Congratulations, but you might hate it here |This Ivy Day, reflect on what being a Penn student really means

a Penn diploma, students have a leg up on top jobs and top awards, like the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

However, the trifecta of unrealistic expectations — status, wealth, and greatness — compound into a delusion of what life here is really like. Expectations of college perfection are unattainable. Eventually, failure to live this dream can manifest into the infamous ‘Penn Face.’ as I paid a deposit for a different school, and the Gilmore Girls-esque expectations I had for college faded away. In mid-June, I was lucky enough to be admitted off of the waitlist.

Newly admitted students will soon face the eventual whiplash of aligning expectations with reality. Failure to live up to lofty expectations sparks disappointment and even adverse mental health effects. Admitted students — often valedictorians — expect to continue their trajectory of excellence at Penn, yet most end up as little fish in a big pond.

How can newly admitted students (and existing Quakers) combat unrealistic expectations of themselves and their college experience?

The secret to Penn sanity may lie within the Penn Admissions Office, in a digital dump of student essays.

I attribute the waitlist, and my resulting gratitude, as the reason for my happiness here. The waitlist altered my lofty expectations for what Penn was like because, truth be told, I was just happy to be here. The 391 waitlisted students who were admitted in 2020 know that same feeling. The waitlist forced me to think critically about what Penn can realistically offer. No school is perfect, and Penn is not the end-all-be-all for those that aspire to be great.

Where to attend college is an important personal decision, and it must be made with a realistic picture of what Penn can offer.

Newly admitted students, reflect on why you really want to attend Penn. Examine your expectations for who you think you’ll be here, and what you think Penn will bring you.

This Thursday marks an unofficial holiday: Ivy Day. On March 30, the eight Ivies will unleash a slew of rejections, acceptances, and waitlist placements to the Class of 2027.

Stop any current student on campus and they can recount the moment they received their Penn decision: the blue and red animated confetti, the “CONGRATULATIONS” in bold font.

All 10,412 Penn undergraduates remember the relief of their Penn acceptance, knowing that all their hours, semesters, and years of hard work had paid off.

Here in the United States, the college prep industry sits at a net worth of $1,700,000,000 (yep, that’s eight zeroes). Disproportionate attention is placed on getting into elite institutions, evident from trending decision reaction videos on YouTube to the Lori Loughlin scandal.

Yet, not enough attention is placed on what happens after that acceptance. Sacrifice comes with expectation. For many, the motivation in attending a school like Penn lies in the status, wealth, and greatness that Penn can provide. Admitted students expect to continue their trajectory of excellence, with the pressure of perfection forming a suffocating force.

It’s not difficult to see why applicants expect Penn to be their golden ticket. The starting salary of a Wharton alumnus exceeds $85,000. The Penn endowment sits at $20.7 billion, the sixth largest in the nation, giving Penn the funds to spend $1.63 billion a year on ground-breaking research. With

In the fall of 2022, Penn launched a new supplemental essay prompt giving applicants the opportunity to write a thank-you note to an influential person in their life. In 250 words, students could express their gratitude for someone special. At surface-level, this might seem like the latest excruciating exercise in college admissions. Yet gratitude is backed by science, wrote the Dean of Admissions Whitney Soule in a blog post last fall. Research conducted on campus proves that gratitude can increase long-term happiness, part of the reason why Penn introduced this new prompt. Gratitude is the ultimate weapon to wield off unrealistic expectations.

I speak from experience. On Ivy Day, I was not one of the few who received a ‘yes’ verdict; I was waitlisted. My life ran an alternate course

Penn Dining workers deserve better OF MICE AND MEN | Penn must address its fraught and flawed relationship with its dining hall employees

It is no secret that Penn Dining has been failing its employees and the students they serve. Within a span of a month, students were made aware of two significant deficits. First, the mistreatment of Penn Hillel dining workers, and second, the over 100 health code violations across dining locations on campus. While we have received a statement from Penn addressing the health code violations, there has been no communication regarding Penn’s relationship with its dining hall employees. Penn's unwillingness to acknowledge the concerns of its workers speaks volumes — and may explain some of the broader issues in the dining system.

While retail dining locations and Falk dining employees are contracted by Bon Appétit Management Company, a subsidiary of the multinational company Compass Group, the partnership is nonetheless contracted and overseen by Penn. The other major dining halls, however, are staffed by Penn-employed workers. As a direct employer, Penn has a responsibility for the treatment of their employees and the conditions in which they work. If these workers are dissatisfied, it is ultimately up to Penn to address their concerns.

