First-Year Residential Program
Summer Connections
The VIPER experience begins before students ever set foot on campus. Over the summer, VIPER Peer Advisors run virtual events and casual chats to help incoming students get to know each other — so that by the time orientation arrives, familiar faces are already waiting.
New Student Orientation & VIPER Houses
The community comes together in full at Move-In, where students and families meet for the first time in person and start getting to know each other. During New Student Orientation, first-years begin exploring campus and settling into life at Penn together — and get sorted into one of four VIPER Houses: Wind, Energy, Solar, or Geothermal. Each house brings together students from across class years, creating a built-in community for mentorship, friendly competition, and connection across cohorts.
"VIPER’s emphasis on building connections with faculty and upperclassmen has really helped me bridge the gap between my interests and what’s going on at Penn."
- Cianán Conefrey-Shinozaki (VIPER '23)
Living & Studying Together
From there, the connections deepen naturally. First-year VIPER students live together on the same floor at Hill College House, share roommates, and regularly see each other in the dining hall. Proximity cultivates close friendships — studying in the lounges, crossing paths in the hallways, and exploring Penn events and opportunities together. Hill's communal spaces and vibrant atmosphere give students plenty of room to exchange ideas and grow together.
Building Community
Throughout the year, dedicated VIPER programming brings first-years together to get to know each other, their VIPER Peer Advisors, and the broader VIPER community— creating connection at multiple levels. Since VIPER is a small cohort, students get the intimacy of a tight-knit community alongside all the resources and opportunities of a major research university.
First year is the launching pad. The friendships, habits, and connections that form here tend to carry students through the rest of their time at Penn and well beyond.