First impressions

Penn - the same old place that I've been for the past 3 years. The only difference -- I'm now a graduate student, no longer an undergraduate. I keep wondering, am I going to feel differently now that I'm a graduate student? What's going to change? What's going to remain the same?

One big difference that struck me, was how different studying at GSE was from just being one of the (literally) thousands of (undergrad) students studying at the School of Arts and Sciences. We are a small family, but a close-knit one. This much was apparent right from orientation, just a week ago on Sept 7th. My program - Applied Psychology and Human Development (APHD) - is probably one of the bigger programs at GSE, but still, were were about 50. Some programs had less than 10 (new) students. I personally think it's great, because it allows everyone to know each other, and to embark on this learning journey together. As I walked into the conference room at the Inn at Penn, I was comforted to see so many familiar faces -- fellow new GSE students, most of whom are not in my program, but whom I had met and gotten to know even before school started.

Some say Facebook is the new social security in the States. Well, social, yes. Security? Haha, I'm not too sure. But back to the point- all it takes is a Facebook message to get to know the rest of the lovely people here. Our socials probably started when, sitting around at home being bored and waiting for school to start, I decided to post a comment asking if people (who were already here in Philly) would be interested in a Happy Hour. I was pleasantly surprised by the many people who responded to that. So I organized a Happy Hour the following Sunday at City Tap House, right next to campus. And that was how the string of pre-orientation socials started. Several days later, the group of us (plus new people) went to an outdoors concert and had a great Ethiopian dinner later. Next was karaoke. And by orientation, we already could count several people as friends in the crowd of new faces.

And the start of school did not prevent us from hanging out more. Just this most recent weekend, we celebrated Glenn's birthday with a pubcrawl in the Fairmount / Art Museum area. I got introduced to bars that I had never been to, in the 3 years that I've been in Philly, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience (and of course the drinks and food)!

So one might ask, is this any different from undergrad life? Definitely. We're just as social, but we party with responsibility. No crazy frat parties and uncontrolled binge drinking. But yes, lots of socializing, talking, and social drinking. And of course, having fun - the sustainable way.

I definitely look forward to spending the next year with my new friends at GSE!