Couple of words on my first days here...
Just been here for a couple of days, but I'm already 1. having loads of fun; 2. having to take care of a lot of admin b*llocks (it just DOES NOT STOP).
I travelled from Rome (Italy, not NY
) on Sunday (had a friend's wedding there) and I arrived after midnight at my apartment after not sleeping for 24 hours. Thank God the apartment was furnished. The day after the program started for the internationals with an orientation session beginning at... 8.30am.
The experience has been till now fantastic! I know this is cliche, but the diversity is incredible. Wharton has this year 45% of international students (must be some sort of record in the US). The only small downside to it is that I think it's pretty heavily Asia-orientated (Europeans got outnumbered by at least 8 to 1). But even then, the people are great wherever they come from (however I'm definitively struggling with the Indian names
). Median age is around 28, which I'm happy with since I don't agree with the "get them in younger" tendency.
Among the unusual admits we have a couple of NFL players, 2 professional basketball players, the Israeli army head sniper instructor (a very nice girl), a counsellor to the Jordanian royal court, etc. That gives a nice diversity touch. But don't get too poetic: the majority of the people still come from IB, PE, and NYC or maybe Boston
The thing that impressed me most though is that people remain very humble about what they have done; it's very refreshing to be in that kind of atmosphere.
As for parties, you can go for a drink any day and you'll find people from Wharton. I was a bit worried that it might be a bit too serious, but rest assured, there are a LOT of opportunities to party and have fun. But I guess that when the real business will start we'll see who the real party animals are... (but I'm not worried, there'll be more than a couple)
Last word about Philly: I'm pleasantly surprised. It's not fantastic (let's be honest) but good enough for 2 years in an MBA: it's compact (you can do everything by foot), the centre is - from what I gather - relatively safe, you have enough bars to keep the students happy. All in all it's good!
Voila, I'll be sending an update of my experience soon! Sorry if this sounds like propaganda - I'm sure that the students in the other schools are also having a great time discovering their new environment and will probably say more or less the same positive things about their school - but I am geniunely happy to be here (for the moment). I'll try and update this regularly.
If you have any questions, please ask! I'll do my best to answer.
PS: don't want to sound arrogant, but Americans cannot drink!
After 10 pints they are struggling!