested. You can always put up a few signs at the courts, asking for a tennis tutor!