Student Body at UPenn

Poeme
Sat, 13 Apr 2013 19:53:01 +0000

The social life at Penn really depends on who you hang out with. Some people go out quite a bit, some people moderately, and some people do not go out at all. I personally think that Penn has quite a diverse student body in terms of social life compared to other schools, however, that being said, Greek life does have a strong presence. I don’t think it’s quite as exclusive as many other schools (state schools especially), but it is definitely very visible in many areas of social life. Freshman and sophomore year, most of the parties people go to will be thrown by fraternities. This changes as one becomes a junior or senior though. There are other alternatives to Greek life such as clubs and other organizations which also hold events. However, as someone who is not particularly into group activities and is heavily involved in academics/research, the social life in sophomore and junior year has definitely has been harder for me than when I was a freshman. I have found my niche and have a lot of good friends, but the weekends are definitely more lonely.
It can be particularly hard during this time to have a healthy work life balance. In this aspect, Penn is very polarized which is a bit unhealthy. There are a lot of people who go out and drink heavily every weekend and there are a lot of people who literally never leave their rooms (there are also many people who are like the former on the weekends, but study very intensely during the week). However, I don’t think any of the things I mentioned are unique to Penn. When you go to an ivy league school, you attract a lot of high achievers, and this contributes to the social unbalance.