ED Between UPenn and Northwestern. Help!!

College Search & Selection
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<p>So my top four choices for schools (they are all reach/stretch schools) are Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and Upenn. I like Georgetown, but its strong Jesuit tradition makes me feel that it is sort of strict on the party scene on campus and no frats sucks too. Most of the nightlife happens in the city in bars and clubs, andI don't want to rely on a fake or wait until I'm 21. Also, Dc seems like more of an IR and political city than a financial, business, consulting city. I plan on on majoring in Business/Economics and maybe flirt with the idea of doing Industrial Engineering. </p>

<p>Vanderbilt is in the south, and I am a first generation, low income latino, and even though it is a great school with great weather, hot chicks, great parties and greek life, it is not my top choice.</p>

<p>So I am down to Upenn and Northwestern. I am applying to UPenn CAS and majoring in Econ with maybe some Wharton classes and a second major in international relations. I like that you can take wharton classes, wharton attracts top recruiters, good city nightlife, even better fraternity scene, ivy league status, and pretty attractive girls. I am from the northeast from New York City so it is sort of like the same culture I have been living in. The only thing that I don't like is the sketchy neighborhood and please pardon this, by no means do I want to offend anyone, but I heard that UPenn has a very large population of Jewish people, and that's sort of a turnoff. The average GPA from my private prep school that got into UPenn is a 3.6 and a 3.4 early decision.</p>

<p>Originally I was going to ED to Penn but Northwestern seems pretty chill too. Their average GPA from my school that got in was also a 3.6, but 8 kids applied early decision and the average GPA that got in was a staggering 3.2!! Out of 8 kids that applied, 6 got in. As you can see, you might understand why I am very interested in applying ED. Chicago seems like a cool city, but I heard it gets very cold, but since I am from NY, it can't be that much colder right? I'm not sure where I want to be living after I gradute, just that I want to go to a top MBA school and my dream job would be to work as a Consultant for one of the major companies. Diversity is important to me, but I have been a minority in my PRep school with a lot of White people my entire high school career, so I can easily handle the lack of. Also I like Evanston because it is in the city, but a beautiful suburb of Chicago 15 minutes away.
What do you suggest for me.</p>

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<p>I think that Northwestern still has 20 percent Jewish population. Perhaps Brigham Young would be a nice choice for you. Or Liberty University.</p>

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<p>Sorry can’t help :(. But I’m a Latino too and I want to go to all of those schools! Im a hs sophomore lol</p>

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<p>I say visit both schools and then decide. It also depends on what your stats are, since you say there’s a difference in the GPA averages of accepted students. Otherwise, both Penn and Northwestern sound like good choices for you.</p>

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<p>Rule of thumb on ED is that it’s for the school that you love above all others. I’m not sensing love from you, just a weighting of chances. Have you visited Penn and Northwestern? If not, then that’s another strike against ED. You’re a first-gen URM student coming from a strong school–I think you are strongly enough hooked that you can wait for RD. That will allow you to compare aid offers, and have more time to think about where you’d like to end up. Check with your school’s college counselors to see if your stats and hooks will be good enough for RD, don’t just rely on the stranger on the internet.</p>

<p>OK, let’s move on to this bit:</p>

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<p>As we say, oy vey. Surely you knew in your heart of hearts that this was offensive. Easy enough for you to think how you’d feel if someone wrote that they’d heard that such-and-such a school has a large population of Latino/Latina students. It’s also at odds with you writing in the next paragraph that diversity is important to you. Fair enough if you want a certain type of student body: intellectual, work hard/party hard, fratty, quirky, bohemian, competitive, cooperative, jocky, shopaholic, ascetic, preppy, what have you. But just saying that a particular religious or ethnic group is a “turnoff”–not kosher.</p>

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<p>“What do you suggest for me”
I suggest that you change your attitude and develop tolerance before attending any college. To be “turned off” by a religious or ethnic group displays incredible ignorance and this attitude is downright dangerous. Where are you getting this - your family? Your friends? Please develop some insight into this and reform before you are let loose into this world.</p>

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<p>Very classy.</p>

<p>What do I suggest for you? To reread what you wrote in your initial post and give it some reflection. Would you have written that a college has too many African-American students? Besides being anti-Semitic - you come off as very arrogant. I think both Penn and Northwestern will do just fine without admitting you.</p>

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<p>I don’t think you should go to Penn or Northwestern. My brother went to Penn, I went to Northwestern. I don’t think you can handle the diversity at either of those schools, as I can see right through your words. As a URM, I wouldn’t really expect you to declare another entire group of people to be a “turn off” (your words). </p>

<p>I can’t really think of any top college that would be open to your kind of thinking. You seem to have high aspirations, but are looking for “hot chicks?” You didn’t even provide your stats, so I just don’t see this all measuring up.</p>

<p>Sorry I can’t help you but, knowing the people I went to school with and my brother went to school with, you definitely wouldn’t fit in.</p>

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<p>How did a “low income latino” went to this predominately white, high priced prep school? Sounds like Exter to me! First Generation as well? Scholarship for preps? I am confused.</p>

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<p>Maybe this school meets your requirements:</p>

