Student Life

A Word from the Assistant Dean

Penn GSE has the advantage of being a small school nestled within a large university. While Penn consists of 10,000 graduate students from 12 schools on campus, GSE consists of 1,000 students with over 30 areas of specialization.

So while our students have the benefit of studying in an interdisciplinary environment with a variety of world-class campus resources such as the Graduate Student Center, Career Services, and the Weingarten Learning Resources Center, our students enjoy personal attention and support from faculty and staff that would not be possible in a larger setting.

Each year, I tell our incoming students that my role at GSE is to provide a supportive, nurturing environment for them to pursue their academic goals. From orientation to commencement, we take that responsibility seriously and count on our close relationships with students, alumni and faculty to make our students' experiences fulfilling and meaningful.

GSE students have a variety of opportunities to have an impact on the life of the school. Some examples include serving on school committees, in leadership positions on student organizations, or as representatives to the Penn Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GAPSA). Students who like to participate in supportive roles find a wide array of social, cultural and academic programs and events to attend. Actually there is so much happening both at GSE — and at Penn — that our students' dilemma is how to choose from among the abundance of options available each week.

GSE is intellectually exciting of course — but we think you'll find your student experience to be challenging, inspiring and nurturing as well. Please stop by my office in Room 225 to share your suggestions and concerns about how we might improve your experience. If you prefer, you can reach me at loism@gse.upenn.edu.

I look forward to meeting you in person.

Lois MacNamara
Assistant Dean for Academic and Student Affairs