Cassandra Tognoni | Stereotyping Penn students

Brown kids are hippy pot smokers, Columbia kids are artsy and deep, Harvard kids are arrogant pricks, but what are Penn kids?

Are we even important enough to garner any sort of stereotype, whether negative or positive? I visited four other colleges (Drexel, Brown, Yale and Princeton) to find out.

I first ventured across the street to Drexel's campus, where students jumped on the opportunity to discuss their superior counterparts.

"Jewish," said sophomore Mary Ruddy.

"They're all rich kids. But they're good people," said a Drexel freshman, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of getting "beat up."

"They're stuck-up assholes. They think they are better than everyone else in the city," said another disillusioned Dragon.

"No offense," he added. None taken, I assured him; other than for this article's purpose, I have no interest in or respect for Drexel students' opinions.

Indeed, our arrogance was a defining characteristic for most Drexel students I talked to.

A junior recounted a time he walked up to a group of girls at a Penn party. Somewhere in the midst of his pickup line, one of the girls said, "Oh my God, you're wearing Old Navy; that's disgusting."

The girls all laughed and the guy walked away. (Note to these girls: just because you starve yourselves so you weigh as much as middle schoolers doesn't mean you can act like them).

But for all our pretense and pre-teenage tendencies, we sure know how to throw a party. Almost every Drexel guy spoke to this subject.

One senior said that he actually prefers Penn parties to Drexel's: "They don't charge, they just say 'here's a beer, girls are over there.'"

My trips to Brown, Yale and Princeton were significantly less fruitful and less impassioned. Most of the kids there said they hadn't really thought about a "Penn stereotype."

The sentiment "You guys are kinda just there" was echoed over and over again. I was starting to feel demoralized.

But every so often, I was redeemed by hearing how hip and cool I was, even if less intelligent and important.

"I think of Penn as the Ivy that is easier to get into that is not Cornell," a Yale freshman said. "So the kids are the most normal and some of the coolest. They don't have super-brainiacs, but they're not retards."

Not Cornell and not retards. I'll take it.

Though some did, I was expecting more Yale and Princeton dorks to belittle our lack of inclusion in "The Big Three." (Even after I explained it wouldn't offend me, because I go to Wharton, "The Big One" of undergraduate business schools).

But instead, they just kept focusing on how "chill" we were.

"Penn kids seem more fun and chill than the typical Ivy League kid," a jealous Princeton junior told me. "I'd rather hang out with a kid from Penn than someone from Harvard or Yale."

Those at Yale and Brown would also rather hang out with us than Harvard or Princeton students, and most everyone said that out of all the Ivies, Penn ranks up there with the most fun.

A Brown senior said, "Out of the Ivies, I feel like if Brown and Penn were people, they would be friends." And if this kid's brain were an egg from one of those anti-drug commercials, it would be on the frying pan (though to be fair, pot isn't really considered a drug at Brown, but rather "sustenance").

Students at Yale and Princeton were particularly impressed that Penn was in a city, a fact which classified us as "urban."

And again, rumors of "Penn parties" spread throughout the Ivies to Brown, Yale and Princeton. About three-quarters of the students that actually attempted to answer my question commented that our ability to "throw-down" was one of Penn's few notable distinctions.

This was the only truly surprising thing I came across on my travails. I get that we're arrogant, we're Jewish and we're not as smart and important as "The Big Three."

But I thought other Ivies would at least try to claim our title of "Party Ivy," or, after having been to a less-than-thrilling (read: typical) Penn party, changed their mind.

Or maybe I am just missing something.

So I'm off to find this elusive awesome Penn party. And this time, I'll remember to keep the Old Navy at home. Psh. As if I owned anything from Old Navy.

Cassandra Tognoni is a Wharton junior from Andover, Mass. Her e-mail is tognoni@dailypennsylvanian.com. Skirting the Norm appears on Mondays.

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