<p>It's sad how Penn students cling on to Wharton.</p>
<p>When I visited during admit week, I stayed with a friend from high school who is currently enrolled in the Jerome Fisher program. He told me all about the division between Wharton and the rest of the university. It wasn't anything sarcastic.</p>
<p>^^ It's sad how you have nothing to cling on to.</p>
<p>My aunt went to Penn, and she absolutely loved it there, saying that the WHOLE student body was like a family. It's not like the College kids aren't smart enought to get into Wharton. > : )</p>
<p>What exactly do you mean by division? Are you referring to personalities or students from other schools avoiding befriending those in wharton?</p>
<p>If you're talking about the latter, I respectfully disagree. I have good friends in all 4 of the schools, and the only time one's school is ever brought up is in a joking context.</p>
<p>Engineers are nerds (the curiculum obviously).
Nurses are dumb (lower admissions stats/ "easier" classes, although the latter is bs).
College students will be poor (English, art history majors, etc).
Wharton students sell their soul to the devil (work 80+ hr weeks I-banking and make 80k+).</p>
<p>Hahahaha lol thats so funny, especially the one about the college students being poor.</p>
<p>on my huntsman point, see:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/3eb08b1682a73?in_archive=1%5B/url%5D">http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/3eb08b1682a73?in_archive=1</a> (comments)</p>
<p>and also this revealing joke article on the topic:</p>
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<blockquote> <blockquote> <p>No one on campus really HATES wharton students; it's simply a running joke.</p> </blockquote> </blockquote>
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<p>wharton envy is real, and only worse since the opening of huntsman.</p>
<p>You are incorrect.</p>
<p>"this Wharton/College rivalry is a sad ancient legacy of Penn"</p>
<p>comment #30, above article.</p>
<p>Just the fact that this is a "joke" shows that it must exist to some extent. Why else would it be a joke? Where did the idea of the wharton/college tensions come from?</p>
<p>"this Wharton/College rivalry is a sad ancient legacy of Penn"</p>
<p>Almost as contentious as the Wilson/Rockefeller rivalry at Princeton</p>
<p>The fact is that SOME "tension" does exist on both sides but is mainly manifested in the form non-aggressive/comical banter. For example, the college kids always tend to think they are superior because they are not "selling out" going the pre-professional route (hence the joking referenced to selling your soul to ibanks,etc.) and they believe that they are at Penn "nobler" reasons than Whartonites. Whartonites tend to have an air of superiority because 1. wharton is more selective and more recognized 2. the administration always looks favorably on wharton (mainly because of a lot of alumni money comes from wharton) 3. they tend to make a lot more money straight out of college (not necessarily in the long run) hence the joke that college students will always be poor. </p>
<p>The friendly tension that exists, however, never prevents students from socializing or becoming friends. People just pursue different paths, that others might not agree with, and thus we joke back and forth about it. </p>
<p>Personally, I think the Wharton administration escalates the tension from time to time with certain policies, comments, etc. </p>
<hr>
<p>To answer the OP: I think there are many perfectly good reasons for choosing Penn over Princeton (or any other school). </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Princeton's curriculum is extremely limited when compared to Penn's. At Penn you can take courses ranging from Film Studies and English to Accouting and Finance to Nursing to Engineering and you can structure your courseload in order to graduate with 2 degrees as opposed to 1. </p></li>
<li><p>Penn's social life has both a "state school-like" social life with major parties, etc. and the elite "secret societies" system (like P'ton eating clubs). This is attractive to many students who feel that schools like HYP are "too nerdy." I've visited friends at every ivy with the exception of Columbia and can say that I was really bored socially at every one of the schools that I visited. It's a more low key social life (not for everyone). </p></li>
<li><p>Some of Penn's academic programs are better than Princeton's and Penn offers fields that P'ton doesn't. </p></li>
<li><p>Some people might feel that Penn is just a better fit for them as compared to Princeton or any other school.</p></li>
<li><p>Penn is in a large city where there is more do to while P'ton is in the middle of nowhere. </p></li>
<li><p>Depending on your career plans Penn might be a better option. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>It all really depends on the individual...just because P'ton was the school for you doesn't mean it's going to match your daughter's preferences/needs/etc.</p>
<p>Just remember that you can only transfer from Princeton to Penn, and not from Penn to Princeton. Princeton does not accept transfer students. Also, let's face it, applicants who get into Princeton generally can get into Penn, not always the other way around.</p>
<p>agreed, bern, that "there are many perfectly good reasons for choosing penn over princeton," including your reasons 3, 4, and 6. i have to quibble with a few of your reasons, however. first, princeton's curriculum is not "extremely limited." it has departments and programs in all the major arts, sciences, and engineering disciplines (including film studies, english, finance, and engineering), just not any pre-professional ones. it is, in this respect, in accord with harvard, yale, and stanford. and really, how many students actually take nursing courses? second, there is little evidence to support the idea that penn is more "social" than princeton, with its famed eating clubs and reunions. frankly, i believe the "social ivy" boast is a rationalization borne of an era, not too long ago, when penn was in the ivies' bottom tier and populated largely by rejects of other, more desired schools. (thanks in part to the wholesale embrace of early decision by the rankings-driven rodin administration, this is no longer the case.) third, princeton is hardly "in the middle of nowhere." hell, it's only 45 miles from penn's own "large city," and 50 miles from the even larger city of new york. it sits halfway between, a very liveable university town of 30,000 smack in the middle of one of the richest and most densely populated states in the country. that all said, the main reason is wharton, since HYP don't have undergraduate business schools.</p>
