Life at Penn

chrisw
Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:39:34 +0000

@MomofWildChild

Hey! Let’s not generalize too much about Philadelphia service people! If you’re talking about the minimum wage workers at Penn, yes they are quite rude and really could use an attitude adjustment (though, in fairness, those jobs are the only ones they can get and they’ve got a ton of problems to work through, so it’s pretty fair that they’re not happy!), but restaurant workers are usually very attentive and, if not happy, at least willing to please customers. It’s no accident that the Philly area has some of the highest average tips in the country! In fact, waitstaff in the Philly area usually receive 20% (on the total including tax, not the subtotal) as a baseline with 17% for poor service and 25%+ for excellent service. I’m not saying that because I am a server (even though I am); that is just the way Philly is, and a lot of Penn students don’t know about that.

Actually, one of the things I dislike about Penn students is that they don’t adjust to their surroundings the way I would think they would. Students often chastise others who have Philly, Staten Island or Boston accents, and when it comes to little cultural things such as tipping waitstaff, students may go all four years without adjusting to the norm in Philly.

For other negatives about Penn, well here’s my list. People can be: very arrogant, unwelcoming, cold. They flaunt wealth. They look down upon non-Penn or non-Ivy-“caliber” students. They are flipping ridiculously liberal (personal thing… being conservative on campus is pretty tough)!! There are a lot of people with inferiority complexes. Many people refuse to accept opposing points of view as valid, with regard to politics, religion or morality. For facilities… the dorms are not very good and very over priced, though honestly I LOVE living off campus… my house is clean and large, cheaper than an on campus apartment, and whenever problems arise they are fixed immediately! The food isn’t great, though that might change with the new foorservice company. And our school spirit doesn’t exist in the sense that it does at BCS schools; our sports teams are TERRIBLE (with the exception of women’s lacrosse, which is usually 1 or 2 in the country), and people don’t care about sports at all on campus.

With all that said, I’ve found my niche and love it. I enjoy my time, though in all honesty, I think I’d be happier at Penn State. Nevertheless, I don’t regret choosing Penn and have grown more than I every thought I could in two years.