University of Pennsylvania
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Digital Media Design in the Engineering school. It’s basically computer science with a focus on computer graphics and rendering technology.
Minor: Cinema Studies
Student Self Identifies as: Biracial Heterosexual Male
Summary
I play club lacrosse, I’m in a fraternity, and I’m on the board of the Weiss Tech Innovation Fund, which is a venture capital fund where we invest the school’s money.
Background
Gender Identity: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Biracial: Half Southeast Asian and Half White
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
High School Experience: Private all-boys school in New Jersey with a graduating class of about 120 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: No
Major: Digital Media Design in the Engineering school. It’s basically computer science with a focus on computer graphics and rendering technology.
Minor: Cinema Studies
Extracurricular Activities: I play club lacrosse, I’m in a fraternity, and I’m on the board of the Weiss Tech Innovation Fund, which is a venture capital fund where we invest the school’s money.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience?
The Weiss Tech Innovation Fund has because it’s helped me figure out if I want to go into venture capital and private equity or software engineering, which I’m still torn between.
Academic Experience
Can you describe your weekly coursework for your major?
I have around two coding assignments due a week because I’m in three coding classes right now and one has a weekly project and the others have them more sporadically. For my Algorithms class, it takes about 20-25 hours a week and my other two coding classes, each take about 10 hours a week. Also, for Digital Media Design I have to take art classes so my one art class right now takes about 8-9 hours a week. All of my classes are project-based so I have a lot of homework. Each class has about two midterms per semester. I’m enrolled in five classes this semester.
Is there anything that you feel your major’s department does especially well or poorly?
My department feeds into Pixar and Disney for the technical directors and that kind of stuff, so what they do well is hammering the computer science behind computer graphics and image rendering. In terms of what they don’t do well, I know some people complain that we don’t do as much art as they thought we were going to do, but for me, I’m totally fine doing the computer science. People thought it was going to be like 60% computer science and 40% art but it’s really like 95% computer science and 5% art.
How would you describe the learning environment? Is it particularly competitive or collaborative?
Within my program, it’s pretty collaborative, but in general, it’s pretty competitive. You collaborate with your friends, but outside of that people are hesitant to collaborate. Engineers are a little bit more collaborative than other schools, like Wharton, are. The Engineers are much more chill, but even then, people are hesitant because with coding there are a lot of ways to catch cheating. People don’t want to accidentally get caught for cheating because those programs are so strong.
How accessible are your professors?
They’re very accessible. I’ve never had a situation where I wanted to talk to a professor and haven’t been able to meet with him or her. They’re pretty flexible if you are willing to put in the work to meet with them.
What has been your favorite class you’ve taken for your major?
I’m taking a markets and systems networking class which is pretty cool. It’s about connections between people and social networks. It’s actually a coding class but talks about both social networks and coding which makes it cool. Normally the classes are just algorithms and math.
Why did you pick your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I initially came to school as a mechanical engineer but it was a little too bland to me. I did a lot with film and art in high school and I didn’t want to lose my creativity in college. I wanted to figure out a way to combine the two and took some Computer Science classes while I was still a mechanical engineer. I learned that I really like coding, so I applied to the program last summer and got in. I’m happy with it. I’m not sure if I’m going to go the Disney or Pixar route, but it allows me to take cinema classes, marketing classes, and art classes, which I wouldn’t be able to take if I was just an engineer.
Reasons to Attend
1) The social scene is pretty awesome. The events here thrown by frats are insane. We’re always bringing in cool artists and renting out cool places. It’s also cool because we can go to other fraternity’s events.
2) The food scene in Philadelphia is great. Just being close to Philly is great because if you ever feel claustrophobic there is an entire city for you to explore. Whenever my friends and I are bored we go somewhere new to check out.
3) I love Penn’s campus and I love being in a city. That’s been such a pleasure.
Reasons Not to Attend
1) Especially as an engineer, school’s hard. It’s tough when I have to stay in when my friends go out and I have to stay in. It can be pretty grueling.
2) Sometimes you get professors who are more so focused on their research.
3) It’s a lot of [very wealthy students] and money-focused because a lot of the events that are really popular cost money. [Socioeconomically, 19% of students come from the top 1% and 3.6% come from the top 0.1%.]
Around Campus
Where have you lived on campus?
Freshman: The Quad in Ware College House with one roommate.
Sophomore: My fraternity house in a single.
How was transitioning from New Jersey to Philadelphia, PA?
