First, congratulations to the class of '11. I remember when I got my acceptance letter from Penn. I felt like I was walking on air- as I'm sure all of you guys feel now.
To wet your appetite for what will be one of the best years of your life, I'm going to give my own virtual tour of freshman year.
First, you'll arrive a week before everyone else. Traffic will be terrible, it will be hot, and you'll be nervous. If you're from a jewish family like me, then the 'rents will be driving you nuts with all sorts of tension and dysfunction. My mom actually brought a bag full of mail with her to move-in day, asserting that there would be down time and she needed to pay her bills. At the same time, everything that goes wrong is exacerbated by the fact that school is about to start, and you're anxious and self-conscious.
But then mom and dad leave, and what we call NSO starts- New Student Orientation. It'll be one of the most fun experiences of your life- no lie. Some schools have their orientation randomly during the summer (like UMich) but Penn has it right at the beginning of school (this makes more sense if you ask me).
Everyone is friendly since there are no cliques yet- try to meet as many people as possible. You'll likely meet your new best friends right away- your hallmates (this sounds corny, but it's almost always true). Penn really takes care of you during NSO (40 g's do go a long way). You'll have events constantly. If you are overwhelmed and don't want to go to all of them, don't worry- nobody is grading you. The only really mandatory thing is a little class on your assigned book, I actually came late and went to the wrong one. Our book was Ben Franklin's autobiography, which I hadn't read. I quickly got cocky and tried to answer a question- I started off by saying that well, "since he's a quaker...." Well it turns out that he wasn't a quaker. But no worries, its really doesn't count for anything. You'll also have tours of Philly with your hall (don't hate philly, almost all students are pleasantly surprised by what the city has to offer) and finally meet your peer adviser who will give you a tour of campus. You probably won't ever see your peer adviser again (but if you're me, you might awkwardly run into them at a party a year later, and they might awkardly hit on you).
Thats during the daytime. At night, the fraternities really go all out. Fraternities will open themselves up to almost the entire campus with nonstop parties at the end of NSO. Going out with my new hallmates to these parties was one of my best memories. You skip from place to place, have no clue where you're going, and just have a great time. Theres no pressure, you just go around and mingle and run into people. Most importantly, you can have fun because you still have no work.
If fraternities aren't your thing, Penn offers official parties also, which are honestly tons of fun. Don't get cocky and think that you're too cool for these events, everyone goes to them and I'm not just saying that because I'm writing this blog for the university.
First, there's a toga party in the archeology museum thats always well attended. Another day there's a huge tent set up for food and mingling after convocation (the formal welcoming of your class to Penn). But most fun for me was the art museum party. As everyone knows, Philly has a huge, world-class art museum that's best known for being in the movie Rocky. Penn literally rents out the museum and throws a big party at night, which everyone goes to. Afterwards there is food, music, and dancing. If you haven't ran into everyone by now that you knew before school was going to be in your class, you'll meet them there. Also, the view of the city from there is gorgeous- definitely bring your camera.
By the time NSO is over, you won't be able to believe that it was only a week- it'll feel like at least a month. In reality, school won't start in full for another few weeks- the first two weeks of class are almost always easy with little work since people are still adding and dropping classes.
Get excited. Get butterflies. As soon as NSO begins, you'll be sure that you picked the right school.
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