<p>Hey guys…I think i’ve managed to narrow down my list to brown, penn or wellesley (mostly it’s btw brown and penn).</p>
<p>I was just wondering what you thought made one school stand out over the other.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>For me, it's Brown, Penn, or JHU.</p>
<p>From what I've been told, do Brown if you're more liberal artsy and have a definite idea about your major and career goals (so you don't get lost in their open curriculum). If you'd rather explore or emphasize the sciences, do Penn.</p>
<p>not necessarily...brown has an extremely good science program as well.</p>
<p>the best question to ask yourself is can you handle your education and stay focused with brown's open curriculum? or would you prefer more structure/guidance with your classes?</p>
<p>the surrounding atmosphere/campus is also very different. visit both to see which you prefer.</p>
<p>" the best question to ask yourself is can you handle your education and stay focused with brown's open curriculum? "</p>
<p>can you please clarify what you mean by this? I love Penn because of its city and that it's close to home, but I'm also hooked on Brown because of it's Open Curriculum, pass/fail/nc, PLME, etc. </p>
<p>Yet, i'm afraid that i'll just get lost at Penn due to its size and not get the attention that I would get at a smaller school like Brown</p>
<p>i know when i went to the info session at brown, they mentioned that some people don't do well with the oc because a) they just aren't used to taking that much responsibility for their education/future, b) they aren't "mature" enough to handle the freedom responsibly, or c) they not sure enough as to what their career may be to get as much out of the oc as possible.</p>
<p>however, for other people who prefer the independence and don't find it necessary to take all the extraneous classes, the oc is a perfect match for them.</p>
<p>as for penn being too large, i can't really answer whether or not that is true. i've heard a lot of people say that if you need help, you can find it....but the administration certainly isn't going to hold your hand the whole way through college or seek you out specifically for something. however, in my opinion, the type of independence and responsiblity you must practice here is an excellent life-skill to learn. when you get out into the real world, there isn't going to be anyone looking to give you that attention...you'll need to seek it out yourself.</p>
<p>good luck with your decision....the good news is, no matter which school you choose, you'll be in a wonderful institution.</p>
<p>Philly is a great college city</p>
<p><a href="http://www.onebigcampus.com%5B/url%5D">www.onebigcampus.com</a></p>
<p>You won't get lost at Penn, unless you really lack individual initiave or are just really inept.</p>
<p>And just as Brown has excellent sciences, so does Penn have excellent liberal arts.</p>
<p>I wouldn't trade Penn for everything...it may very well be the finest urban university. The size of Penn, Philadelphia, and Philadelphia's college population are in perfect proportion to each other.</p>
<p>Philadelphia is big enough to have an amazing variety of cultural, social, historical and economic resources (which makes it better than Providence). Yet it is not so huge as to take anything away from the vibrant college life that is very much focused on campus (which makes it better than NYC).</p>
<p>At Penn, a vibrant downtown, greek party scene, nongreek party scene, and nonparty scene all coexist.</p>
<p>At Penn it is possible to go downtown several times in a week--and at the same time it is possible never to leave campus for weeks at a time. I should know, I've done both!</p>
<p>Is Philadelphia (University City in particular) more 'rough around the edges,' with more crime, than the area around Brown? Most definitely. But for all that you get in return, it is unquestionably worth it. (besides, the common sense 'street smarts' you pick up here are an important life skill--they definitely helped me survive living on my own as a big dumb white guy in the urban megapolis that is Seoul)</p>
<p>providence sucks. </p>
<p>penn has a great arts scene. philly's center city is bursting with every kid of art imaginable.</p>
<p>penn's curriculum has more "requirements," but there are so many different ways to fill them that you dont really ever have to take a class you dont like (except math or a science depending on your major) and therefore have ample room to explore</p>
<p>funny story: when i visited georgetown's campus in june of 05, there was a mother talking with her daughter about a family friend that had been accepted to penn and brown. the daughter told the mother that her friend was leaning toward brown and the mother said "brown? what is she thinking? where did they go wrong with her?" haha take it for what its worth</p>
<p>also : "the independence and responsiblity you must practice here is an excellent life-skill to learn." - i fully agree</p>
<p>I agree with JohnnyK, I wouldn't trade my Penn experiences for any other school. I am so glad I chose Penn over others I was admitted to.</p>
<p>people from our parent's generation have minimal respect for penn, since during their time, it was an ivy doormat. as recently as 10 years ago, penn had a 40% admit rate
our own generation also shows a strong preference for brown over penn. brown wins the vast majority of cross-admits with penn--well over 80%
also i'm sure brown & providence by extension offers an arts scene comparable to philly's--particularly given that the most prestigious arts school in the country is brown's neighbor</p>
<p>But, again , I will keep saying this. Penn has a high admit rate because it has more programs than schools like Brown. If you have more programs, that means you will have a highe admit rate. It's just common sense.</p>
<p>Regardless of Penn's admit rate, don't you think it's still one of the best schools in the nation? So, who cares if it is perceived less than other Ivies. an Ivy is an Ivy. You can't just walk up and decide to attend.</p>
<p>besides, dcircle, this isn't our parent's generation anymore.</p>
<p>the admit rate was around 17% this year....a big jump from 40%.</p>
<p>penn is growing in popularity and is no longer the ivy league doormat that you say it once was.</p>
<p>The prestige issue between these is largely moot. Brown feels more "warm and fuzzy," I'd go to Brown. And the area around Brown (East Providence - Thayer Street) is awesome.</p>
<p>Here's a story for you:</p>
<p>There is a company in LA that takes Korean high schoolers on a tour of the Ivy League so they can see it and be inspired or something...anyway, I was talking to the manager of it an he said he skipped over 2 schools because nobody was interested in them...Dartmouth, and Brown. :-)</p>
<p>"Yet, i'm afraid that i'll just get lost at Penn due to its size and not get the attention that I would get at a smaller school like Brown"</p>
<p>Don't worry about that. Honestly, Penn's size is just right. It's small enough that you see people you know every minute, but large enough that you'll never run out of people to meet. </p>
<p>Plus, I seem to recall from my college-touring days that professors and students at Brown always told me that "No one will hold your hand." </p>
<p>It's pretty much the same thing anywhere. You'll have tofend for yourself and it's not as hard as it sounds. You just have to take the initiative, and when you see kids all around you busily working and getting involved, you will too.</p>
<p>johnnyk, are you korean?
obviously u go to penn and champions it... but i'm not sure if nobody's interested in dartmouth or brown... obvoiusly their admit rates are lower than penn's.. if there should b an ivy skool that nobody's interested in, it would b cornell.. almost no one will turn down brown or dartmouth for cornell.</p>
<p>No, i'm not Johnny Kim. I'm just an East Asian studies major (Penn's regional studies are excellent :-D)</p>
<p>admit rates</p>
<p>Penn has nursing school which typically is a 40% admit rate. while penn has a large eng class around 400 which has admit rates around 25%. So penn avg this year is 17.7%. I would venture that for College of arts/sciences and wharton admit rates would be around 12-13%. Most schools have common application which boosts applicants. This penn got 20400 applicants which will be close to 22000 next year when it shifhts to common apps, in that case overall admit rate will drop to 15% and for CAS/Wharton it will be around 10%.</p>
<p>nobody is interested in dartmouth or brown...except the 98% of 3,000+ admitted high-achieving high school students that ranked brown higher then penn in preference and 66% that ranked dartmouth higher than penn (page 31)
<a href="http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/hoxby/papers/revealedprefranking.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/hoxby/papers/revealedprefranking.pdf</a></p>