That wasn’t bad at all. It’s close enough where if I need to go home I can go home and also still far enough that I feel like I’m in a new place because I’m in an urban environment. I’ve grown to really, really like Philadelphia, especially as a college town because it’s not insanely expensive but you still get all the perks of being in a city
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
I’ve never had an issue. West Philly gets a bad reputation and there definitely are issues here. I only know one girl who’s been mugged, which is still a lot, but I feel safe whenever I’m around campus. There is also a walking escort service where you can get security guards to walk you back to your home late at night. I don’t necessarily feel uncomfortable – maybe I should – but I know girls get pretty scared at night when we’re off-campus.
Social Opportunities
What kind of nightlife or weekend activities do you like to participate in?
Fraternities always have things and people can usually get into fraternity events. I don’t go to bars a lot because I don’t want to spend money. A lot of the times fraternities will rent out clubs downtown for Thursday night and people will just go and pay to get in. Friday and Saturday nights there are mixers and open parties.
How exclusive are the fraternity events?
It depends. If it’s a mixer, it’s just the fraternity and sorority. If we’re having an open party at our house we’re going to let in our friends and guys from other fraternities and if it’s a club event it’s open because people will pay to get in.
What’s an alternative to going to a party or bar that you like for a night out?
People always go to sports games, like Eagles, Phillies, 76ers, and Flyers games. We have a movie theater right near campus which is nice. I’m a big foodie, so I like to go to dinner at different places. People will also do work.
How happy are you with the weekend options? Is there anything you would change if you could?
Big weekends can get pretty expensive here. You do have to spend a lot of money here. Fraternities will all throw events on big weekends because that’s how we make money, so we charge way too much for tickets. But, because we make so much money on those events it makes the problem worse because the next year we just charge a little more and people still pay it. There are some must-go-to events that are at least $60 days, which is tough.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
My roommate freshman year and I did a summer course at Brown the year before together and he’s one of my closest friends. Another of my closest friends I went to high school with. Then at Penn we have fall rush, which is rush for the entire fall semester, so you’re constantly meeting people at different events and then you might pledge with them in the spring. So, I met the rest through rushing and then having them in my pledge class.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Penn?
A lot of Penn is very money-focused. There are a lot of people here who money is not an object to. The issue with being so close to a city is the people who can really spend money will buy tables at the clubs we rent downtown and spend hundreds of dollars on bottles of liquor. I didn’t even know what a table was before I got to school. It was pretty eye-opening at first. [Socioeconomically, 19% of students come from the top 1% and about 3.5% come from the top 0.1%.]
To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
People of different races definitely mix and I’m sure people of different sexual orientations mix too but that’s not as obvious.
To what extent do people in Greek life and not in Greek life mix socially?
I’m definitely friends with people who aren’t in my fraternity. Pretty much, if you like to go out there is a fraternity for you. There are a lot of different fraternities for a lot of different people. Like, a lot of my engineering friends aren’t in fraternities but a surprising amount also are. It’s hard to go out with people who aren’t in the Greek life system because people in Greek life know about Greek life events and the people not in Greek life have their own events that they know about. I personally don’t know much about the other events. [About 27% of undergraduates are involved in Greek life.]
How do you like the size of Penn in terms of undergraduate enrollment? How has that impacted your experience? [Penn has about 10,600 undergraduates.]
It’s small and then once you get down to the people who go out and you know, it gets even smaller. I don’t know if I’d want a bigger school, but it definitely feels pretty small. I mostly see the same people every night I go out and if I see someone new it’s someone I know of or have heard of. It’s very rare to meet someone completely new when I’m out.
Do you ever feel like you’re more so a resident of Philadelphia than a student at Penn?
The only reason why I don’t feel like a Philadelphia resident is that I’m not a Philadelphia sports fan. Other than that, I do kind of feel like a resident because I love going downtown, probably more so than some of my friends, and I go to events a lot. I do sometimes feel like a resident because I try to do as much in the city as I can.
What is the impact of Penn being a Quaker school had on your experience?
It’s not prevalent at all. It doesn’t feel like a religious place at all.
Careers
Has the alumni network helped you find internships or jobs?
Me personally, no because sophomore year is difficult for finding a job. But it will definitely help next year. I know a lot of people have gotten help from fraternity alumni or cold calling people on our alumni database.
To what extent have you used the career office? How helpful have they been?
I’ve been there to do a mock interview and got my resume check out.
Have you learned any computer programs or languages through your coursework that will be helpful to you professionally?
I learned Java, Matlab, and Arduino which is pretty cool.