Counselors get taste of Penn life

Over a dining hall lunch of cheesesteaks, caesar salad and chocolate cake, high school college counselors from across the U.S. and Canada met with students last Friday to discuss life at Penn. The lunch was part of an all-expenses-paid weekend sponsored by the Admissions Office to give 30 counselors a close look at the University in hopes that they will encourage high school students to apply here. "Penn is an unknown quantity where I'm from," said Dick Palmer, a counselor at Cottonwood High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. During the lunch at 1920 Commons, students and counselors talked about classes, social life and where to get the best cheesesteaks. "I like Billybob's instead of Abner's," Wharton freshman Paul Tang told counselors. The Admissions Office tried to match counselors with students that either attended the counselors' high schools or were from the general area. "We contacted those students to share their experiences with their counselors," said Wharton freshman Tom Gourley, who works in the Admissions Office. Last year, counselors from Europe participated in the weekend program. Stetson added that next year the Admissions Office plans to invite counselors from Asia. Admissions staffers planned a series of events to keep the counselors occupied during their time on campus. After arriving on Thursday evening, the visiting counselors were greeted by Admissions officers at the Sheraton Hotel and attended a Pennsylvania 6-5000 concert. "I was able to not only get acquainted with the campus but with the students," Phyllis Schrag, a counselor from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said following a tour of campus on Friday morning. After Friday's dining hall lunch, counselors sat in on different classes and attended a mock Admissions selection committee meeting. A student panel in the Quadrangle was also organized to give the counselors another opportunity to meet with students on Saturday morning. Admissions officers then escorted the counselors on a tour of Philadelphia's sights that ended with dinner and a movie at the Franklin Institute Science Museum. Many counselors indicated that they came away from the weekend with a very favorable impression of Penn. San Francisco University High School counselor Christiane Neuville said she enjoys seeing various East Coast college campuses because the first-hand experience allows her to describe a school to her students better. "I like to go to the book store to see what the students are reading in their free time," she said. "It reflects a lot about the intellectual level of the students." Gourley said this weekend allowed counselors to experience Penn instead of just reading about the University in a brochure. "I think overall, they had a good representation of what Penn was like," Tang said.