The most popular groups on campus are the Campus Activities Board, FUSE, USGA, Greek Life, and Weekend Warriors. Usually they do the most on campus. Personally, I'm not involved with any of the larger organizations I just listed. I have joined the DAC Pack to show my school spirit. and am involved in a few engineering organizations. I am interested in possibly getting involved with Greek Life. Men's basketball and lacrosse tend to be our most popular sports although our woman's team has gained momentum recently because of a great season.
The most social and interacting residence halls are definitely the traditional style with the community bathrooms. Personally in Myers, we always left our doors open and were always interacting with one another. When I moved into North, a suite style, our doors are almost always closed and people barely interact with one another. This is the same in Caneris. Although there is a similar situation in the Race Street Residence, because they are freshmen, they have less social interaction and less doors open then the other freshman halls, but have more interaction than North or Caneris. By leaving my door open in Myers and always be with my hall in a learning community I made my closest friends and we're still all close even after a year of not living near each other. In Myers at 2am on a Tuesday we would probably be watching a hallway movie, just hanging out, or all studying together in one of the study lounges.
There are many traditions and events that happen annually. One of the most well known is the Philly Kick Off festival in the fall quarter. Its for all of the Philly colleges and it usually has a few big name bands. In the spring quarter, we have our SpringJam where we've had Jack's Mannequin, New Found Glory, and the Roots play. Each year there is a beautiful formal dance called the Crystal Ball which happens each February. Greek Life celebrates Greek Week towards the end of the spring quarter, which is full of fun and funny events.
Its college and people do party, but not really on campus. Most parties occur in apartments and houses off of campus. The people that do party consistently usually keep it to Thursday nights, Friday nights, and Saturday nights though. If you're not a party person, you don't have to be bored. Sometimes we stay in and watch movies since our school has provided us with big screen televisions in the lounges of the residence halls. Also, we get discounted tickets for various shows, events, exhibits, concerts, etc. CAB will often hold movie nights or hold weekend trips, along with Weekend Warriors. Plus, you are in Philadelphia, you can do almost anything. You can go shopping, you can walk down South Street or go towards Penns Landing, you can go to Dave and Busters, you can take a bus to King of Prussia mall or the IMAX movie theater there, we have tons and tons of major museums such as the Art museum or the Franklin Insitute, there's the Philaldephia zoo, places to bowl, thousands of restaurants, clubs etc.
Sororities and Fraternities are present but not overbearing and there is no pressure to join. They usually do a lot of community service activities and hold different events around campus.