Wearing a newly-purchased Penn T-shirt, the typical freshman heads off to the next New Student Orientation activity amidst a pack of his hallmates and new best friends, carrying a free case of Vanilla Coke and a complimentary markerboard.
Over the past week, members of the Class of 2006 have been bombarded with information, free gifts and the names and faces of over 2,000 prospective friends. It's all part of NSO, the annual event that helps new students gear up for their first day of college classes.
Most students and administrators who took part in the events said they felt that NSO gave the freshmen a fun and informative introduction to life at Penn.
"I was very pleased by it," Director of NSO David Fox said. "I think that, by and large, the people I've talked to have felt there were a lot of things to do and the turnout was very good for all of the events."
Fox also directs the Penn Reading Project.
Many freshmen said they were glad to make new friends and get to know their way around campus.
"I got to meet a lot of people, which made me comfortable," Wharton freshman Hideki Oh said. "I wanted to get used to the school. I got to know the place a lot. I'm ready."
Some of the more popular events included the gala at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Comedy Night at Irvine Auditorium and the Penn Life Sketches, an annual introduction to the dos and don'ts of college life.
The art museum event, which featured dinner, a DJ and open art galleries was unique in that it was the only NSO event held off campus. Still, despite the travel involved, students flocked to it.
"It was a miserable, rainy day," NSO student coordinator Matt Scafidi said. "But we had upwards of 3,000 people there, and we were really happy about that."
Students said that the allure of the art museum was enough of a reason to make the trek downtown.
"I didn't mind that it was off campus," native Philadelphian and College freshman Jonathan Meter said. "I think that the art museum itself was a good enough reason to have it off campus because it's a good museum, and it's fun to go to. We went around and looked at some of the galleries that were open. The galleries seemed to be pretty crowded."
Similarly, Irvine Auditorium was filled to its capacity of about 1,200 students for Saturday night's comedy show. According to Scafidi, many additional students seeking to attend were turned away at the door.
While many of the students who attended said that the comedians were funny and that the show was enjoyable, others were discouraged by the large crowds.
"I was going to go but I figured it was all filled up, so it didn't happen," Meter said.
To remedy this problem, program coordinators utilized one of their new events -- nightly movie showings -- as an option for students who were turned away from Comedy Night.
"The problem is that there is no space big enough to accommodate the whole freshman class. So we try to provide alternative events," Scafidi said.
On Saturday night and throughout the week, many students filled the auditoriums in the Annenberg Center to watch such movies as Spiderman, Casablanca and Philadelphia.
Scafidi, a College sophomore, said that the movie nights were intended to provide activities for students who did not want to participate in the main events each night.
"We wanted to provide something for all 2,400 freshmen to do," he said.
A more academically-oriented introduction to college life came in the form of the Penn Reading Project.
All freshmen were required to read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe over the summer and attend a lecture and discussion group yesterday. The goal was to make the transition as smooth as possible for new students preparing for their first classes.
"The lectures were excellent this morning," Fox said, adding that the students and faculty all seemed to be very focused on the book itself.
Many also said that they enjoyed hearing the expert analysis given at yesterday morning's lectures.
"It was a good experience for us to read the book on our own, go to the lecture and hear an authority on the subject talk about it and compare that to our own thoughts," College freshman Shera Kenney said.
While many students said that the mandatory events like Penn Life Sketches and PRP were useful, some felt that they were repetitive.
Meter felt this was especially true of the Academic Integrity and Safe Living workshops which were conducted on Saturday.
"They were long and boring," Meter said. "It wasn't anything we hadn't heard before, it was just said in a different manner."
Meter said he felt that most of the issues had already been covered in College House meetings and in mailings he had received over the summer.
Overall, students said that they had become acquainted with Penn over the past week, and that they were ready for the start of classes.
"I'm actually looking forward to them," Oh said.
