Pre-professionalAcademicCommunity ServicePeer EducationAdvocacyUndergraduateFirst Generation Low Income (FGLI)SAC
Description
Common Centsis a student organization at the University of Pennsylvania and a national nonprofit seeking to empower college & underserved high school students with the knowledge to manage their money and reach financial independence. Our committees work together to hold events and workshops and create educational resources tailored to high school and college students.
Check out our Guide to CC below for more information about our committees!
Past Events
Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Personal Finance Edition w/ Riepe College House:First-year residents at Riepe played Who Wants to be a Millionaire—with cash prizes, lifelines, and personal finance themed questions that touched on topics like budgeting, credit/debt, investing, insurance, and estate planning.
Winter is Coming—How to Survive the Cold Recession:Speaker Justin Winters, a Penn class of '05 alum with a CFA and CFP, financial advisor, and Managing Director at Treasury Partners, explained the role of macroeconomics on personal investing, and how to protect your assets during an economic downturn.
Credit Card Crash Course w/ AIS:Common Cents collaborated with the Association of International Students to deliver a credit card event, with special focus on optimizing one’s credit score, applying for an SSN/ITIN, and taking advantage of seldom-used rewards and benefits to get value from credit cards. This event was specifically targeted towards international students and the FGLI community.
The Power of Points—Why I Have 15 Credit Cards:Common Cents’ very own co-founder, John Ta (MLS '22), gave insider tips on what credit cards are, the best ways to optimize for rewards, and, most importantly, explained why he owns 15 cards at age 22.
D.C. Retreat:Members of Common Cents traveled to D.C. for a weekend. Social events like touring the National Mall, visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and getting lunch at North Italia allowed for members to bond and spend an enjoyable time together!
Question: If I apply and get into a committee but later feel that a different committee would interest me more, can I transfer? - Anonymous
Probably. While we can't guarantee that you will be able to transfer committees, we will consider your performance in your current committee and do our best to make it work based on available space and the overall needs of Common Cents.
- Michael Sun
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Question: Where can I find the committee application link for spring 2022? - Anonymous
Hi! All relevant links can usually be found through our linktree and will be emailed to our listserv. Here is our application link for ease of access!
- Angelina Zhou
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Question: How often does the club meet for general body members? - Anonymous
We usually hold 1-2 events per month (excluding finals season). Make sure to follow our Facebook Page and join our listserv to be notified of upcoming events!
- Vivek Olumbe
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Question: What is the time commitment for committee members? - Anonymous
Committee members are expected to dedicate around 1-4 hours/week to the club. At a minimum, there is a club-wide meeting once a week that lasts between 30 minutes-1 hour. Additionally, most committees will also have weekly meetings that can range from 30 minutes-1 hour. Between meetings, committee members complete any assigned tasks and build out new initiatives.
- Angelina Zhou
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Question: Do you have to know about personal finance to join? - Anonymous
No! We encourage anyone and everyone to join as a general body member because personal finance knowledge is applicable to everyone, regardless of your background.
We encourage all committee applicants to have some background in personal finance, but what we're looking for most is interest and passion. Committee members will definitely learn more as they become more involved in the club, so what's most important is that they will put in effort into their work at Common Cents, so they can learn and drive our mission. Even if you have very limited knowledge of personal finance, we encourage you to apply if you are willing to put in the time to learn more!
- John Ta
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Question: How has your model changed since COVID-19? - Anonymous
During the COVID-19 pandemic, all our events will be held virtually. However, the virtual environment allows us to hold intercollegiate events with our branches at NYU, Yale, and Hopkins.
- John Ta
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Question: How do you teach students personal finance? With classes or online webinars? - Anonymous
Common Cents aims to make personal finance interesting with activities like Kahoots, choose-your-own-adventure, jeopardy, and more (most of the time with a prize for winners!). We also forge innovation through interdisciplinary events like Masterchef when we had a live cooking demo and talked about meal prepping under a budget.
Generally, we host a wide variety of events, including speaker events, informational classes, career panels, and online webinars. Because of the current virtual environment, all events for the fall 2020 semester will be virtual; however, we look forward to hosting more in-person events when we are back on campus.
- John Ta
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Question: Do you have branches at other colleges? - Anonymous
Yes! We currently have branches at FSU, Cornell, and JHU.
- Michael Sun
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Question: Why Common Cents? - Anonymous
Common Cents is Penn's first and only undergraduate personal finance club. We strive to teach our undergraduate peers as well as high schoolers personal finance topics in an engaging, informative way. Also new this year is our Common Cents Communities, where members can opt in to weekly socials with small group of other like minded peers!
- Hannah Xiao
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Question: Do you teach PF to both high school and college students, or just one of those? - Anonymous
We teach personal finance to both undergraduates and high school students! We hope to mend the financial literacy gap by making these topics inclusive for anyone curious about learning more. Personal finance is applicable to all people no matter age, major, or career choice.
- John Ta
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Question: What kind of events do you hold, and how does each committee help with them? - Anonymous
Every committee comes together to help design and execute events. For our latest series at the Wave Learning Festival, the content committee led the presentations, marketing and design worked together to create and distribute promotional material, and every committee member was invited to help moderate and speak at the classes. It truly was a group effort!
- Hannah Xiao
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Question: What is the recruitment process like step-by-step? - Anonymous
The recruitment process for committees begins with an online application form. Before interviews, we may hold coffee chats to get to know applicants better. Those with a strong application will be invited to a technical interview relevant to the committee they applied for, followed by a behavioral interview to determine if they are a good fit for the team.
- John Ta
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Question: What is the difference between the different types of members? - Anonymous
Common Cents has three types of members:
1) Executive board members: lead all the committees and help facilitate the growth of the organization. Exec members are promoted internally from committees.
2) Committee members: responsible for various roles in running the Penn organization. They support the exec and complete initiatives within their teams. Committee members are encouraged to come up with their own new initiatives as well.
3) General body members: students who are interested in personal finance and may be interested in coming to events and bonding with the Common Cents community to learn more and meet new people.
Executive board and committee positions require applications and interviews. However, we encourage anyone interested to join our general body to learn more about personal finance at our events. General body members can always apply to committee positions at a later time if they wish to get more involved.
