Doing The Pre-Term Thing At Wharton

Shaking Hands and Disneyland

 

Along with the hundreds of introductions that you WILL experience as a new member of the Wharton family comes hundreds of handshakes. While I have yet to come across a fishy handshake (a professional pet peeve of mine), I have met a few women who almost broke my hand after I under estimated how tight their grip would be and loosed mine preemptively. Is that sexist? Someone call the ethics committee–and a doctor. I think I need a cast after that last one.

“It’s a small world after all…” So, I’m shaking hands at the reception that followed the pre-term kickoff event. Still hungover from too much scotch at a classmate’s house warming the previous night, I opt for a red wine to keep it light for the night.  I’m staring into space contemplating how a Salvatore Ferragamo loafer bomb must have exploded at Wharton when I meet this really nice Korean (I think) couple.

As it turns out, the woman/girlfriend grew up in my old sales territory in an LA suburb called Torrance; pretty cool. Then things got downright creepy.  As the conversation continued, it came out that the guy/boyfriend is from Tallahassee where I went to college. I even think we may have been born in the same hospital or something. Then I find out that his family owns the store that I used to go get AFRO PICKS from when I was in college in the late 90′s. WTF?!??? True Story: I used to have a huge afro in which I’d stick a gigantic metal afro pick with a black plastic fist at the end. As I’m gasping for air trying to tell this story, his the woman/girlfriend blurts out “oh yeah! We just ordered a new batch of those!”

* Blacks Out*   *Spills Wine*

Clusters, Cohorts and Competition

At Wharton, a class of 850 students into broken into 4 clusters of about 210-212 or so. Then, each cluster is broken up into 4 cohorts of about 50ish. Then each cohort has about 8-10 learning teams of 5-6 people. I’m in cluster 2 and just found out yesterday that I’ll be in cohort E. I’ll meet my learning team next week during the learning team retreat. Two days ago we had our first cluster supper, a monthly or so ritual where you get a chance to reconnect with the larger group that you may not have interacted with while you’ve had your face down in the books or have hung out mostly with people in your major throughout your Wharton experience. My cluster meets in the Hall of Flags, where UPenn hangs the individual flags of each of the 8 Ivy League institutions.

I must say that I really appreciate Wharton for having instituted pre-term into the first year experience. While it can be daunting at times, it really does a great job of getting you acclimated to Wharton and puts a shot of urgency in your veins that kicks your butt into gear to give you the best chance of success once classes begin. Kudos to Kembrel and the rest of the Wharton administrators and staff for taking the time to do this for us.

This Saturday, we’ll have the Wharton Olympics, the first major event of the Cluster Cup, a year long competition between the 4 different clusters. While I signed up for flag football, I actually got picked for kick ball, which I guess is fine. Then later on I heard that the flag football team was open for new members, but I didn’t end up bothering to respond to the email because I was, well, engrossed in writing this blog point to be honest. eh.

How Hostels Make the Heart Grow Fonder

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been pulled into two groups that use the GroupMe app for iOS and Android. In the AAMBAA GroupMe, I learned about two incoming students who had literally just been accepted off the waitlist about 2-3 weeks prior to pre-term. One was headed to Tuck with money and the other was headed to Booth with money when they got the call. The both chose Wharton (good choice!) and then proceeded to turn nearly 100% of the plans that they had been making since last spring topsy turvey.

Knowing that most of my classmates either had roomates or significant others, I offered up my place as a home base while my new classmates scrambled the city for housing. A close buddy and classmate likes to joke with me and say that I’m running a hostel; lol…whatever man. At any rate, both folks have found GREAT deals on nice apartments–one in Center City and the other in University City. It has been really cool to get to know both of them and to do my part in extending the Wharton network to them right off the bat.