Yup . All practical . Also if you click on the production still that ' s linked with this post , you can see one above Lando ' s head . <| sep |> Don ' t trust him ! <| sep |> I ' m a transfer from San Francisco that chose Penn over Berkeley PM me if you have any questions ! Re political culture , it ' s as liberal as any other university , but certainly not as politically active as Berkeley i . e . you won ' t find organized protestssitins here . Transitioning pros The university and transfer student organization are very active and make sure that you get all the resources you need to acclimate successfully . They throw lots of events and mixers renting out the Philly Museum of Art for a party , formals , etc . . You feel like there ' s a lot more attention devoted to you as one of 200 transfers than you do at Berkeley , where you ' re one of several thousand transfers and tens of thousands of students . Cons It ' s tough to join certain clubs because they take members via application process . Junior transfers definitely have it tougher than sophomore transfers . Transferring credits is also an incredibly laborious process . It ' s really what you make of it though , as you noted . I personally did not put myself out there as much because I wasn ' t too interested in rebuilding a social network , but there ' ve been no shortage of opportunities to meet new people over free foodmixers , club open houses , etc . The biggest difference between Penn and Cal re social opportunities is that Penn has a lot more money to facilitate student events . General pros smaller student body than Cal , more moneymore resources General cons Cal engineering probably tops Penn engineering academically , we don ' t take student government as seriously here as CalUCs take ASUC , which I presume would be a con for you