<p>"wharton envy is real, and only worse since the opening of huntsman.</p>
<p>You are incorrect."</p>
<p>I'm not gonna argue the point. I've been in SEAS alone and am now in Wharton/SEAS so I've seen both sides. Not once have I EVER seen any serious form of animosity. </p>
<p>While not being able to reserve rooms in Huntsman, non-Wharton people still study in Huntsman and even take rooms simply b/c there are often empty rooms. Anyways, for a lot of the college majors, the library can be a better place to study as it will contain a lot of primary source material that may be needed (unlike in Wharton where you'll rarely visit the library in general).</p>
<p>f. scottie: Regarding location, i said that P'ton was in the middle of nowhere because if you want to do anything other than just hang out in p'ton you have to take 45-60m train...that's just annoying and inconvenient. While at Penn center city is a 10 minute walk. Personally, from visiting friends at most of the ivies I just noticed that penn's social life is not as limited as p'ton...at p'ton you have the famed eating clubs (that seemed to be the only form of social life) where everyone stood around, talking, and having a few drinks (which is fine...a good way of networking, etc.). At penn you have some secret societies and fraternities that act like the p'ton eating clubs, in addition to have a "state-school like" frat/party social life, in addition you havee the clubbing/bar life in Philly. Penn's social life, from what i've experienced, just wasn't as limited as p'ton's. Finally regarding the limited curriculum...when i was looking at the schools a few years ago it just seemed like you could study a lot more a penn than at p'ton which just seemed to have lib arts/engineering (finance on a limited basis as financial engineering). While at penn, you could not only take courses in the 4 undergrad schools but you can also to a certain extent take classes in many of the 12 grad schools. Plus Penn's curriculum, in my opinion, is just more flexible in that if you want to pursue a dual degree you can.</p>
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<p>or drive a mile to route 1, with all the shopping malls and big box stores you could ever want, or 13 miles to trenton, NJ's capital.</p>
<br> [QUOTE=""]
<p>the famed eating clubs (that seemed to be the only form of social life) where everyone stood around, talking, and having a few drinks</p>
<br>
<p>evidently you've never been to an eating club. you should really try it. most visitors from penn seem to like the idea of free admission, alcohol, and entertainment, in ten different venues a night. princeton also has fraternities and sororities, although they aren't officially recognized and don't have "houses." there are options.</p>
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<p>finance on a limited basis as financial engineering</p>
<br>
<p>princeton also offers a very popular certificate program (i.e. minor) in finance, through its bendheim center for finance.</p>
<p>"Personally, I think the Wharton administration escalates the tension from time to time with certain policies, comments, etc."</p>
<p>As both an alumnus of Wharton and now an administrator at Wharton, I'm curious to what policies, comments, etc. you're referring to.</p>
<p>As to all this talk of "rivalry" between the schools. It's not a serious rivalry and it's all in good fun. And I imagine that if all the other Ivies had multiple undergraduate schools you'd eventually get the same thing. At the end of the day everyone goes to Penn. People who aren't students at Penn make a MUCH bigger deal about this "rivalry" than actual Penn students.</p>
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<p>At the end of the day everyone goes to Penn.</p>
<br>
<p>yet, this lament and exhortation:</p>
<p>"This kind of thinking seems to pervade Wharton. That's why you see 'Wharton' sweatshirts and umbrellas without any sign of 'UPenn.' The pretension would be laughable if it weren't so real. As is, it's just obnoxious -- get some school spirit."</p>
<p>You realize your big proof is a 3 year old editorial from the DP. Let me point out a couple things.</p>
<p>1) Most of the things sold in the bookshop are geared towards <em>gasp</em> parents <em>gasp</em> and not students. Parents love to brag about Wharton. Most students could care less.</p>
<p>2) It was the opinion of one person in the DP, by no means is this comprehensive.</p>
<p>3) Since it's obvious you haven't read the DP consistently yet, let me let you in on a little secret. Half of the editorials are crap. The deadline comes every week and the writers need to bust out an article. There's only so much you can write on so they tend to write on the stupidest things b/c "at least it hasn't been written on recently." Go through some of them some time and you'll see what I mean.</p>
<p>On that note, look at the date. Oh look, a big shiny expensive building just opened up and I need to finish my editorial in 30 minutes. Looks like I'm writing on that.</p>
<p>article or no article, this has long been my impression, as a non-quaker who has nevertheless spent a fair amount of time in west philadelphia. that article was simply the first i could find in support of my impression, which, as an outsider, i knew, probably needed the benefit of some more "internal" support before it would be accorded much respect here. certainly, i respect your own perspective, and largely defer to it, while not disavowing my own.</p>