Wharton

Wharton, the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, is located in Philadelphia, 100 miles south-west of New York. The campus is in the western part of the city, a 30 minute walk from down-town. In the center lies the part free from roads - studying facilities, libraries, some dorms, cafes, and alleys. Other buildings might be several blocks away from that part. In the vicinity of campus, there is a lot of housing rented by students mostly in the west of campus. As a result, all this area in west Philadelphia is called University City.

At first, the area of UPenn, a contraction from the University of Pennsylvania, did not make happy. I lived off campus and thus could be able to see every day what was happening in the streets. (I stayed with a family of native speakers of American. Their place was a 15 minutes walk from campus, marked by a star on the map below.)

Perhaps, the main reason for my feeling that way was my sweet remembrances of California. For example, I had gotten a feeling that you could sit down smack dab on sidewalks and not risk dirtying your pants. When it comes to Philly, a contraction from Philladelphia, first, I saw litter in the streets. Second, there was evidence of quite a high rate of crime - for example, you could see the wreckage of bicycles left at parking places by their unlucky owners. Apparently, criminals stole some parts of these bicycles, and the owners decided not to bother to take the remains to the garbage dump. Third, healthy food might be either expensive or scarce. At ELP (English language Program), they advertised so-called food-trucks. They are trucks equipped to cook inside and sell food through a window in the side. Having used food trucks to save some 20-30% in comparison with other student food places, I gave them up because I had to throw away food three times. (For your information, lunch with a food truck costs some $5-6, whereas in a cafeteria it amounted to $7-8) Moreover, food-truck people served food with the same hands as they handed cash - without any gloves. Fourth, you can see poor people and beggars in the streets. I guess that the bottom line is the fact that the rate of Philadelphians who do not have college education is on the 90th percentile among big cities nationally, as I read in Philadelphia Inquirer, a local newspaper. However, I cannot fathom it how this situation corresponds with the fact that UPenn is in top twenty US universities and Wharton contends for the first place. Well, enough for negative. Finally, when I came back to Philly after a trip around Boston, New York, Ann Arbor and Chicago, I felt that it was my home away from home by figuring in all factors. Amazingly, when I started feeling comfortable in Philly, we came across five squirrels in one view sporting on the lawn in front of Van Pelt Dietrich Library, the main library. Campus abounded in squirrels. They even fell from the skies; making a loud smack, a couple a squirrels plunged a meter away from us and frightened us when my wife and I were walking along the central alley.

Incidentally, John M. Huntsman, who donated more than $50 million to the school, just published a book "Winners never cheat." This fact highlights western society's concerns about ethics in marketplace nowadays.

In the library, as well as in some other buildings, wireless Internet is available, and there are plugs for cable connection. In addition, students can use the Library's computers. Penn students have access to a number of databases on the Internet including e-magazines like Business week. The stuff is very kind and patient to help you. For instance, once I thought that I left a cable behind with a consultant a week after my visit to her. I came back to her office to check to see if my cable was there. The kind consultant decided to present a new cable to me, yet she saw me the second time, and obviously she did not have to do that.

