GUEST COLUMNIST: Rethinking my time at Penn

Yes, that was precisely what I said. I acknowledged the great classes and instructors I'd had, the beauty of the campus and the great people I'd gotten to know. But in the end, I said it just hadn't been worth the exorbitant dollars my folks and I had put forth -- and ultimately, that I would have been better served to go to the nearest public institution. Now, some five years and one career removed from my Penn experience, I'm here to tell you that I was wrong. I am currently a second-year graduate student at a large Midwestern university. I'm studying landscape architecture, a far cry from my undergraduate work in communications. Nonetheless, I love the field I've discovered, and I am really looking forward to spending the rest of my life in the design profession. However, not everything here in the heartland is peaches and cream. Like I said, hindsight is 20/20. And I've come to realize just how much I took Penn for granted while I was there. I am aware that, to some degree, I'm comparing apples with oranges. Undergraduate and graduate programs are completely different animals. As an undergrad, even at a place like Penn, you tend to get lost in the whole experience of college life in general. By the time you reach graduate school, you are more mature and focused, and tend to give your undivided attention to your own little world. But I've been able to look beyond the differences between grad and undergrad, and I can assure you that most everything -- from registration to financial aid to guest lectures -- is far superior at Penn than at the typical public institution. More significantly, I dearly miss the Penn community. Despite the fact that I'm attending a school in my home state, I often feel further removed from home than I did in West Philly. And I say that never having cared for the City of Philadelphia. It is just so difficult to find people to "connect" with here, if that makes sense. The student body at Penn is a fantastic, diverse group, and finding people on my wavelength was a simple task. I've also discovered the merits of Penn's general approach to academics. The emphasis on critical and analytical thinking that Penn pushes so strongly has really paid off for me as a grad student. I genuinely feel that the challenges I faced as an undergrad have given me a competitive advantage today. Moreover, the Penn curriculum provides endless options. In comparison, my current classmates and I are having difficulty finding elective courses, and our program only allows for a few. I should add that the dramatic turnaround in my thinking about Penn has taken place in spite of the fact that I still owe various loan agencies some serious cash for my Penn education. Couple that chunk of change with my grad school loans, and it looks like I'll be in debt until the Cubs win another World Series. I haven't been back to campus since May 1994. I used to think that I wouldn't miss the place. Now I wish I had the time and resources to come back and visit. With Judith Rodin, whose tenure began just as my class was departing, at the helm, I am certain Penn has become an even greater institution. By all accounts (I still read my alumni magazine), Rodin has done a sensational job. I long for a taste of Penn tradition. I miss Spring Fling. I miss the international airport quality security at Smoke's, holding people at bay from the cheap beer inside. I miss the sea of red that is Hey Day. And I miss screaming my lungs out with 8,800 of my closest friends when the hated Tigers have the audacity to bring their molasses tempo of basketball to the greatest arena on the planet. So as you stroll down Locust Walk, look around, take in the atmosphere and appreciate the time you get to spend at Penn. Take it from an alum who needed practically five years to learn his lesson. With each passing day, I'm convinced more and more that the University of Pennsylvania was worth every cent.