<p>I want to study in PENN but i also love stanford i dont know where to go.</p>
<p>In my opinion, the [north] East coast is the greatest place ever and no where else is worth living, except for maybe Europe.</p>
<p>a lot of people say the exact same thing about california, it just just preference.</p>
<p>penn was my no 1 choice by a long way, the only schools that threatened for my ED app were stanford and princeton. it came down to liking phillys urban environment more. stanford is more rural.</p>
<p>Philadelphia is in a very strategic location. Not only is Philadelphia an INCREDIBLE city (I live 20 mins and go all the time), but it's right by New York, which I think is very fun to visit for a day. I think the opportunity to be in Philly alone makes Penn worthwhile. You'd think my friends would pity me because I have to be close to home and everyone's dying to get away into the real world, but ALL my friends are jealous of me because no one around here wants to leave Philly.</p>
<p>Cali's pretty sweet... which is why Stanford was my #1 for the longest time, but that's changed - although it is still my #2 after Penn now ;D</p>
<p>Having lived on both coasts, one of the things I love about the east coast is that there are so many big cities bunched around each other. You can go pretty much anywhere and back in a day.</p>
<p>I'm having the same dilemma!!! I would love to study at Penn's Huntsman Program, but I love Stanford and I don't want to leave sunny cali!</p>
<p>Don't worry, Penn's the furthest south of the Ivies =]</p>
<p>Seriously, though, there are so many major cities bunched around the Penn area (NY, DC, Pittsburgh, Boston) not to mention Philly seriously is freaking awesome. Pittsburgh and Boston are actually rather far away, but it's a fun weekend trip if you want to go. Philly really is my favourite city - it's absolutely perfect. </p>
<p>I actually did not want to be on an urban campus at first, which was a big deterrent of Penn. However, when I visited I realized that even though it's in the city, it's not really right in the center of all the chaos that comes with city life. It's got its own campus, which is nice if you want to take a break from the busy life of incessant car horns and vicious New Jersey drivers (seriously guys. I live in NJ. We can't drive here. NJ drivers are practically a weapon of mass destruction). I live 20 minutes from Penn, and when I was making my original list of schools I was looking for ones as far as possible from home. I was looking at Northwestern, Stanford, Caltech, University of Hawaii, University of Southern Cal - anything far away, regardless of what kind of school it was. I was even going to apply to schools in England and Israel to get away from my insane parents. However, I just could not bring myself to leave the Northeast and all the good times that are available because of Philadelphia and NY. So even though I'm probably going to have to deal with my parents visiting me every freaking weekend, it is SO worth it to be in Philly, in my opinion. And it's not just my personal bias. A lot of my friends who were dying to get away realized how much they just can't leave Philly and NY so they're all enrolling at schools within an hour drive from home. I think Philly > NY because people are so much friendlier here, minus people from NJ who really suck. I can't remember what I did and did not say, but I can see I typed a lot which is a little insane so I'm stopping. I hope I successfully conveyed the point that Philly ROCKS!</p>
<p>Besides, you can't pelt Drexel students with snowballs during the first snowfall in "sunny Cali" =]</p>
<p>Stanford is rural but the weather is better.</p>
<p>"Stanford is rural"</p>
<p>just to clarify,</p>
<p>stanford is in no way in a rural environment. It is in the center of the bay area between silicon valley and san francisco which is definitely urban/suburban, however, I do understand your point that penn is in the urban confines of philadelphia unlike stanford.</p>
<p>I <3 the northeast. It's the only place in America I'd ever want to live.</p>
<p>Penn students, do feel free to join my facebook group "East coast = best coast"</p>
<p>Here are some reasons for it cited from the facebook group</p>
<p>-Centuries of rich history
-The Ivy League
-The US Capitol (and the UN if you swing that way)
-The world's financial capitol
-The HQ of US TV and newsmedia
-The HQ of publishing
-The I-95 > I-5
-a change of seasons (a white Christmas, snow days beautiful brisk autumn days, uplifting spring...)
-higher median IQ
-higher median income
-functioning state governments
-greater convenience and environmental friendliness of denser living (we build up, not out)
-houses with basements
-A treasure of beautiful historic architecture (fake spanish colonial has its charm too...yay stucco...)
-considerably fewer earthquakes
-significantly smaller chance of falling into the sea
-much less smog
-no land so devoid of life as to be classified as 'desert'
-More Jews!
-Less illegal immigrants!
-people who are *******s but honest about it
-nobody pretending to be "laid back" or other social lies
-Not raising John Walker Lindh (aka American Taliban)
-A great deal fewer socialists
-less 'fast & furious' culture and other manifestations of superficiality and materialism
-less avocado on everything
-Broadway!</p>
<p>Yes, some of these things are in NYC and others in DC, but that's the great thing about Philly--it's wedged right between them and they are readily accessible for a day trip.</p>