Big School!

Introduction
The best advice I could give someone applying to Penn is to keep in mind what type of school they want in terms of size; Penn has 20,000 students, and for some people that is too large. Professors are accessible, and classes apart from lectures are relatively small, but it is still something to keep in mind. I chose Penn because of its prestige, and its size. The type of student who isn't prepared to work extremely hard should definitely stay away from Penn; the majority of students here are extremely competitive; and the curves for all 4 schools are generally difficult. Something I would definitely not encourage is students who want to backdoor into Wharton; they apply to Arts & Sciences/Nursing/Engineering with the plan to transfer into Wharton afterwards. Aside from the fact that admission officers can usually see right though that, it's not much easier to transfer internally into Wharton.

Campus Life and Social Life
The social life is amazing at Penn. Philadelphia is a city where there is so much to do, and we also have many frats; there is ALWAYS something going on. The only downside is that one usually ends up spending tons of money whenever you go out (if you go off campus to party). Sports aren't a huge deal like in state schools (obviously!), but there's a considerable number of athletes; and varsity is taken seriously; practise takes up A LOT of your time (read: all of your time). There is literally a club for every interest, and if you're not interested in playing varsity/club, there's always intramural. Weekends are always eventful, full of parties, and various events. Academics
Academics here are taken extremely seriously; all 4 schools are tough; I'd say there's no area that 'sucks'; Wharton is the #1 business school in the country, most people have a concentration in Finance and something else (i.e., Real Estate, Management, etc..); the Nursing porgram is also one of the best in the country, Engineering is very demanding, with an excellent program, most notably bioengineering/chemical engineering. While Arts & Sciences is often called the 'easiest; school out of the 4, it is still very demanding, with the Economics and Biology departments being the most outstanding. The Communications (Annenberg School of Communications) program is also one of the best in the country. The professors are excellent, although there is the odd one out which sucks (very rare). TA's are usually great, but I've noticed that a considerable number aren't all that profficient in English, which can be a problem. The workload depends entirely on which classes you take, but generally everyone is really busy most of the time.

Student Body
Penn has such a diverse student body that it is overwhelming at times. Students come from all over the world, and interests are diverse. There's not one 'typical' student; there are the overachievers, the ones who are lazy yet still get good grades, there are the extremely competitive ones,the ones who will step all over you in order to get what they want, there are the recruits, and the 'artsy' types. Like I said, there is a club for just about everything, so you are bound to find people with your same interests.

In Closing...
If you;re thinking of applying, definitely come visit for Penn Previews or take a tour; if you're absolutely sure, do early decision because admissions wants people who really want to be at Penn.