Author declares visit to Penn a 'nightmare'

After a "nightmare" experience on campus, author Sean-Michael Green is giving Penn a second chance.

Green spent nearly a month at Penn between Jan. 24 and Feb. 17 doing research for his book, which is tentatively titled What I Learned in College: A Year with the Ivy League. Green said that he felt the least welcome at Penn, compared to the other Ivies that he's been to thus far, which include all but Princeton and Harvard.

However, the author said that he has been persuaded to return to campus -- if only to reexamine the University's status as the "social Ivy."

"I've been told that I missed the real side of Penn and I was exposed to some bizarre twilight zone first," he said.

Green said that he received over 100 e-mails from Yale University students within days of appearing on their campus and that he lived with students in off-campus houses at Dartmouth College. However, Green was not nearly as well received during his time at Penn.

Green only met about two dozen students at Penn.

College senior Matt Klapper -- who spent some time with Green -- said he believes that Green's poor first impression of Penn was due to the lack of press coverage.

"Every other [school that] he's gone to, there's been a hype that he's on their campus," the Senior Class president said.

With regard to unwelcoming Penn students, Green said that he was invited to a number of events and then uninvited moments later. He also mentioned having met more egotistical students on Penn's campus than on any other.

"I met several people [at Penn] ... that were so arrogant that it was hard to keep a straight face," he said.

However, Green said his negative image of campus life was not entirely due to the students.

He blamed a "ridiculous amount" of parking tickets and the level of security in campus buildings for making him feel uncomfortable as an outsider.

Green will come back to Penn March 16 through March 19 to take students up on their offers to show him "the real Penn."

Green said that he came to Penn with two stereotypes in mind, the first of which, he said, deals with the fact that "Penn is a ... campus that likes to wear their wealth on the outside."

Green observed that more students at Penn than at any other of the other Ivies "take great pride" in spending a lot of money on clothes and spring break trips.

To the dismay of some students, however, the second stereotype was corroborated by Green's time at Penn.

"It seems that you guys are the social Ivy," Green said. But "while I was there, I absolutely did not see it."

Klapper said that the author "came at a bad time, when the campus was quiet."

In contrast, Dartmouth senior Shannah Feldman said that Green stayed at Dartmouth at a "really good time," during which the campus held Fall Weekend and Homecoming. She added that as a result, Green was able to attend "many of the best parties of the term."

Admittedly, Green's "favorite school that he never attended" is Dartmouth.

Dartmouth is the "only school where I really felt I saw everything," Green said. And,"despite my best efforts, I didn't get a parking ticket there."

Paul Heintz, a junior at Dartmouth who let Green live with him in his off-campus house, said he was not surprised that Green liked Dartmouth best, especially when compared to Penn.

Dartmouth "is definitely the best of the schools he's looking at," he said. "I'd even go to Cornell before Penn, and that's saying something."

Green said that his experience at Penn "was definitely a low point" in his travels so far, while acknowledging, "Hey, there's still Harvard."

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