<p>Are there any really bad things about Upenn that made you think twice about going there(i.e. dorms, food, etc. etc?)</p>
<p>I hear housing and crime are problems, but they definately wouldn't make me think twice about going there</p>
<p>There was an interesting look a Penn food in the Daily Pennsylvanian about Aramark but I'm not sure how true it is</p>
<p>i dont like the high number of preppy people.</p>
<p>penn food (at least at 1920 commons) is HORRIBLE.</p>
<p>the surrounding area--West Philly--although I've heard that the school has put a lot of money into making the area better. but still, i hear it's worse than new haven.</p>
<p>Why don't you go and see for yourself? You might be surprised as I was.</p>
<p>i live on the west coast, and I didn't get a chance to go to penn on my "grand tour" last spring, so I've kind of had to rely on word of mouth. so please tell me, Saintofme, how was it actually?</p>
<p>The only thing I didn't like was the dorms. I was with a few friends visiting a guy I know, and man is his freshman dorm a hellhole. With beds in the room (it was a double) there was probably enough floor space for one person to lie down, and that's about it.</p>
<p>Looks like you're talking about Hill.</p>
<p>ok, crime is a non-issue. the university city area is fine. the minute crime level in our particular area is pretty much negligible. well, i mean crime isnt really negligible, but the point is that it should in no way dissuade you from coming.</p>
<p>dorms are fine. i have a huge room in the quad, so its possible to have incredible housing luck. then again, hill rooms are tiny, hot, and cramped, so you can be unlucky as well (though hill as a social environment is great).</p>
<p>im not gonna lie, the food from Commons is horrible. Hill's food is marginally better, and places that accept dining dollars are pretty good, like Tony Luke's and Au Bon Pain</p>
<p>I thought it was a little too big</p>
<p>The corner rooms in Hill though are sweeeeet. I got one pegged for next year as a single :D</p>
<p>The area around Penn is booming...new luxury apartments are going up and will be ready next year...condos in the neighborhood start at $275K and up...there were a few random crimes near campus earlier this semester and Penn responded in a big way with $5million more for security...I was there about 2 weeks ago and felt perfectly safe, as there was a strong security presence...and the neighborhood will only get better in the coming years...good luck on your college search</p>
<p>The crime is no worse than any other city. I don't know what other colleges are like, but the dorms are awful here at Penn. All of them are very old and only have had the exteriors remodeled. You know it's bad when black mold is growing on the walls in the hallways/bathrooms/bedrooms. Well, that's my 2 cents...</p>
<p>Crime perpetually less an issue as the last 20 years passed. Penn keeps expanding little by little and making larger parts of the inner campus totally safe. </p>
<p>Dorms are not new, but I had less a sense many people cared compared to how they thought they would care before they arrived.</p>
<p>****, the food is BAD?</p>
<p>The food is horrible...</p>
<p>The DINING HALL food is bad (heck i dont even think its that bad)</p>
<p>Penn is in a CITY. This isn't dartmouth, you have options.</p>
<p>Penn doesn't just have restaurants in its immediate area, it is also encircled by food carts with some seriously awesome grub. They are a staple of Penn (my bro worked @ penn over the summer and used them, at pton he misses them dearly).</p>
<p>As for negatives, yes. housing. As far as on-campus housing goes, unless you get the quad, you're going to get put in some awful modernist building that is not only ugly but poorly-constructed. I lived in KCECH and hated it. Someday their demolition will come, but for now we're stuck with them.</p>
<p>Of course this is why most upperclassmen live off-campus in much nicer digs than can be had at any school.</p>
<p>Although arguably this has been a blessing in disguise, as having a dorm I didn't enjoy made me more likely to leave its confines, going out to do more things and meet more people.</p>
<p>Other than housing, are there any other downsides?</p>
<p>Well compared to a school like Yale, a good deal of the architecture is drab modernist eyesore from the 1960s and 70s. (penn had the misfortune of going on an expansion binge during the nadir of american architecture) I still feel the campus as a whole is wonderful, but about half its buildings need to be demolished and be replaced with mock-historic buildings or interesting postmodernist pieces like Huntsman.</p>
<p>I heard we accepted less people this year, so maybe the housing problem will be better.</p>
<p>what are the cons of penn beyond housing, food, crime?</p>