At every major dining hall location, I asked workers to provide a statement regarding their employment relationship with Penn as well as their satisfaction with their job. All replied with a unanimous, yet unsurprising, response: They weren’t allowed to. Some also voiced fears of retribution for interviewing without guarantees of anonymity. This is a clear indication that there is more to Penn’s relationship with its employees occurring behind the kitchen doors.

I reached out to Penn Business Services Director of Communications and External Relations

Death to the GPA

Barbara Lea-Kruger for a comment on whether worker satisfaction surveys are sent out to Penn Dining employees and whether information collected in the surveys would be disclosed. In her response, Lea-Kruger stated that Penn does not utilize surveys with its dining staff and Bon Appétit sends out an employee-wide survey only once every two years. However, Lea-Kruger emphasized that Penn utilizes an “open door policy,” allowing employees to voice their concerns through direct discussion with management.

An open door policy is not enough.

The Harvard Business Review reports that managers who hold the belief that implementing an open door policy would encourage employees to speak up are often unaware that their employees remain silent.

In fact, 42% of employees reported withholding information when either they have nothing to gain or something to lose. While an employee may be able to report a problem because of an open door policy, this doesn’t mean there is a system in place to work towards a solution. If they don't believe their concerns will be addressed or that their feedback will be acted upon, they may see little point in speaking up.

Many people are quick to blame the workers themselves for the dining hall issues recently brought to light as they are the front line of the dining halls. However, with the lack of feedback from their dining employees, limited scope of the surveys, and lack of transparency, we cannot forget Penn’s role behind the scenes.

Yes, assessing job satisfaction is hard. But the absence of such an assessment is even worse. Regular feedback could improve the workplace culture, increase employee engagement, and identify issues, like the recent health code violations, before they become major problems.

Penn must issue a University-wide statement outlining how it will improve conditions for dining hall workers — starting with utilizing anonymous worker satisfaction surveys. It is imperative that this information is publicized because this issue affects our entire community.

It is important to remember that an employer’s worth is not in its flaws, but in how it addresses and resolves them. Penn, prove to us that you are an ethical and responsible employer. Show us that your workers are satisfied. Take meaningful action towards that goal. It is only in your best interest. If not, time reveals all.

Current students, whether you love or hate Penn now, take today to think back to the magic of your acceptance. It is too easy to forget that life is not normal on Locust. Gratitude is the key to staying grounded.

Today, on Ivy Day, remember that presence here alone is a win. Remember what you did to get here, what you have done since, and what you plan to do with your Penn diploma.

To the Class of 2027, congratulations on your acceptance — but if you carry unrealistic expectations with you to Philadelphia, you very well may hate it here.

FIONA MILLER is a Wharton junior studying behavioral economics and social impact from Roanoke, Va. Her email is fimiller@wharton. upenn.edu.

NAKED AND AFRAID | The GPA system can stunt our intellectual growth due to undue pressure and excessive grading given too much work. However, I think the type of work that we are given is not always useful to the development of our intellectual curiosity. Having the time to exercise agency in further exploring each of our subjects outside the classroom is the recipe for deepening our knowledge and passions. on why we are studying what we are studying.

Having to constantly complete assignments, I find that I enter an almost auto-pilot-like state towards each of my subjects outside of instruction time. And the pressure is on, because every homework counts towards my grade. This is not just a problem that international students notice; Tyler Chaud, a College student from New Jersey, said “many times a student picks an easier course that is less interesting to them, purely to boost their GPA.” This is another foreign dichotomy I have found myself considering for the first time. For those students who are particularly concerned about maintaining a 4.0, there is certainly a way to curate your course cart to complement this aim. But at what cost?

To me, the GPA system is somewhat reflective of certain aspects of American life. Namely, the ‘hustle culture’ that pervades campus and corporate America. Assuredly, ambition, drive, and endurance are crucial and necessary qualities for hard work. However, when that ambition is misplaced to a degree where you have no further interest except getting an A, this is harder to reconcile. Penn’s 'work hard, play hard' ethic possibly derives directly from this culture of incessant work, and the accompanying necessity to release from these stressors may result in equally unhealthy and unsustainable ‘playing.’

