<p>^ Well, to put it simply, the theory/practice ratio of teaching at Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences will be comparable to that at the undergraduate liberal arts components of its peers (Ivies, Duke, Stanford, Chicago, etc.). In general, you won’t find an undergraduate class in, e.g., English, Art History, Philosophy, or Biology at Penn to be taught more or less “theoretically” than a comparable class at Columbia, Brown, Duke, or Chicago. The content and the way they are taught will be quite similar across comparable schools. And to that extent, I think that the premise in your first post that “Columbia and Cornell are very practical, but Brown is theoretical,” is quite flawed, if you are talking about comparable departments and courses at all 3 schools.</p>
<p>Of course, between disciplines and schools at all of these universities, there will be significant differences in the ratios of theoretical to practical teaching, so that, e.g., an Accounting or Finance class in Wharton will be much more practical and less theoretical than a Philosphy class at Brown. But when comparing apples-to-apples–say, comparable Philosophy classes at Brown and Penn–there will be no significant difference.</p>