Author: Matt Gould, W’14
Whenever I have the opportunity to sit down with somebody new I ask them, “What do you want to accomplish while at Penn?”
I have a lot of faith in this question. It is tricky and frankly, I judge people based on their response. In my eyes, there are multiple ways to answer the question correctly, there is only one to answer it incorrectly.
Way too often, people tell me that during their time at Penn, they hope to become knowledgeable in insert subject here. Although I agree that at the end of our four years, we should have worked to earn a diploma, I feel that every student who believes their college experience is about that diploma is selling himself or herself short.
It is students like Megan Schoenberg and Genevieve Deutch who wanted something of their own and founded their own fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi Society at Penn or students like Chadwick Prichard who, outside of the classroom, designed his own Facebook app.
When I become a Penn alumnus, I don’t want to reminisce about what I learned in my finance courses, but rather I want to be able to look back and say, “I can’t believe I did that!” Knowledge and experience—that’s what makes a Penn education great.
P.S. My experiences at Penn includes cheering on our athletic teams to victory as the Quaker mascot…
Frankly Penn 
I was in the Penn Band all four years and I’ve always wondered who was under the mascot suit! 🙂
I agree with your point here too, and to be honest, have often marveled at the accomplishments of fellow students. Such examples around me have often made me feel rather unimpressive in comparison (heck, I certainly did not get an internship at Google, for example), but thinking back on it now — 1 year after I graduated — I realize my senior project was an accomplishment for me, especially because I had to teach myself a lot along the way. It seems even more impressive to me now when I remember how complex it turned out to be!