As an international student, the concept of the 'GPA' — the grade point average — was foreign to me. Since coming to Penn, long gone are the days where homework did not count towards your grade, due dates were for guidance, and the fate of your subject rested solely on your final exam. Having spent several years in the British education system, I was intrigued by this strange sounding acronym, and the possibility that I wouldn’t have to subject myself to the soul-destroying grind inevitable before the only graded examination. However, despite my love and gratitude for my time here thus far, I could not be longing more for the good ol' days of the final slog. This is the problem for me: The GPA system requires a type of worker that excels at small, repetitive tasks. Constantly having to submit a problem set, a response, a pre-lecture quiz, there is not a week when due dates are not imminent — students are in a constant state of work. Of course, we are at university and we are meant to be working, but the GPA system is regressive to our academic growth. There is no time to listen to this podcast my professor mentioned or look further into that concept — I simply don't have the time. I am not suggesting that we are

A new international student might argue that this is a wonderful system, because you don't have a large and stressful final exam to deal with! But with a GPA, you get both: the tedious homework assignments and the final exams. The fact that my final 20 page essay is only 35% of my final grade does not make it any less anxiety-inducing (I say that from experience). However, it will nearly always be of inferior quality and depth than something I would have had more time and space to construct.

Before coming to Penn I did not consider myself an anxious person. Even though my final exams were the sole determinant of my university outcome in the U.K., I experience worse academic anxiety at Penn than I did in high school. In a competitive environment that strives for academic excellence, we may benefit from some time to recharge and reflect

So, what's the solution for the GPA? Removing it entirely may not be feasible, as lots of students don’t share my opinion on the grading system. In fact, many students love it, depending on what they were exposed to in high school. And I’m not suggesting that we should derail the entire foundation on which the American university education system is built. However, I would like to reflect more deeply on the true value of some aspects of this structure. Perhaps there is some value in forcing students to exercise more agency within their field of studies, instead of spoon-feeding them with quizzes and reading responses. Give students the freedom and time to pursue their individualized interests (or to choose to not do so). Perhaps, in doing so, we will see a more authentic emergence of passions, which were previously held captive by the shallow bonds of the GPA.

AFFIRMATIVE, from FRONT PAGE

Philadelphia Inquirer where they wrote that overturning affirmative action could undermine previous rulings that helped “level the playing fields” for Black students and “fundamentally reshape the landscape of higher education.”

How Penn may be impacted if the Supreme Court overturns affirmative action

Penn Carey Law professor Cara McClellan, the director of the school’s Advocacy for Racial and Civil Justice Clinic, said that overturning 40 years of precedent is a “concerning” and “unusual” thing for the Supreme Court to do. She said that not considering race in admissions is shown to be “really devastating” to the number of students of color.

A 2020 study evaluating the long-run effects of 19 public universities that banned affirmative action in the 1990s found that it led to “persistent declines” in the number of underrepresented minorities admitted and enrolled. Similarly, a 2012 study cited by the Civil Rights Project came to the conclusion that past affirmative action bans decreased Black student enrollment by as much as 25% and Hispanic student enrollment by nearly 20%.

“Affirmative action is not a panacea for remedying systemic racism,” Parks and Torriente wrote in their opinion piece. “Despite all the nation’s efforts, Black students remain at a significant disadvantage when it comes to college admissions.”

Wharton senior and Natives at Penn member Lauren McDonald also expressed concern that if affirmative action is overturned, there will not be a clear spot to indicate Native identity on the college application and have it be recognized.

“It just feels like our background and history don’t matter,” she said.

McClellan said that — while not perfect — the admissions process at Penn has made a lot of progress, but that all that could be affected by the ruling.

“The reality is that even the progress that has been made is really under attack and at risk given the Supreme Court’s willingness to consider this decision,” McClellan said.

How Penn may respond if affirmative action is overturned

If the Supreme Court decides to overturn affirmative action, Penn would be impelled to reframe its admissions process in a way that still ensures a diverse student body. McClellan pointed to legacy admissions as an example of a policy that can disproportionately create a barrier for underrepresented students, since legacy students have had access to higher education for generations. Parks and Torriente echoed this sentiment in their op-ed.

Another option suggested by McClellan is a “top 10%” plan — as seen in Texas and California — where the highest performing students are guaranteed admissions to state-funded universities. This would allow students from different zip codes admittance and help mitigate the barrier of access to a high-quality education, she said.

On the other hand, Roosevelt said that Penn and other schools could move towards using diversity statements, which he said would allow them to maintain their practices “without explicitly using race as a factor.”

