For most students, spring break comes as a vacation from a month's worth of midterms, papers and summer internship applications. For Penn seniors, however, it comes as a vacation from a month of constant partying. Smokey Joe's, where FebClub begins and ends, was packed last night as seniors gathered to celebrate the last night of a month of daily senior events that included nights at clubs, parties and shows.

Don't put down that LSAT prep book just yet. A study of over 200,000 graduate-school-bound students found that entrance exams like the MCAT and GRE are better predictors of future performance in graduate school than college transcripts. The study was conducted by University of Minnesota psychology professor Nathan Kuncel and was published last week in Science.

The process to replace Webmail has been more of a marathon than 100-meter dash - but Penn officials say it's a race worth running. Wharton and School of Arts and Sciences officials announced in spring 2006 that the two schools would outsource their e-mail services.

The Spruce Hill Zoning Committee has postponed its discussion of a proposed move of the campus liquor store, committee chairman Barry Grossbach said. The committee was slated to debate the move - which would have brought the liquor store, currently located at 41st and Market streets, to the corner of 43rd and Walnut streets - at a hearing yesterday but decided to hold off to allow the affected parties to try to resolve their differences outside of a formal meeting, Grossbach said.

Rap artist Juelz Santana will likely be performing at Spectrum's spring concert.

Penn's pretty good at fundraising - relatively speaking. The University raked in $409 million last year, enough to earn fourth place in a recent survey that ranked the top fundraisers in higher education. But Penn's sum was no match for Stanford University's, which totalled $911 million in 2006.

Jonathan Spector, vice dean of Wharton Executive Education, will leave Wharton to be the next president and CEO of The Conference Board. The Conference Board is a New York-based research and business organization that produces the Consumer Confidence Index, the leading economic indicator for the U.

Penn may be red and blue, but officials are making room for some green, too. The University Council held its monthly meeting yesterday, discussing environmental sustainability, updates on eastward expansion and changes in the body's bylaws. The UC, composed of faculty, undergraduates, graduate students and University administrators, deals with issues that affect the entire University.

By joe vester Staff Writer jvester@sas.upenn.edu Most career academics will never know the feeling of being published in Science, one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world. But Boris Zinshteyn knows the feeling well - and he's only 19.

Next year, an increasing number of students will give up Ben Franklin for Big Ben. Penn Abroad received 567 study-abroad applications for next year's full-year and fall-semester programs, a 19-percent increase from 476 last year. Applications for spring 2008 programs are not due until early next fall.

When it comes to arson, Penn would make Smokey the Bear proud. According to Division of Public Safety statistics from 2002 to 2006, only four intentionally set fires have occurred at Penn: two in 2002, one in 2005 and one last year. A fifth destroyed a house on S.

For Yohann Sidhwa, next week's spring break is going to be all about work. The College sophomore will be spending his week off from school performing various logistical and other tasks for Securities Industry Institute, a Wharton-run program that begins on March 4.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz responded to a recent downgrading of Philadelphia School District's bond rating by Fitch Ratings at a press conference yesterday. The school district's bond rating is now one of the lowest in the nation. Butkovitz said one reason for the lower rating was that, "contrary to the school district's statements and reports," it has not balanced their budget for the past four years.

Family and friends will gather on Friday to pay their respects to Chemistry professor Alan MacDiarmid. The service for MacDiarmid, a Nobel Prize laureate who taught and researched chemistry at Penn for 52 years, follows his death three weeks ago at age 79.

A female University faculty member was assaulted on the 3100 block of Walnut Street Monday afternoon, marking the eighth assault in nine days on or near Penn's campus. The woman was walking eastbound on Walnut Street at about 3 p.m. when she was approached by an unknown male who struck her in the face, Division of Public Safety officials said.

At Yale University, bright ideas don't necessarily require that much energy. Yale officials announced last week that energy consumption in its 20 undergraduate college houses has decreased by 17.3 percent since the 2004 academic year. Installing new technology in the dorms, as well as educating students about conservation, helped the dorms cut down energy usage, Yale's energy manager Thomas Downing said.

Theft Feb. 17 - A male student reported that his camcorder, worth about $800, was stolen from a room inside Meyerson Hall at about 5:00 p.m. Feb. 17 - Michael Urquhart, 32, of the 700 block of Mayfair Street, allegedly took items without paying from the Wawa located at 3604 Chestnut St.