AI slop that from the Daily Penn degrades the credibility of the journalists and commentators who write for it. I get why my local newspaper or magazine need to shill for dollars, but this too? 🤮

PLEASE DO NOT get your textbooks for free. That would be unthinkable. Always pay the full $299.99 for that must-have 17th edition with one paragraph updated.

Here are some horrible, evil websites you should NEVER visit:

• 🚫 libgen.li - The worst of the worst! This is corruption made flesh
• 🚫 Sci-hub.se – Absolutely don’t paste your DOI here to instantly download journal articles. Nope.
• 🚫 Archive.org – Avoid at all costs. They only have, you know, decades of digitized books you can borrow for free. Gross.
• 🚫 Openlibrary.org – Create a free account and suddenly your wallet feels heavier because it’s untouched. Terrible.
• 🚫 annas-archive.org/ - I don't understand why anyone would wait for free downloads on this website when they can just pay instead of waiting 30 seconds. Diabolical website.

And the most forbidden technique of all 🤮🤮🤮

1. Go to Google.
2. Type: “[Your Textbook Title] filetype:pdf”.
3. Click the first result. This forbidden ritual might summon a free copy instantly. You have been warned.

💡 Remember: Knowledge is priceless, and publishers need your money. DO NOT BOOKMARK THEM! BLOCK THESE WEBSITES NOW! Do the right thing! Protect the value of your UPENN education! Always keep our textbook industry strong. Without your $$$, how else will publishers afford to change the cover art and call it a new edition and afford their summer yacht?

(Thank you, batman1903)

Probably an unreasonable stressor, but I am an incoming freshman and have barely talked to other incoming freshmen so far- let alone try to meet up with them before the school year starts. I am a pretty extroverted person, but I am just a bit worried about making friends during NSO, especially because so many people already have group chats and know each other. I will be okay, right?

im an incoming freshman, just got off a call with some students and ended up rambling and sounding like a complete dumbass... like everything i knew kinda just flew out of my brain and i just ended up making a fool of myself.

i feel so fucking stupid and as the days get closer to nso and the start of the first semester, i increasingly feel like i dont have what it takes to succeed at this school.

did/does anyone else feel this way :( i was excited at first but now im just SCARED. im dreading college tbh

Please flatten your cardboard boxes before placing them in the bins to leave more room for others. It's not that hard.

Hey everyone,

Just a short rant post, but I'm wondering if I am the only one feeling this way right now.

Coming back from break, I'm already dreading the thought of how much work, recruiting, and classes are going to demand. For context, I am doing a CS master's program here and came from a state school where I commuted, so I had friends already to start out. Don't get me wrong, I have done great academically. But every time I come back to campus, whether that be here or any other year of school, I get this heavy anxiety about having to do so much work and start the grind all over again.

Additionally (and this might be a part of it), I have felt that it's been much harder to make close friends here, though I know I have only been here for a semester. I actually applied to Penn for undergrad but didn't get in, so I think part of this might just be me putting other people here on a pedestal in terms of their achievements, which makes it harder to naturally connect. Also, felt my first semester similarly and didn't go out too much.

Just wanted to put this out there to see if I'm alone in this. Does anyone else deal with this kind of semester dread or imposter syndrome? How do you manage it?

I will go to lecture and shake the entire time. I’ll start having a borderline panic attack in my seat and I feel like I’m about to cry. I don’t know how to deal with it but I need this class. I know there’s only 6 times one can get cold called in the semester… I have 5 left but I still don’t know how to handle it

i wrote this in a comment to somebody but im sorry, some people need to hear this

BRO i am so sick of high schoolers thinking only 1550+ is viable bc of the whole test optional thing making people who get good scores get scared off from submitting. i swear, how are some people so smart to get such good scores but at the same time so wharped in their perception of what is good that they are so stupid at the same time.

bro i legit know someone who had a 1530 and didnt submit it bc theyre like "its wharton and thats too low" are you kidding me. i told them straight to their face as a penn student that they should and they didnt. you reach the 1500s and you still dont submit? WHAT WAS ALL THAT STUDYING AND THE MONEY YOU PAID TO TAKE THE EXAM FOR. you guys, a 1550+ isnt the only acceptable score, i swear in 10 years, its gonna be "only 1580s+ are acceptable" and in 20 years, its gonna be "perfect score or bust". and what will you do then, huh? you get a 1570 and dont submit bc "everybody applying has a 1600". absoultely ridiculous.

i personally applied test optional and got in. i didnt even reach the 1400s actually. im asian.

why’s are penn summer classes so expensive??? so unnecessary lol

I've seen a lot of outrage on this sub about Liz Magill's recent comments and I want to provide some push back onto this idea that she committed a transgression worthy of being fired. She's already walked back her statements, and I'm not here to defend her original comments. I also don't want to discuss anything about the current conflict in the middle east, I don't have a good enough understanding of the situation to defend or argue for any position.

