A place of higher education in University City, Philadelphia, more commonly known as West Philly. Birthplace and home of ENIAC, the worlds first computer. Neighbor to Drexel University, University City High School, Ben Franklin Technology Center, and the studio where American Bandstand was filmed which is now the West Philly Enterprise Center, a business incubator.

I used to work at UPENN for 6 months back in 1995 at the Computing Resource Center when it was on Locust Walk, at the end of the foot-bridge that crossed 38th St. We provided walk-in tech support for everything computer related except UNIX. I got asked a lot of different questions, some were difficult and some of them were dumb.

Merely for providing the services we were paid by the university to do, I was hit on, fondled, and asked out to dinner on more than on occasion. I was offered cash payments ranging from whatever was in their purses or wallets up to $50. I even got one marriage proposal for 'saving a really important document from certain destruction' <-- her words, no foolin! I said no because I had the feeling she only wanted me for my mind.

I was pleasantly surprised by the overly direct nature of the women I encountered at UPENN many of whom were 10 - 20 years older. Being the introverted person I was in those days, I was also totally unprepared for and unsure of how to handle those situations. I'm not a stud by any means, but sometimes the women got freaky and put their hands too high on my thighs to be considered a friendly gesture. I wasn't complaining mind you, I just wanted to keep my job. Professionalism mandates no mixing of business and pleasure, so I had to respectfully decline the sexual advances and offers for dinner. This explains why I was offered dinner, and hit on by some men who, unfortunately for me, were equally direct as the women were.

Working at Drexel and especially UPENN were the most important things I did while attending college, other than going to class. I met and helped a lot of people during those . Those two jobs alone provided me with more non-technical knowledge than any job I've had since.

The University of Pennsylvania (also known as UPenn or just Penn) is an ivy league university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Ben Franklin in 1740, and is the oldest university in the United States*. Its 262-acre campus (huge for a city campus!) has 12 graduate schools including the famous Wharton school of Business. Penn has approximately 10,000 undergraduates and another 10,000 or so graduate students, making it the second largest ivy behind Cornell. In addition to its academic pursuits, Penn runs 5 hospitals, and is the home of the famous Penn relays. The annual Penn relays are run on Franklin field, and consist of college, high school, and professional track events. It is held every April and draws track lovers from all along the East Coast as well as teams from Africa, Asia, and Jamaica. Bill Cosby is a perennial fixture at the relays, as is Penn's mascot, the Quaker.

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*As v3rgez points out, other schools such as Harvard and Yale were founded before UPenn. However, it is correct that Penn is the first university - at the time, Harvard and Yale were colleges. Penn was the first institution in the United States to have multiple schools (e.g. a med school, engineering, etc), making it the first American university.

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