City of Brotherly Love

This morning we met up with the Columbia cohort at Independence Hall to tour together. It was nice to get to see the Columbia cohort and the great Mrs. L again. During the tour, the guide gave us a mini crash course on colonial American history. One interesting fact we learned was that in a portrait of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, there is one person who's face isn’t show. The artist shows the back of this person as he signs the document because historians know he was at the convention but there is no recorded portrait of this individual. Another fact that we learned was that the original Senate hall was secret, no one was allowed to listen in on what the Senators were talking about, so there really wasn't to hold a Senator accountable. 

Independence Hall

After we finished our tours at Independence Hall and bid farewell to the Columbia cohort as they went to lunch, our cohort walked around and soaked in the sights around Independence Hall before we caught a cab to UPENN for the information session and college tour.

Independence Hall

The two chaperones talking about plans.

Columbia cohort

The information session was extremely beneficial for me personally because I'm looking forward to applying to UPENN this coming fall. During the information session the admissions officer told us what they were looking for in an applicant. She told us about how UPENN wanted individuals who are open to being changed and learning a new thought process and how our application had to show that we challenged ourselves at school and that our "Why Penn?" essay needs to not only explain what drew us to Penn, but what we can bring to Penn and how we can "own" Penn.

Following the information session, we left on a tour of the UPENN campus. Our tour guide, Anna, led us around UPENN and spoke about traditions such as "Spring Fling" and "Hey Day" and led us along Locust Walk to show us the library, quad (dorms), and Wharton Hall just to give us a taste of what UPENN is like. 

UPENN College Hall

Locust Walk

At the dinner, I sat next to admissions officer Amy Smith and rising senior at Penn, Hamlet (Yes, that's his real name.) When I asked what both liked the most about Penn, both said the "one university philosophy". I have to agree. Based on the information sessions and dinner that's the one factor that has stood out to me the most. UPENN has four colleges, (Wharton, College of Arts and Sciences, Nursing, and College of Engineering) and I thought that the atmosphere would be like having four separate universities on one campus. That couldn't be further from the truth. I believe this is because of the "one university philosophy" which means that the university forces every student to take classes that not only aren't part of a student's major, but also from a college that he/she isn't part of. I love the "one university philosophy".

Octopus appetizer

Seafood entree.

Dessert.