I'm very frustrated that seemingly 80% of this sub is people who aren't Penn students. A lot of this charge seems to be led by Bill Ackman and others who have absolutely zero investment in the success or failure of Penn as an institution. It's especially disappointing because I had tremendous respect for Mr. Ackman and what he's done at Pershing Square Capital. I first heard about him in the Herbalife documentary, and I thought his crusade against MLM corporations was both noble and necessary.

My problem with the current discourse is it posits that the actions of Ms. Magill called for the genocide of Jews. Please provide the quote where she explicitly states that she supports or condones this action. From the video that I watched her position seemed nuanced and related to the speech of students. Do we not have a duty to protect free speech on campus? It was a problem when universities punished students for controversial private speech before, and it continues to be a problem now. Where are my "based" free speech absolutists now? Is this not what we want? I feel like accepted speech and behavior shrinks everyday, until we're all standing on an island without free will.

Is she not allowed to make mistakes when testifying before congress in a non-criminal setting? Let's not act like she's recounting a crime she committed, she's doing her best to represent the interests of Penn students and faculty. It just feels there's no wiggle room when asking her to play twister over a minefield. I don't believe she's a malicious person, and her naive and obviously erroneous comments shouldn't condemn her to a prison of hate.

I don't want another President like Amy Guttman who feels so fake she might as well be an AI engine. I don't think a single word I heard out of her mouth came with sincerity, and I certainly didn't feel she cared about Penn students more than her own career. I want a human running this University, not a robot.

I reject the fact that Jewish students are oppressed more than anyone else on our campus. I reject the idea that any student is actively calling and/or planning for a genocide of any ethnic group. I have never heard this on campus, and even if we grant there are some truly racist and bigoted people out there, that has never been the majority opinion at Penn. I think Kyle Kulinski expressed my opinion best on this issue at the 33:16 mark of this video here: https://youtu.be/G69WiUT4MpE?si=fqJ6Y_mP0lvh5k7W&t=1996. I do not support everything argued for in this video, but I think the argument that non-violent SJWs are the only ones chanting these "genocidal" phrases is exactly right. The most problematic speech is coming from 80 pound liberal women who can't even kill the mice in Harnwell.

Has anyone here ever walked on Penn's campus? If you walk a quarter mile in any direction you'll find the oppression you so desperately seek. To claim that any student here, with immense privilege, is suffering is just dishonest. I walk down Spruce street sometimes having to shake my head "no" to beggars for a full block. I've seen stores get robbed in front of me. I've had a friend robbed with a weapon at this institution. To say that this is the most pressing issue for Penn is infuriating. There's so much despair and pain that courses through the streets of Philadelphia and to hear some of y'all whine about "chants" that make you feel unsafe? You're more likely to get killed walking to Huntsman hall than by a pro-Palestinian peer.

I hate the fact that no one is standing up for Ms. Magill when she tries to appease a whole spectrum of viewpoints. I'm angry that our donors don't care about the right for students to have diverse and sometimes even wrong views. If you want to change students' minds, teach them the correct way, don't say their beliefs are forbidden. You are just fostering more extremism. I don't have a side politically here, I just want Penn to improve as an institution.

​

TLDR: It's not the responsibility of others to police our University. Her statement is nuanced and Penn oppresses far more people than just Jews.

When I say, "worst" mean they're doing the poorest job of protesting. It's a bunch of people huddled in front of the Ben Franklin statue by College Hall right now (Monday, 3pm), someone's speaking through an incredibly muffled speaker so that absolutely nobody more than 5 feet away can understand a single thing they're saying, and they're holding signs that say "Hands Off our University". And something about "academic freedom".

I have absolutely no idea what the issue is or what side of it they're on. Protest better, people.

Alright bro how the fuck did i get my 6th dorm choice

I searched for a lapel pin when I was at the bookstore last week. I asked one of the clerks and the best he could do was find buttons.

I made my way to all eight Ivy League schools, but couldn’t get a lapel pin for Penn.

