Competitive atmosphere at Penn?

chrisw
Wed, 03 Jul 2013 10:45:36 +0000

There is a monumental difference between competing WITH your peers and competing AGAINST them. Think of it more like golf than, say, basketball. When you play a game of basketball with friends, there is a direct correlation between the way you play and the way your friends play - if you do well, the other team will do poorly, and vice versa. When you play a round of golf, you do not have a direct impact on your friends - if you do well, they can still do better. The end result is that a round of golf has more of a friendly atmosphere, with people recognizing skill levels, helping each other improve, and generally trying to have a good time.

At Penn, there are curves in classes, but that doesn’t mean that you want your peers to do poorly. It means that you want to do well. The result is that there is a TON of collaboration (some of it is forced in the form of class teams, but much of it is just a product of many high performing students striving for perfection).

I mention this all of the time, but even when I was applying for jobs, a situation in which my success COULD spell someone else’s failure, there was no sense of “me first” that I got. Instead, everyone helped each other out with resume review, cover letter review, interview prep, etc. There was no sabotage of others’ applications or anything else that would be considered a negative environment.