In July, you will be able to sign up for courses on Penn InTouch. The course schedules will be available on Penn InTouch sometime in August. One of the Advanced Search settings will allow you to search for “Freshmen Friendly” classes. Don’t panic if you end up not getting some of the courses you signed up for! The first two weeks of classes are an Add/Drop period so chances are that you’ll get the course you want. You can also email the professor to see if you can get a permit for the course.
A valuable resource for picking classes is The Penn Course Review – a student run publication which presents student ratings and comments for all undergraduate courses. You can search by the course code as well as by the name of the professor to get information on course difficulty, instructor ratings, and usefulness of assigned readings amongst other things.
Buying Books
You can view your booklist on Penn InTouch once your schedule is available. There is a direct link to the Penn Bookstore where you can order your books online and just pick
them up when you get to campus. It also sells Penn gear such as t-shirts, sweatshirts, and bags. The bookstore also has a school supplies section and a room essentials section where you can get some of the things you might need for your dorm room.
You can also buy books on Amazon.com or rent books online from websites such as Chegg.com. Another option is the Penn UA (Undergraduate Assembly) Book Bazaar where Penn students can post a book for sale and you can look through the available books and contact the seller directly.