Here are a couple of words about the program I did at UPenn. You can get familiar with is at http://www.sas.upenn.edu/elp/ - it is English Language Program. Every session takes up 8 weeks, and a two-week break in between. Newly arrived students go through a placement test; as a result, they are placed on appropriate levels. Then, they sign up for classes. The lower the level, the more number of core classes she must enroll in. Here I made a mistake. I committed myself to super-intensive program - it is a regular program consisting of four different classes (all in all, their hours amount to 20) plus two evening classes a week, each of them 2.5 hours long. As a result, having to do too much homework and keep an eye on Russian stock market at night, I reeled under the burdens. With the advantage of hindsight, I believe that the regular program will do, especially when students is in Homestay, a program of living with families of native speakers of American. Moreover, I wish I had had more time to socialize with my classmates because I felt that speaking with non-native speakers might be even more challenging than that with native speakers. Moving on to curriculum, for my part, my classes were these: news in English (it is all about reading newspapers), speaking and listening in business, speaking accurately and clearly (Its focus is on pronunciation), vocabulary development, and the two evening classes were speaking naturally and listening and speaking with confidence. All the classes were very useful for me, and the teachers were extremely bright. William is a Wharton's graduate. Amie was a wife of a Wharton's professor. Shiela was a person who introduced us to the press. She arraigned it that our news in English class took a tour around Philadelphia Inquirer, the most respectful local newspaper, and a meeting with John Grogan, a prominent Philadelphia Inquirer columnist. Each of us could be able to ask him a question - it was very exiting. Moreover, we were lucky to attend a real meeting of editors and see they discuss what they print in a next issue. Michelle enthusiastically explained new vocabulary to us. Hillary taught us to discuss issues from many points of view. Last but not least, Robyn was like an clown on the stage trying to inspire us to learning English through fun. In terms of countries, I estimate that 45% was from Sough Korea, 20% Japan, 10% Thailand, 10% China, and 15% from Europe, Brazil, and Chile. (Russians were two, and both were Alexeys yet we had only one common class) One the one hand, it might not very good that the overwhelming majority is Asians, because Europeans have a hard time understanding what Asians are talking - they do not have R and L sounds in their native languages for example. On the other hand, I am inclined to consider this disparity a good opportunity to learn more about Asian people and a challenge as regards communication among non-native speakers.

UPenn people came across very enthusiastic, smart, and supportive. For example, when you stop to consult you map on campus, chances are that someone offers you some help. In terms of ELP, all the instructors were excellent. They were eager to help us and answered all the questions students had. They provided lots of extra curriculum activities. We could take group tours to the zoo, baseball games, etc. Also, ELP's student center is a place for hanging around and the staff on duty at the reception is available for socializing. There are some clubs designed to encourage student to practice their English. For my part, I signed up for cooking club just for fun as well as for the reason I was barely able to explain how to cook a dish. We enjoyed ourselves discussing some recipes. We even had a party at the place of our instructor and cooked chicken stew. We had a time!

University City is safe. There are special emergency phones set up and blue lights on the posts above those phones show their locations seen in the night. Incidentally, I found later that most other university has the same emergency phone systems. UPenn police cyclists patrol the areas of campus and common student residences day and night. Once I was walking home late and met with a stranger who warned me "Be careful, there is no one in dark down the street." I was pleased to know that people think so much about others.

Here I cannot help but tell you a story attesting to a notion that the US is not the country of blue dreams, happiness, and honesty, yet I believe all this stuff is on a well-higher level than that in our country. I made a reservation for a taxi from Philly to JFK airport NewYork through the phone because we had too many pieces of luggage - you know, wives crave for shopping! (Yet, the cheapest way to travel from NY to Philly is train - some 20 dollars one way with one change at Trenton). I could not conceive that they could charge any money without my signature or a pin code. On second thought, doing a registration for the TOEFL test, we do not say our pin code. Well, moving on, with that in mind, I paid the driver cash. As a result, I wound up with paying twice. Now that bastard shrugs and say that he remembers nothing about my cash, let alone the limo stuff talking with me with little enthusiasm, politely speaking. I chocked it up to my experience - never trust by word, ask receipts, and stay alert even though you are in the country of dreams of many.

About Wharton, I did not make time to learn a lot about it. I took it for granted that it is one of the best schools. Actually, the school was not in session then. When I get back in October, I will definitely sit in on some classes. Of course, I attended an information session. Not counting me, there were two other visitors. One of them was from Japan and the other from Los Angeles. Both were in Philly on business and stop by the school to learn more about it. Nothing specific to share: allegedly, faculty is available, no quotas for countries; actually, it is an excellent school in the combination of my interest - finance and entrepreneurship. All its alumni I saw in Moscow came across as very pleasant, smart, and supportive people.