<p>I’ve looked over the videos at the UPenn website, and I think that I might like to live at Gregory, Kings Court English, Riepe, or maybe a little at Rodin for its music lessons.</p>
<p>Personally, I’m not the most outgoing person though I am willing to try to meet other people. I like Gregory for its languages residential program (and the film one too), Kings Court English for its Perspective in Humanities, Riepe for its Living Cultures and its location on the Quad. I’m someone very interested in the arts and humanities who wants a close-knit somewhat quiet and intellectual community, but not a rowdy one…</p>
<p>Can you take music classes at Penn as a beginner?</p>
<p>I don’t remember what major I picked, and it doesn’t say on my admission paper. Is it true that you take entry courses and then apply to a major in your second or third year?</p>
<p>Do all cafeterias serve organic food, or is it only organic if they make a point of saying so? Can you go to a different dining hall than the one at your house?</p>
<p>1) Live in Harrison
2) Not sure about music. You can definitely take lessons as a beginner.
3) You must declare your major by the end of sophomore year, I believe, but you can change it after that. What you put on your admissions paper doesn’t really mean much of anything.
4) Sure, they all serve “organic” food. There are only two houses (kings Court and English) that have their own dining halls, so you can bet that you can go to all of them. The other two dining halls are 1920 Commons and Hillel (Kosherific).
5) Don’t know, but if not, create them!</p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time to answer me. :] I took a second look at Harrison and I must admit that I like their residential program with the local artists and art, but I have this bias against living in the high rises…I want to live in a more traditional dorm…Maybe.</p>
<p>Harrison elevators are a nightmare… hopefully they’ll be fixed by next year, but this year there have been multiple times when literally zero out of four have been operating properly!</p>
<p>You can definitely take lessons as a beginner through the music department, especially in non-traditional instruments. Singing is easiest to get into as a beginner since there are so many non-departmental groups.</p>
<p>As Fightin’ Quaker said, you declare your major sometime during sophomore year, but even that isn’t too binding. You can really do anything until you apply to graduate! What you put on your admissions paper gives an idea of what you want to pursue, and so your premajor adviser will have experience in that general field; your advising group will all have similar interests. So if you put biology, you’ll likely get an adviser in the hard sciences. I put political science I think, and my adviser was a humanities type guy. </p>
<p>There is a division I Fencing team as well as a club team I believe… I’m sure there’s an archery club as well.</p>
<p>^chrisw is just bitter because he once had to walk up 20 flights of stairs when all four Harrison elevators broke. </p>
<p>Most freshmen stay away from the high rises in general, but if you do want to live in a high rise, I would suggest the FreshEx program in Harrison. The other res. programs are full of upperclassmen, so it’ll be a bit harder to make friends, even if they have similar interests. You also don’t have to live in Rodin for the music lessons with your specific teacher. I have a friend in Harnwell who takes lessons with someone in Rodin.</p>
<p>And just in general, residential programs, while a great way to meet people of similar interests, are not actually as idealistic as they seem to be. Most people apply to them as a means of getting first choice housing, and very few res. programs actually do anything. That’s not to deter you from applying, but it’s more of a warning to not get your hopes up…</p>
<p>Harrison will have all new elevators by next semester. People make the elevator issue a lot worse than it actually is. Fresh Ex is fantastic. I’ll write an full advertisement on it at some point.</p>