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<p>How is it that you think saying that too many Jewish people at a school is a turn off wouldn’t be offensive? Do you think that just saying that you don’t want to offend anyone and then going ahead with that statement makes it unoffensive? Did you think at all when you wrote that? You are an URM so you should already know this, but no one wants to be defined by their race, religion, ethnicity etc. To be clear stating that Jewish=turnoff is offensive. If you replaced Jewish in that equation with any other race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, hair color, body type or what have you it would be equally offensive. </p>

<p>A little advice, if you don’t want to offend anyone then just stop at that don’t go on with the offensive statement. But maybe you already know this. Maybe you were seeking the response you have received. You then have to ask yourself why? The answer to that question cannot possibly be pretty. Everyone makes mistakes, foolish people don’t learn from them. I hope you aren’t foolish.</p>

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<p>d “pretty attractive girls” at Penn and “hot chicks” at Vanderbilt according to the OP. IMO its as offensive as the OP’s offensive comment about the Jewish population at Penn. Its really a shame that the “top prep school” that accepted the OP for HS didnt teach him tolerance toward others that they exhibited toward him.</p>

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<p>Funny how there are some people who seem to have no problem when it concerns Asian students.</p>

<p>Anyway, aside from OP’s ridiculous remark (most “top” private schools will have a fairly large % of Jewish students - so maybe OP should rethink going to a top private school if he wants to avoid being around too many Jews), NU and Penn are very similar in many ways so he should really visit the 2 to make his decision.</p>

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<p>K&S is correct that bigotry against any group is offensive. I find that the same people make such comments about various groups; I am not sure if k&s was suggesting otherwise. </p>

<p>I am less sure I agree with mhmm that liking a school because it has “pretty attractive girls” or “hot chicks” is “as offensive”, rather than further proof that the poster is shallow and lacking in maturity and judgment, as well as a bigot. </p>

<p>Although mhmm may well be right that the poster is a sexist, I would not judge a female poster admiring a school having “pretty attractive guys” as being as disgusting as a bigot solely on that basis.</p>

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<p>Oh yeah, regarding your comment about Jews, that really won’t fly at any of the top schools. They all have strong commitments towards openness and diversity. The vast majority of them also have high Jewish populations.</p>

<p>You shouldn’t be prejudiced but at the same, I feel most people are prejudiced towards a certain group, whether conscious or not, whether they want to be prejudiced or not.</p>

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<p>I think everyone really misunderstood my statement. Yes, I did say diversiy is important to me, and yes I did say that a large Jewish population was a turnoff, but in the means of saying that this wouldn’t really make the campus as diverse as it seemed when I went to visit it. If I has said that 40% of the campus is hispanic and that this is a turnoff, this wouldn’t cause such a big deal, but just because I point out one group as my worry for lack of diversity it does not mean I don’t like them. At my prep school that I go to, some ofmy best friends are jewish.</p>

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<p>I hear you, but don’t see why, for example, having the white students divided among Protestants, Catholics and Jews 40/20/40 vs. 60/30/10 should strike you as a lack of diversity. When you attend college, if you mature, you will learn that an insufficiently diverse student body is more likely to result from kids being of the same level of affluence, or the same region of the country, or the same proximity to large cities than from religious breakdown. Stereotyping Jews as all being similar makes no more sense than thinking that Texas Baptists and Connecticut Episcopalians are identical Protestants or that a blue collar Polish Catholic from Brooklyn and an affluent Italian from the Napa Valley are simply Catholics.</p>

<p>I think it is similarly shallow and ignorant for people to lump all Latinos/Hispanics together, rather than acknowledging the many different nations they represent.</p>

<p>In addition, you should hardly be surprised that it raises more hackles when you say you don’t want a campus where 40% of the students are a group other than your own than if you said you did not want a campus where 40% of the students are from your group. In the former case, you are singling out a particular group and saying you don’t want too many of them around. In the latter case, you are saying you want to meet more people unlike yourself.</p>

<p>Finally, the “some of my best friends are…” defense was became a stereotype of lame explanations in the 1960’s, when it was commonly used by those denigrating blacks.</p>

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Many people I’m sure feel that a college is undesireable if > x% are such-and-such. However if you actually say it, you could be on shaky grounds depending on which group.</p>

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<p>OP - I want to extend the point yabeyabe made. I think you are equating a large Jewish population with a lack of diversity - at least I think that is how you are trying to defend your original statement. What I would like you to understand is that the Jewish population at a national university such as Northwestern or Penn will itself be diverse. They will not all be wealthy Jewish students from New York! You may find Jewish students from the South or Midwest are quite different than those from NY. You will find Jewish students of different economic levels and varying backgrounds. Some may be very observant Jews who follow strict dietary laws and observe the Sabbath. Others may be Jewish in the cultural sense - but not observe any religious holidays. Believe me, there is quite a bit of variation among Jewish people! There is an old saying that if you put 2 Jewish people in a room they will emerge with 3 opinions! Some Jews are very pro-Israel - some less so. Some Jews are liberal Democrats - some are conservative Republicans. Some Jewish students may have grandparents who were immigrants - while some may have relatives who fought in the Civil War. My point is you cannot lump all Jewish students together into one category - no more than you can equate all white students or all African-American students. I think you would benefit from re-thinking your initial post and giving more thought to what “diversity” is all about.</p>

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<p>You want to know what my input is? I think that because Penn has such a large Jewish population, they don’t need an anti-semite like you enrolling. Please, do us all some good and just go to Northwestern.</p>