Vice Provost and Dean of Admissions Whitney Soule wrote in a statement to the DP that Penn Admissions is working with the University in “ongoing planning discussions” with administrators, staff, and faculty — but the office’s concrete plans and next steps will depend on what the actual ruling is.

“We will of course follow the law, and we will continue to do all we can to create classes of Penn students who will have the best educational experience here at Penn, and be ready to lead in our complex, diverse, and global world,” Magill wrote. “The future success of this community and our country depends on that.”

In response to request for comment, Penn Athletics wrote in a statement to the DP that it was upset by the news of Fox's allegations.

“We are deeply distressed by this highly disturbing news," Penn Athletics wrote. "Our thoughts are with Jennifer Fox, and others who were similarly subject to sexual abuse."

Penn Athletics did not respond to further request for comment on whether Penn has any plans to remove Nash’s name from the center at this time. A University spokesperson also did not respond for a request for comment.

“If you want to make a building that represents the ideals of the athletic community — that means supporting all athletes, protecting all athletes — you should not be naming the building after an abuser,” College junior Harley Haas, president of Penn’s Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention club, said.

Political science professor Marci Hamilton, the chief executive of CHILD USA, told the DP that she views it as a minimum that Nash’s name be taken off the building.

“One in five girls and one in 13 boys will be sexually abused before they’re 18. So about 15 to 20% of students on campus were likely abused as a child," Hamilton said. "Out of respect for their trauma and for what the University stands for, it’s necessary to remove Nash’s name."

Hamilton agreed with Fox that the situation represents a larger dilemma of how Penn will address the legacy of those accused of sexual assault.

“Institutions faced with these issues are [at a] fork in the road. They have the choice to try to leave it alone, and they have a choice to truly improve their practices and to stand up for victims," Hamilton said. "I hope Penn chooses the latter."

Penn previously changed the name of Wynn Commons — now called Penn Commons — after dozens accused 1963 College graduate and former trustee Steve Wynn of sexual misconduct.

Fox has filed a complaint against Nash with U.S. Rowing — the national governing body for rowing

— and the organization has brought in the law firm Shearman & Sterling to lead the investigation, according to the Times.

“We understand according to the New York Times article that U.S. Rowing has undertaken an investigation using an outside law firm and we are watching closely for the results of that investigation,” Penn Athletics wrote in the statement.

Fox said she wants Penn community members to demand the investigation's findings be made public, adding that if the investigation corroborates her allegations, she believes Penn will take steps to address Nash's legacy.

“The only way we can ensure justice happens is by that report becoming public,” she said.

Fox, who told the DP that she did not meet Nash in any way related to Penn, said that she hopes other sexual predators will realize they are not protected, even in death.

“Even if we don’t get you now, we’ll get you eventually,” she said. “If Ted ever thought that what he did to me was going to destroy his legacy, I think it would have stopped him.”

In November 2022, 1977 College graduate Sean Colgan published "The Book of Ted," a compilation of anecdotes from men and women coached by Nash. While Fox said the book was set to have its launch on campus, she said that she was told the event was canceled following the allegations against Nash.

“I'm sad that I have to break that myth, but it's important that this other truth gets out there,” Fox said. “I’m fighting for this other story of Ted Nash to also exist in history. Up until now, he’s just been worshiped."

Colgan told the Times that he did not see “any dent in [Nash's] moral credibility, whether it’s cursing, lying, cheating, anything like that."

Fox said she hopes other people who were abused by Nash speak up.

“I'm really the only one out here so far. It would be better if there were more of us," Fox said. "But just like it took me so long, it could take others decades, too.”

POLITICAL , from FRONT PAGE

peer institutions are imbued with “exclusivity,” although they could “fill their classes with qualified applicants multiple times over, and despite massive endowments, [chooses] not to.”

In contrast to the stance of YDSA and Penn Dems, College first year and Penn College Republicans Political Director Peter Kapp told the DP in a statement that the College Republicans “do not support the use of affirmative action in college admissions,” adding that they believe such policies fail to produce a “well-rounded class.”

“Instead of race, admissions offices should consider diversity in a more holistic manner and take into account the experiences and challenges faced by individuals from a wide range of backgrounds to create a truly well-rounded and qualified class,” the statement wrote.

Penn has previously defended affirmative action policies and reiterated its desire to create a diverse student body through its race-conscious admissions process.