Having just wrapped up my first year, I can share some advice I wish I had paid more attention to as an incoming student. Club events, career treks, interviews, and study sessions frequently shaped my first year. It’s was a rewarding time and that excites me for the coming fall.
Academics: Your classes are what you make of them
MGMT 1010 Recitation (Image: Araash Ahuja)Wharton offers a wide range of classes, and as a first year, your class selection is crucial. I started with Professor Thomas Donaldson’s LGST 1000 and Professor Xu Han’s MGMT 1010, both of which gave me a taste of Wharton’s disciplines and helped me identify my interests. For instance, Professor Donaldson’s class sparked my interest in business ethics and company values.
All Penn first years must take a writing seminar class, so choose a topic that fascinates you. We have writing seminars on diverse topics like the NBA and language death. Use this opportunity to explore your interests.
Your classes are what you make of them. For the most part, attendance and engagement are on you. You should build a routine and stick to it. Nothing works better than habit. I recommend using Google Calendar.
Classes are not just about academics but also a great way to make friends. Don’t hesitate to strike up conversations with your classmates from the beginning. Everyone is in the same boat, eager to make friends but often unsure how to initiate. Some of my closest friends are from my fall-semester classes. These friendships started with class projects and study groups and evolved into Center City meet-ups, spike-ball hangouts, and even a coordinated Winter Break ski trip. So, don’t underestimate the social aspect of classes.
Lastly, plan your classes. Talk to multiple upper-level students. Use Penn Course Review and Penn Course Plan, platforms designed by Penn students, to make the scheduling experience easier. Your schedule should be a product of informed decisions. I suggest taking at least one class per semester that covers something different than what you may be inclined to. This fall, for example, I’ll be taking Professor Duckworth’s Grit Lab, a foray into the psychology of perseverance.
Clubs: Apply to ones that cover an array of your interests
Just a handful of clubs are enough to learn all you need and more. Dedicate yourselves to the few you get into, and make sure you apply to clubs that cover an array of your interests. Clubs are far more than finance related.
Clubs have notoriously cumbersome and competitive application processes. Shoot for the ones that interest you. Stay encouraged if you do not get in. Join the club’s GBM (general body member) program and reapply in the spring. If you get in, awesome! There is a mountain of information to learn and upper-level students to get advice from. You have a lot ahead of you.
Adopting a very systematic approach to clubs worked well for me. I calmly accepted my rejections and happily celebrated my admissions.
Some of my favorite clubs included Wharton Undergraduate Private Equity and Venture Capital Club (PEVC), Reach at Penn, and Wharton Investment & Trading Group (WITG). At PEVC, I learned finance and accounting principles and worked on automated-email sending and other tasks the Corporate Outreach team. I also attended our career trek to NYC (before then, I could not even recount the last time I woke up at 4 a.m.). Reach is a great marketing club with consulting opportunities, too. The environment and people are equally uplifting. My involvement with WITG has taught me a lot about fundamental real-estate-specific technicals and opened up my PMs (project managers) as invaluable mentors.
Dorm Life: Living with people my age
With no past boarding-school experience, I was excited about living with people my age. Luckily, I received my first choice house, Lauder College House. I live in a suite with three other roommates. Establishing a cleaning schedule, getting to know my roommates-turned-friends, and befriending other Lauder residents was a process and not quite straightforward, in all honesty. Still, everything worked out well.
Lauder offers a balance of social life and independence. Understanding this balance and recognizing what you might envision preferring in a college dorm experience is crucial.
When it comes to building your housing preference list, here are some factors to consider: proximity to planned classes (e.g., a Stouffer resident will have a considerable walk to Engineering classes), social life, dorm amenities, and roommate preference (I roomed with my friend from high school and two randomly assigned roommates).
General Advice: Don’t chase normalization
Most first years have a set of expectations as they enter college. I want to study these majors, join these clubs, have these careers, be friends with these kinds of people, etc. What only one year at Wharton has revealed, though, is never to let these initial, often unfounded assumptions for college be self-fulfilling. That’s a hard ask — many first-year students succumb to this rat race of getting into traditional finance clubs and following the associated internship and job pursuits. This is precisely what some want to do, which is perfect. Others may not be sure, yet this ultra-competitive funneling present early in the fall molds them to follow “coveted” industry standards.
My most crucial advice to you is this: don’t chase normalization. Some of the best experiences and friendships I’ve made at Wharton came from stepping outside my comfort zone. I formed a close bond with a friend from Jordan after taking a course on Asian-American Activism out of sheer interest. I found a mentor in a graduating senior by approaching him in Managerial Economics. I discovered my vast interest in options markets and began a trading group only after talking about markets with a classmate. It’s wonderful to work towards something together as long as your motives for doing so are inherently yours.
—Araash Ahuja
Posted: August 14, 2024
