September typically signals a bittersweet end to summer, an eagerly anticipated start to classes, or perhaps the typical dread of readjusting your body to 8 a.m. wake-ups. At Penn, however, September mostly indicates the onset of palpable stress from a taxing new cycle of club applications, emanating particularly from first years. Penn’s rigorous club culture has long been regarded as cutthroat, demanding, and simply unnecessary. This September, my sophomore peers and I revel in the relief of a less chaotic, less arduous, and slightly less Google Form-filled start to the semester.
No one can deny that the first preview of Penn preprofessional culture can be daunting. Wharton-affiliated clubs in particular are infamous for their exhaustive, multi-round interview processes that often require a closet full of business casual attire and a prerequisite of extensive work experience at the ripe age of 18. Though, with the Wharton School’s new ban on multiple-round interviews for affiliated clubs, one would think there is cause for celebration. Right?
Not quite.
Even with new regulations, an “I suffered, so you should too” mentality seems to be pervasive on campus, with the transition out of first year causing many to clam up and become guarded around their strategies for success. While some are eager to share their triumphs and frustrations, others lean toward cryptic answers and vague advice. What’s most unsettling is seeing sophomores, only months out of their first years, already adopting a similar nature of guardedness that we once avidly resented.
I can recall leaving coffee chats feeling more confused than I did prior to the meeting. I can also recall feeling as though each line uttered at these meetings was evidently rehearsed. What many expect to be a conversation of advice and potential tips turns into an onslaught of “it’ll all work out” and “be yourself.” I understand that vagueness stems from a competitive instinct, one I clearly remember during college application season. However, this meticulous confidentiality is excessive when coming from upperclassmen who have already secured spots at top consulting firms, prestigious banks, and their club counterparts on campus.
Our club culture seems to mirror that of these consulting and banking institutions, where the recruiting cycle will award only those who know how to decode the covert networks and the cryptic interview preparations. Just as making it to the second-round interview of the Wharton Undergraduate Finance Club provides a badge of honor, making it through multiple rounds of interviews for JPMorgan instills the same sentiment of prestige. This is a system that thrives on scarcity and exclusivity, so no wonder those that break through adopt the logic of gatekeeping. The same can be said for hazing, when suffering becomes endorsed because we went through it, and therefore you should too. When you live to successfully see the other side, of course, you won’t want to break the cycle — you’ll want to perpetuate it. No one can fault you for that, and I certainly have no room to speak.
However, students don’t actually go out of their way to induce stress on the new class of students out of spite. Rather, at its core, it just seems unfair. Of course seeing other students fly through their first semesters in a manner way more composed, organized, and on top of it than you were will arouse frustration. But that frustration simply reveals how suffering has been turned into a sort of initiation rite at Penn. Just as our parents remind us not to take the easy way out, we put pressure on ourselves to perpetuate this sentiment in every aspect of our lives.
The network, the mentorship, and the potentially career-altering advice from these clubs is worth it if not for a bit of struggle. Yet, we tend to ignore the years of tenacity and persistence we underwent to attend Penn or even the ongoing struggle we will face after our undergraduate years, when we will truly be left to our own devices. Once we start affording ourselves some leniency, we will afford the same to others. For once, resist the temptation to ration out advice and instead, try making it easier for the next person. I promise one relatively non-vague answer won’t come back to bite you. We must realize that the benefit of another is not a detriment to ourselves.
SEE MORE FROM ALYMA KARBOWNIK:
Dreams of college connections, realities of classroom cliques
ALYMA KARBOWNIK is a College sophomore from Maplewood, N.J. studying international relations and environmental studies. Her email is alymak@sas.upenn.edu.
