Why I love Penn Engineering

It is well known that at Penn we have 4 undergraduate schools (and if you didn't, here they are: College of Arts and Sciences, School of Engineering, Nursing School, and Wharton School of Business). "Which school is the best?" you might ask. Well, it depends on who you ask, but I think the school of Engineering is the clear winner, and here are some reasons why:

·         Tight community: Engineers make up 16-20% of Penn undergrad. This strikes a perfect balance between being big enough to have a lot of fellow engineering friends, and not being so large that classes are annoyingly large. The size also lends itself to creating such a tight knit community among engineers 

·         Free shirt every year: Every year during Engineering Day (E-Day), on top of the endless activities that different clubs hold (fondue night, E-ssassins, professor luncheons, scavenger hunts, food, and more food), engineers receive a free engineering tshirt. There are four different colors to choose from each year, with chances of winning additional shirts after the fact. By your senior year, you could literally have a engineering shirt for each color of the rainbow

·         (Dress) shirt and (dress) shoes optional: While some engineers decide to pursue more business and consulting jobs, most engineers get to intern and work for cool companies that have awesome engineering cultures, competitive pay, and lax dress codes. If you should so choose, engineering allows you to let that suit collect dust in the closet

·         Coolest toys: If you take a stroll in any of the engineering buildings, you'll encounter labs around every corner -- whether it be computer science labs with the most high tech computers and latest software, mechanical engineering labs with robots constantly being built and tested, or electrical engineering labs filled with electrical circuits and other fun gizmos

·         Avoid the cold: Philly gets its fair share of cold winters and snow storms. The interconnected engineering buildings allow you to avoid the at times bone chilling cold, while your Wharton/ College/ Nursing counterparts meticulously layer up.

These are just a few of the things that make Penn Engineering such a great community to be a part of. For me personally, it's been a home away from home.

Sandy is a senior in Computer Science @ Penn.