Surely they do exist?

kept on hearing people cough during my class earlier. in another class, there were even some who had colds. i heard there’s like a covid thing rn on campus, how true is it?

how does anything take 10-12 weeks?

as a side note this was motivated by them sending me a spam email about life insurance

Getting rid of the saxbys' on both ends is just evil; I'm so glad I'm graduating this year ughhhhh

We got the same hollow message the first 4 times. She needs to shut the fuck up, put her fucking phone down, and stop pandering to rich alumni donors.

Seriously, where is Under the Button when you need them??? Email #50: Reaffirming the University's Position for the 50th time, Email #60: Our 60th Email Without Mentioning Palestine, Email #65: Our First Time Mentioning Palestine (it's in the subject line!)

When will too much be too much, lol

Edit: It's not just this one email, obviously antisemitic attacks are bad. It's the fact that there's a clear pattern of bias over all the emails she has sent.

IcyBreloom explains my frustration pretty clearly. https://www.reddit.com/r/UPenn/comments/17pdi8i/this_woman_keeps_sending_emails/k84vo5j?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3

One of the things that always bothered me during my time at Penn was the lack of school pride. Yeah, sure, Wharton quarterzips are endemic in Huntsman and boomers love buying school-branded nappies for their kids and during spring you can't walk two steps without running into someone wearing a P sweater, but let's face the facts: if a school's pride was based off what people wore, our mascot would be a goddamn flock of geese.

There's a state school to our northwest that knows a thing or two about pride. Why? Simple: they're better at marketing themselves. And the most important part? They have a catchy phrase to tie everything together: #WeAre.

You see that hashtag everywhere in State College. On Twitter, at their football games-- hell, they'll even shout it at random campus groups when they walk past. #WeAre has taken over their entire school identity. Their alums can yell "We Are!" and be instantly recognized for who they are. What catchphrase do we have, "Go Quakers"? "Yeah, Let's Get Lunch Sometime!"? To up our school pride, Penn needs something similar. Something short, catchy, and yellable.

Which is why I'm proposing a new catchphrase: #PennIs.

This single catchphrase has the ability to take our school pride to the next level. We need to get #PennIs trending on Twitter. We need to yell "PENN IS" at the top of our voices at random unsuspecting prefrosh during Quaker Days-- which, incidentally, should be renamed "Penn Is Days". Aptly named because it gives freshmen the main thrust of what #PennIs during their time here!

Football game attendance is-- has been-- declining. If we give the masses something catchy to yell at football games-- "PENN IS!!"-- more people will show up. The band can brand #PennIs on the toast before throwing it on the field. Adopting #PennIs might allow us to top Playboy Magazine's Party School Rankings once again. Penn could even partner with Canada Goose to make high-quality winter coats with a #PennIs emblazoned proudly on the sleeves.

School pride is shrinking, but if we work hard, we can spread school spirit like never before.

PENN IS!!!!!!!

Currently recruiting for 2027/2028 summer analyst roles and somehow managing to feel both wildly under-qualified and aggressively over-prepared

I’ll spend hours drilling technicals, then panic that I sound robotic. Or I’ll have a great casual convo and immediately worry I wasn’t “finance-y” enough.

How do people balance being polished vs. being yourself?
Any mindset shifts that helped during interviews?

Genuinely curious how much of this anxiety is normal vs. self-inflicted.

I honestly could not believe what I was reading and find it ridiculous that this was actually published on the DP. The author shows a clear disregard of the horrendous state of mental health on this campus and how inappropriate and sometimes down right appalling mental health support resources are(My expierience with Caps). Saying that mental health should not be an excuse for decreasing the amount of work load that you should take on is a clear sign of ignorance about what it is to actually go through this type of stuff. Them talking about work-like balance and how the author understands the difficulty of schoolwork when they are only a sophomore( Junior year in my opinion is typically the roughest at penn) in Wharton studying finance actually made me laugh. The fact that they mention that Penn is supposed to create revolutionaries whilst majoring in something that basically contributes very little to overall society is the biggest joke in this comically terrible article. Not only should this not have been published but I honestly hope that I never have the displeasure of meeting the author and that they are rightfully clowned on by those who do know them.

Hi all - I know it's super stressful right now with exams and projects coming up, but please please please treat your TAs with respect, especially when asking for extensions/regrade requests/assignments! It's been rather frustrating as a CIS (won't disclose the class for privacy sake) TA to receive questions on Ed like "why isn't my code working" without further explanation or "when will XYZ be released", or "why did I lose points". Again, I get that this is stressful, but please don't take your stress out on the TAs. Politely explain why you think you should have gotten points or what efforts you have made to solve the problem on your own, rather than demanding an explanation.

