Saturday, July 11, 2009

Visiting Penn and History

Today was a very long day, but it was definitely worth it. Waking up early and sleeping late seems may be a problem, but I guess that is all part of the college experience. Anyways, we headed to Philadelphia and walked towards Penn. Along the way, I got to see Drexel University! The campus seems very nice, but it is very similar to NYU due to the fact that the buildings seem to be all across the city. I do not think that I feel as comfortable in a dispersed campus compared to an enclosed one.

Once reaching Penn, I remembered one critique about the school: there are a lot of bugs. This became apparent throughout our tour, but that did not deter my reaction to the beautiful campus. There was an orientation before the tour that gave a general breakdown of the college's schools. I learned about the School of Engineering and their Robot Contests, about Wharton School of Business, a bit about Penn Nursing and the College of Arts and science. There are about 1500 students per class, but the campus seems like it could hold a lot more! I got to hear more about the dual degree programs at Penn, which I found very interesting. The speaker also gave a very useful breakdown of the application process: Transcripts, Testing, Recommendation, 2 Essays (Why Penn, and a creative one), Activities, and their need blind institution. I believe that this will greatly help me throughout my application process!
The tour of the campus was very efficient as well. The weather was nice, the tour guide was very informative, the campus was very pretty, and the bugs were out to celebrate! I thought the campus was a suitable fit for me, but I think that after meeting with June Chu, Andrew Zheng, Carlin Yuen, and Joanna Wu, I really would like to apply to Penn now. Penn has a program known as Digital Media Design (DMD), which I find very fascinating and I will look more into it. It also has an architecture major, great buildings, many opportunities in research, and a whole bunch of student run activities. Brian Mertens says that Penn favors Early Decision, however I like to be able to see my choices and then make a decision. I am pretty sure that Penn will be on the list.

With a bit of time left, our group visited Independence Hall and Washington Square. I find it amazing to think that our history and independence emerged from this one area. Taking U.S. history recently, it was great to be able to stand on top of everything I basically learned!

1 comment:

Don Gosney said...

Jessica,

It sounds that even though the bugs may not be one of your favorite parts of UPenn, you’re still interested in applying.

The Early Decision process is good for many students but not all so if you’re not 1000% sure that UPenn is the only place you want to attend, then opting for the regular admissions process may be the way to go for you.

Thanks, too, Jessica, for including the photos—especially the one with the group of you. Photos with people in them always adds to the mix and when you know the people it’s even better.

Post a Comment