University of Pennsylvania Visit Report by seiclan

Visit Activities:

Information Session: Yes - Session was in a large auditorium with poor sound acoustics. I could hear very little.

Campus Tour: Yes - Our tour was led by a student wearing a muscle shirt who knew very little about the academics of his school, specifically my son's areas of interest.

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Campus:

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Didn't meet many since we were there in June.

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We met with an alumni relations counselor after the tour, which definitely helped redeem our previously mediocre experience.

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Lot of construction going on (summer). Campus is beautiful, with lots of green space. Huge squirrels!

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We were only taken into the library, which was nice.

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We only got to see the outside of the buildings but the freshman quad was beautiful. They are currently putting in all new windows and new furniture.

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They have the customary blue light system.

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Beautiful campus (before the small microburst/tornedo hit).

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Off-Campus:

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Lot of traffic, everywhere, so we just tried to get in and get out of town quickly.

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Philadelphia has wonderful restaurants! OMG the traffic in this city is worse than New York!

Campus Visit Notes for University of Pennsylvania

Visit Description:

We were a few minutes late to the info. session because the parking garage was about 3 blocks from the admissions office AND we then had to fill out paperwork before we could go to the info session, which was held in another building. We had to sit in the back, where we could hardly hear the session leader speak. The leader (we missed her title) spoke softly and in a monotone voice. I did not hear much of what she said. The tour guides divided us up by seat location in auditorium so we were stuck touring with the kids who really didn't want to be there (so they sat in the back) and most likely were not even serious candidates. This peer group did negatively taint my son's view of the school. We took our tour in 93 degree heat, which didn't help. The campus was beautiful and the library seemed nice but our tour guide knew very little about the academics of his school and not much about the science majors at all, which is my son's major interest. We were not shown a classroom or a dormroom (under construction) but the freshman quad area was lovely...from the outside. We did get to meet with the alumni committee member afterwards which redemned our fair tour experience somewhat. I am hoping that my son will give Penn another try/visit next year because this is a wonderful place to spend 4 years (I did my graduate studies here). While we were doing our semiprivate session at the alumni center a fast moving major rainstorm hit the campus with a microburst tornado, complete with hail (in 93 degree weather)!!! Major tree destruction and power outages were everywhere!

Hotel/Lodging Recommendations or Comments:

We stayed in NJ, 15 minutes (without traffic) away.

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

Tony Lukes has yummy cheesesteaks but we still like Pats better!

Other Comments (Transportation, local attractions, parking, etc.):

The Philadelphia traffic really put us off. We left campus at 4:30 pm and were stuck in traffic for over an hour getting back to Cherry Hill(a trip that took us 20 minutes normally).