<p>I can only speak from the perspective of a parent and someone who has lived and worked in Philly so I can’t go into detail but here are some broad brush responses:
- Penn is not a suitcase school, not in the least.
- There is stress and competition but also collaboration, support and comraderie(you are not alone going through it).
- I can’t say specifically but my D is involved in about a dozen different activities from athletics to the arts. There is no shortage of things to do. If you are a “joiner” as my D is, I’d say there is an excess of things to do.
- My D is a non-drinker. She has a super active social life and is even in a Greek organization. I see no hindrances here.
- There are 10,000 undergrads - there is a place for almost everyone. There are pre-professional majors but also liberal arts majors. The atmosphere at a small school matters most because that’s your community. In a school with 10,000 students, it seems like there are communities within the larger community so most kids should be able to find a place.</p>