Current Penn Freshman Taking Questions

ProudPenn
Thu, 07 Apr 2011 05:43:05 +0000

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a) Pre-Med- Your Pre-Med experience is whatever you make it. It is not a major itself but rather a “track” to follow. This means that you can major in whatever you want so long as you fulfill the requirements to apply to med school (certain years of bio, chem, physics, and math). I myself am leaning towards a Psych. major with a minor in Africana studies. The reason why so many students choose I science major though is because it makes it easier to fulfill pre med requirements. For example, since I’m majoring in Psych. I have to take all the classes necessary to graduate with a degree in it while taking pre med classes, and none of them overlap, so basically it’s extra work. Not saying it’s not worth it, because it is, just stating facts. That being said, science/math courses at Penn are tough. They are usually rather large and curved, so you aren’t so much graded on how well you know the material but how well you know it compared to other students in your class.

b) Food- The food is dining hall food. Good some days, bad on others. There’s always pizza, burgers, fries, salad bar, and the comfort section fixes different, “home-cooked” things every day. I will say this, Dining Dollars are worth more than meal swipes in my opinion. Places like Houston Hall (which has stations for sushi, pasta, salad, burgers, and tacos), Einstein Bros Bagels, Au Bon Pain, and Shoppes at Commons (Burger Stop, Subway, Starbucks, and a grocery store) all take dining dollars, and the food at all these places are amazing. As far as basic dining halls go (1920 Commons, Hill, Kings Court)and Houston Hall there’s not much cultural diversity. I’m sorry, I’m not very familiar with Halal food but Steindhart Hall, in the Hillel Center which services Jewish students on campus, serves Kosher food, if that’s similar in any way. I googled a couple places and there’s restaurants around the city that serve Halal food, you can check them out for yourself and see how authentic they are-
-Saad’s Halal Restaurant (~5 blocks from campus)
-Kabobeesh (~3 blocks)
-Marrakesh Express (~ 5 blacks)
-Wah Gi Wah Halal Restaurant (~5 blocks)
-Ariana Restaurant: Afganistan Cuisine-Halal Food (downtown/center city)
you can google more if you’d like. That’s one of the great things about going to Penn, the city of Philly is diverse and right at your fingertips.

c) Dorms- Getting a single room as a freshman is extremely hard so don’t get your hopes up. Sorry if I busted your bubble lol. If you want a single, due to more privacy I would suggest anything on campus proper (Harnwell, Harrison, Du Bois). As a freshman you will get a Triple in Du Bois with your own room, bathroom, kitchenette, and common room, so basically a suite. To get into Harrison you have to apply to the FreshEx program and Harnwell is just applying. Both high rises have the same kind of suites but you may have to share a bedroom. They also group freshman rooms together so you’ll be around peers. See my previous post for a more in-depth review on each dorm and the FreshEx program.