Ware College House

 "Welcome to the Warewolf Pack"

We’ve all seen that scene from TV or the movies where the eager young first year walks onto campus for the first time and sees wide green fields framed by 19th-century architecture. She walks past an enormous, long-branched tree. Students are sitting under it, reading and talking. Maybe one has a guitar. The first year walks past some guys throwing a Frisbee, into her college home and into her room. It’s got a dormered window with slanted ceilings, hard wood floors perhaps a little worn, but it’s homey and full of potential. Within a few scenes she has met her roommate and hallmates. They’re diverse, quirky, brilliant, funny, and loveable. What a crew to spend a year with! Fade out.
 
Yeah, Hollywood. Silly, huh?
 
But what if we told you that’s all real? What if we told you Penn has a place just like that?
 
“Where is this place?” you ask.
 
You guessed it—Ware is this place.
 
Ware is one of three College Houses located in the Quad. It stands right in the middle between Fisher Hassenfeld and Riepe and includes the Junior Balcony, Memorial Tower Library, Top of the Tower Lounge, and McClelland Cafe. Ware’s also the only College House with its own mascot—the Warewolf. If you think the Quad looks like a fortress or an English manor, you are not alone. From the enormous gate to the gargoyle-like “bosses” that dot the walls, the Quad is a castle in the heart of Philadelphia. Is there a moat? Of course there is. Okay, it’s just a grass one, but still…
 
The word “community” gets used a lot these days. But your College House is a true community, the first one you’ll be a part of at Penn. That first day when you meet your neighbors on your floor, you could be looking at the partner for your first startup, the future best man at your wedding, the godmother to your children, or the person you’ll backpack through Europe with after graduation. Community doesn’t come automatically. A community forms when people want to be a part of something, and that’s what Ware is, a collection of neighbors eager to work together to maximize the first year experience for everyone. Who knows what will happen in those first few weeks at Ware? Will you have a heated late-night debate? Will you change your mind or someone else’s, or just come to appreciate a perspective you never thought of before? You have a chance to learn something from every single person you meet in college—not just professors, but fellow students, staff, administrators, and the people of Philadelphia. So your first real teachers at Penn will be your fellow Warewolves. You won’t be the same person you were when you started after a year in Ware
 
Almost all of Ware’s residents are first years. They come from all over the country and around the world. Some come from public schools and some from private, from families that have been going to Penn for generations and families that have never had a college graduate. But Ware’s residents all start their time here with the goal of shaping their college experience their way, to meet their needs. If there is one thing you’ll learn in Ware, it’s that there’s no one right way to have a College House experience. Ware is about you blazing the right trail for you. A student experiencing Ware this year may find it a radically different place from a student who lived here only one year earlier. It’s a community of young people who are new to college campus life, learning and building together, soaring, stumbling and getting back up again.
 
Ware's staff operates on the principle of giving students the tools and opportunities they need to shape their own first year experience and successfully navigate College House life in the years beyond. We hand you a map and a compass, but the journey is up to you. The staff includes both undergraduate Resident Advisors as well as graduate ones, who are working towards a degree from one of Penn’s graduate programs. This allows our residents to benefit from the guidance of students who were in their shoes just a year or two ago and some who have built on their own undergraduate experience to pursue further academic triumphs. In addition, the professional staff of Faculty Director and Fellows, House Director and House Coordinator bring years of experience in both the academic and residential sides of college life. The Quad houses several families, so residents of Ware range from children to grad students to tenured faculty.
 
There’s something to learn from everyone here.
 
You only get one first year of college. And, no, of course it won’t be like something you’ve seen on TV or in a movie. It’ll be yours. If you’re asking "where's the best place for me to start?” you may already have found your answer.