The University of Pennsylvania

Date: Jan 06 2015
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
I came to this school to work hard, and no one appreciates hard work, even the professors. It's all about how fast and brief you can write here. I read slow and methodically. If your not terribly interesting, your outcast. I didn't want to drink, which means no social life here. In brief, if your not social, don't come here.

I hated the Quad, people carelessly taking a dump on bathroom floors, smearing fecal matter on walls, the vomit in the hallway, and the food poisoning and rotten lettuce/food in Hill. I hated the showers that don't give you enough water pressure. I hate the contempt Penn employees in dining hold of Penn students every day, assuming students are all rich, entitled brats.

To get to an Ivy, I gave everything up in high school: family, friends, the idea of ever having a normal life and finding a spouse, wasting my time reading books that I have long forgotten. I have been unable to find friends because the classes are so time-consuming, (if you take these classes half-way seriously unlike a lot of students here that just kind of wing/skim as they do other stuff), that I have been unable to join extracurricular activities and make friends that way. If I could go somewhere else I would have, but I invested too much of my soul, suffered from too much stress on my heart to turn back from this hell. I tried to engage in research, but the never ending sea of just barely above average grades just made it all not worthwhile/interesting.

It is damn near impossible to get an A in humanities/social science unless you get to know professors, which shouldn't be a prerequisite to an A. Students will smile to your face in science/math classes, but underneath the politeness are fierce competitors, baying at the sight of blood/weakness, who don't care about you. College is not the time to experiment outside your strengths academically. In my time here, I have known 4 Penn students who successfully committed suicide. If I could go back 7 or 8 years, I would tell myself to become a butcher or maybe find work at a gas station. No amount of money could be worth this. I can't comment on the relevance of this to other Ivies, although I am predisposed to think that these problems are uniquely Pennsylvanian. I had straight A's going back 7 years, 130's IQ, and I frequent Pottruck, so I am not just some schmuck that they let walk in the door. This can happen to you. Think twice before attending.