Our daily newsletter rounding up all of the top headlines from the DP. Get it Monday-Friday in your inbox. Free.
Sign up »
34th Street Magazine's "Toast" is a semi-weekly newsletter with the latest on Penn's campus culture and arts scene. Delivered Monday-Wednesday-Friday. Free.
Sign up »
Penn, Unbuttoned is Penn's only intentionally satirical newsletter, giving you your weekly dose of comedy from Under the Button every Wednesday. Free.
Sign up »
Quaker Nation is a weekly sports newsletter covering all things Penn sports. Delivered Monday mornings to your inbox. Free.
Sign up »
Recruiter's Row is a biweekly recruitment newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on all things employment related. Get it in your inbox every other Wednesday. Free.
Sign up »
I've already signed up
Below are your search results. You can also try a Basic Search.
My time at Penn has come to an end. I have no more classes, no more extracurriculars. I’ve written all my papers and only a few finals remain. There’s that show and dance next month, but I’ve never been one for ceremony. If it weren’t for the opportunity to finally ask Denzel Washington about playing me in the movie version of my life, I doubt I’d bother going.
As you have probably heard, Spring Fling is this weekend. This is the grand weekend each spring semester where a small number of students are too stressed about their workload to do anything fun, and the rest are so stressed about theirs that only public drunkenness can stave off crippling depression.
It’s the week after spring break, and some of you still have hangovers.
On an almost daily basis, the permanently busy Penn student must make difficult decisions about how to allocate time. When should we schedule our meetings? Can we fit in a new commitment? Perhaps most pivotal are the decisions relating to our classes. Do we do our reading? How much time to we spend studying for midterms? And of course, do we attend class at all?
I recently found myself conversing with an old friend who had spent a few months studying at McGill University. My friend told me that McGill had a very politically oriented campus. Though I had little to say other than Penn does not, I came up with the perfect response just in time to write this column.
I came to a bemusing realization the other day. I am a senior entering my final semester at Penn, and I have never attended a Penn football game — or any kind of Penn sports game at all. And it seems that I’m not alone. A quick search of The Daily Pennsylvanian archives unveils endless lines written about the supposed travesty of Penn students’ lack of interest in our sports teams and their endeavors.
Thanksgiving is now behind us, and finals beckon. Then it’s winter break, and we have an insanely short holiday to enjoy before more school. As students, the holidays raise important questions: Do I go home? How do I spend my time? Most importantly, what traditions do I observe? As I wind down my senior year, I believe more and more that it’s time to leave childhood ways behind me, and begin forging my own path.
There’s no denying it. The economy sucks. A lot. If like me you’re a senior, this takes on an extra dimension of terribleness because you have to find a job. If you’re not among those bright-eyed and bushy-tailed future workaholics who’ve recently landed a finance or consulting job, then you may be asking yourself a question that a lot of college students across the country are asking themselves right now: Where should I work?
The Daily Pennsylvanian reported earlier this week that the vast majority of American students learning a language at the high-school and college levels were studying a major European tongue. French, German, Italian and Spanish dominate the learners pool. The reasons for that are complicated. Major European languages are entrenched in many high schools, and students seek to carry on those studies at college. Many students pursue these kinds of languages out of a desire to be able to use them while visiting countries where they are spoken.
My high-school education taught me a lot of things. How the human heart works and how to calculate derivatives. How to sing in Latin and perform Maori war dances (No, I will not demonstrate either). It taught me everything I needed to know to succeed at university in New Zealand, and a lot of what I’d need to be successful in life thereafter. But then I decided I wanted to come to the United States for college and realized my high school had taught me shockingly little of what I was expected to know.
A long time ago, in a faraway land, a young lad was doing research on the college he had just signed up to attend. In his country, universities did not have mascots, cheerleaders or even really sports teams. When he finally did look to such matters, he discovered that the football team had seen better days, and the school’s mascot was not a lion or tiger or bear, but an oddly proportioned pacifist dressed like he’d just returned from a Glenn Beck rally.
I have a confession to make: I am 21 years old and have never voted for any kind of elected office, ever. It’s not entirely my fault. Not being American means I couldn’t vote in the 2008 presidential election. Being overseas meant voting in the New Zealand election of that same year would have involved complicated special-ballot rules that I didn’t have the time to work out. At the Anglican boarding school I attended for five years we didn’t elect student leaders; the teachers just appointed prefects. Yes, it was exactly like Harry Potter.