Penn Pals

When I attended my higher ed preview weekend back in March, I wasn’t even officially committed to Penn. I had received acceptances to six different programs, and while I had narrowed my list down a bit, the decision process was difficult (especially as someone who had applied to college early decision and had never been in this predicament!). Did I want to stay in my post-grad city, return to my home state, move halfway across the country, or choose something in the middle? Did I want to commit to a one-year or two-year program? I was confident at the time that Penn was one of my top choices, but not knowing that I would one hundred percent be enrolling made the preview weekend a bit stressful. 

Thankfully, I made the wise decision to socialize with as many incoming students as possible. I ended up becoming particularly close with three girls, all of whom were already committed to Penn and, better yet, would be in the Philadelphia area over the summer! Before leaving Penn, we connected on Facebook, so after I committed to GSE (yay!) and decided to sign up for summer classes, I was so thankful that I already knew a few people right nearby. 

I have never lived in a city where I didn’t know anyone—I even studied abroad with one of my closest friends from college—so having three familiar faces right nearby in Philly has made the transition much easier. Interestingly, the three girls I met are all Pennsylvania natives—two grew up in the Philly suburbs and the other has been living in the city—so they have all been great sources of knowledge as I’ve been getting settled. I'm still learning the ins and outs of Pennsylvania life--I told one of my friends last weekend that I wanted to see Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog Day and she said that she has never met someone with a desire to do that--I'm such a tourist! 

The fact that one of the girls and I will be full-time students while the two others will enroll part-time hasn’t stopped any of us from expressing our excitement about the year ahead together. I’m definitely jealous that the part-timers will have the opportunity to meet two different cohorts, and they've already told me that they're eager to attend next year's preview event (something I will help plan as part of my graduate assistantship--more on that later!). 

I'm looking forward to meeting even more people in my cohort come fall. It was important to me that the program in which I enrolled was home to a collaborative, friendly, close-knit group of students. The people I meet here will not only be friends and classmates but may become future coworkers, after all!