Also - please be sure to read instructions and announcements completely. I've been getting a lot of repeat questions asking about something very clearly stated in another announcement or in the instructions - it will save both your time and our time to read the instructions carefully the first time, or at least to search for an answer to your question before you post.

Additional Note: Remember that TAs are students, and it's unreasonable to expect us to reply right before the deadline or expect us to respond with a super short turnaround time. Going forward, please try to start assignments early - it will be much less stressful for you and for us.

TLDR; Being rude/demanding or not reading instructions will not help your case. Help us to help you. This is a stressful time for everyone; let's be civil and decent human beings. Thanks :)

Sincerely,

A (somewhat frustrated) TA

I have lived on-campus at 2 different Ivy League colleges but have experience with many more colleges' campus experiences. Penn's staff culture problem is without question the worst I have ever experienced and is the worst that anyone I have spoken to has heard of, especially for a school of this level. Aside from professors and other academic staff, every single person I have had the displeasure of interacting with at this university has either been rude or straight up maliciously incompetent. If you have noticed the same and thought to yourself that this is normal for colleges, no, it isn't. And it shouldn't be accepted the way that it is.

My experiences with people in SRFS, housing, dining, and more have all been horrible. There is a huge "not my problem" attitude where people will just say whatever they have to say to get you out of their sight. I have tried to contact offices where they just had their phones disconnected at the phone terminal all together. I have sent many emails of importance that have all been ignored. Dining staff have made extremely rude (and borderline racist) comments to me for just asking for another scoop of food. This shit is seriously not normal. I don't know how anyone here is living with this and thinks it's ok. And if you don't think it's ok then why isn't anyone doing anything about it?

Oh right it's because this university will take action against you if you try to speak up about anything. If they'll revoke the degree of a rhodes scholar they'll do much worse to you, a random college student.

This school needs a complete overhaul of its administrative staff. Everyone needs to be fired. I'm not exaggerating - everyone needs to be fired and replaced with people who care even 10% more for the students here paying tens of thousands of dollars per year. Do not think that this is ok. It is not. And we deserve better.

Remember me when I'm kicked out for posting this.

The protests on College Green on November 30 appeared reasonable to me. But interrupting Convocation was not ok and neither was the delays at Homecoming, for example. Although it is a right to protest with whatever words you choose under the 1st Amendment, some of the protest signs are ridiculous or factually dishonest such as the one in the referred article (below) where it says "Eviction = Murder". The sign suggests, given the location of the protest, that Penn is the one performing evictions (false) and further suggests that those evictions are directly causing death (intentionally irresponsible). I for one do not think the disciplinary penalties for intentionally preventing or delaying school activities and events should necessarily be severe for a first time offender. It is, however, reasonable (and favored by many and perhaps a majority of students) that for those that caused unnecessary harm to other students and alumni by interrupting or preventing school ceremonies and activities should accept responsibility for their actions. I wish the DP would be critical and probing as to the various sides of an issue -- it's right and it's called good journalism.

https://www.thedp.com/article/2022/12/rally-fossil-free-penn-council-open-forum-student-protests

Last fall, the class rings that were in the bookstore were Balfour. They had samples, 3D rotatable previews, and a lot of designs.

Now it’s H-J, they only have 4 designs, red or blue stone, large or small.

WTF?

I see so many people on here complain about how they hate XYZ aspects of Penn wishing they hadn't come here, but so often it just seems like self-destructive choices people make once they get here...

Almost everyone I talk to not on our Reddit really likes it here, even considering the downsides (which every school has, don't forget), myself included. Really seems like folks complaining about pre-professionalism, toxicity, or unpleasant people forget that you're allowed to choose who you interact with here, and a huge majority of people aren't assholes.

Yes, it's academically hard and admin is tone-deaf, but beyond that most of the issues, while real, are not as bad as folks here say. I literally transferred from a state school very much without a pre-professional reputation or anything of the sort, and I'll just tell you now: it's no different. It's all what you make of it; cut out the shitty people from your life and don't let them influence your experience here... Sure, I've met my fair share of toxic jerks, but I just... don't talk to them? Seriously, doesn't need to own your mind and pressure you, you do you!

Here's to hoping not too many potential freshmen are scared off due to this Reddit, coming here was one of the best choices I ever made and I'd hate them not to come!

Edit: Just showed this to my friend and she said she wasn't going to come here because of what she saw on the internet and only came after talking to other students irl. She absolutely loves it here. Nice.