The University of Pennsylvania

Date: Sep 08 2010
Major: History/Histories (art history/etc.) (This Major's Salary over time)
I wish I could write a positive assessment of my 4 years at Penn. I really do. Let's start with the good stuff. The academics: top notch and challenging. My professors (with very few exceptions) were extremely bright, engaging, enthusiastic, and genuinely interested in my well-being and standing in class. I enjoyed my class work; I enjoyed my major; I enjoyed studying.

My problem was with the students. I went to Penn as a naive, unassuming, kind of quiet, non-religious Jewish guy from the Midwest, smart, but not the smartest, determined, and hard-working, but who also liked to drink beer and meet girls. I was not a social misfit, nor was I at the other end of the spectrum. I did not sit in my dorm room, but went out and got involved. Unfortuntely, this wasn't enough to prepare me for the people I met at Penn. As a now-38-year-old, having gone to graduate school and lived and worked in a major city since 1997, I can honestly say that, up to this point in my life, I have never, ever met a more unfriendly, uncaring, selfish, self-absorbed, stuck-up, and/or phony group of people than I did in my 4 years at Penn. From the very first day in the Quad, I found myself thinking, "uh oh." Why didn't I transfer? I should have, but didn't. I guess I wanted the degree from an Ivy League school. Has it helped? I live in the Midwest, so not really. Oh well - - I like to think that the academics outweighed the people, and to some degree they did, but I can't help but think how fun college could have been—should have been—with a nicer, more genuine, grounded student body.

I realize that my opinions is, unfortunately, based on anecdotal evidence. But I simply cannot forget it, and it still asounds me to this day (i.e., the homely but stuck up Jewish girl at Smoke's who asked me for a cigarette and then laughed at the brand I offered her (Merits); the masses of women in general who, for whatever reason, had attitudes that were completely unjustified in terms of both physical and mental attributes; 19-year-old Wharton jagoffs with no real-world accomplishments acting as if they were the next version of Donald Trump; the terribly provincial—and incredibly ignorant—attitudes harbored by many students from the east coast; the overall snobbery that I just couldn't—and still can't—comprehend, given that only a miniscule portion of 18-to-22-year-olds can possibly have the kind of individual accomplishments warranting such levels of entitlement; and the constant, annoying, and blatantly insecure student concern that Penn is an Ivy League school and NOT PENN STATE).

The list goes on, and on, and, unfortunately, on. I feel like I'm generalizing, and I hate doing that. But the more I think about these things, the more I realize that they are typical of way too many students at Penn, and my friends who went to other colleges are incredulous when I relate some of these things. I don't know if things have changed in 15 years. Maybe I had bad luck. Maybe if I was on a different floor in the quad, I would have met different people. Lots of things in life are determined by chance; I understand that. But having witnessed these things for 4 years, I kind of think it doesn't matter.