Hardly. It’s a great city with a lot of great amenities, which the vast majority of Penn students enjoy quite a bit. You really need to chill out and wait until you’ve been there for a while before forming any judgments. There are lots of reasons that Penn is in such high demand by top applicants, and its location in Philly is one of the major ones.</p>
<p>Terrified? No way, I’m excited! Every major city has its downfalls, but Philadelphia is FAR from being the most depressing and run-down city in the world. The world is a big place, you know. And Philly is one of the major reasons why I applied to Penn. </p>
<p>You seem to have a lot of negative feelings about Penn and I hope you at least give it a chance when you go there before making judgments before you’re even on campus.</p>
<p>If you feel this terrified of going into Philadelphia you shouldn’t be going into any major U.S. city. I honestly get very annoyed when people make these kind of generalizations about Philly, it’s very narrow-minded and quite frankly these stereotypes are very wrong. Most people who say those things have never been to Penn or to Philly. Philadelphia is a beautiful and very friendly city with lots of things to do. Penn’s campus and surrounding area is very secure, there are police EVERYWHERE. I have never felt unsafe at Penn. As long as you use good judgment and street smarts, you will be fine. You shouldn’t feel very good walking anywhere (even the suburbs) at three o’clock in the morning and it is no different here. Even a little outside the campus (around 45th) is fine too, just a regular city neighborhood. It may not be very affluent, but the people who live there are very friendly and good people. I volunteer at one of the elementary schools down there and thoroughly enjoy it.</p>
<p>There’s crime in every major city. Get over it. As long as you don’t go wandering the city by yourself late at night you will be fine. And as surprising as this may seem to you, many people are attracted to Penn because it is in a major city. If you don’t like cities why’d you apply to Penn and Columbia?</p>
<p>Stop trying to come up with reasons why you don’t want to go to Penn…You will be going in a few weeks and you will probably enjoy the experience more going in with an open mind than with preconceived notions that it is going to suck.</p>
<p>Honestly, you seem like a sheltered and close-minded individual.</p>
<p>I’ve got news for you, every major city has rampant crime and it’s something that comes inherently when you condense hundreds upon thousands of people in a small area. You’ll find good people and bad people in every city, be it London, New York, Philly or San Francisco, and basing your view of the city on news articles, which often sensationalize incidents like this one, is a very poor way to gauge what the city is really like.</p>
<p>In west Philadelphia born and raised
On the playground is where I spent most of my days
Chillin out, maxin, relaxing all cool,
And all shooting some b-ball outside of the school
When a couple of guys who were up to no good
Started making trouble in my neighborhood
I got in one lil fight and my mom got scared
And said "You’re moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air</p>
<p>So in your mind, crime = depression and a run-down city? Wait, you’re going to the University of Pennsylvania? Well, it’s good to know they choose only the best and brightest to attend their institution of higher learning! Can you even show me where you’re getting these statistics from? If there’s really an index that determines the most run-down cities in the world, could you please link it to me?</p>
<p>Yes, there is a lot of crime in Philly, but the area where Penn is has campus police, city police and blue phones everywhere. If you get harmed while in Philly, it’s likely because of a stupid decision to go out at bad time or without someone else. There will literally be thousands of other students on campus, so if you’re scared to go out, even in the day time, there is something very wrong with you. </p>
<p>And since you agree that statistics don’t lie, I’ll have you know that in 2007, there were 148 homicides in London and 27 in Philly. There were 37,000 robberies in London and 714 in Philly. So yes, Philly is crime-ridden, but bigger cities are far more crime-ridden. Stop being so obnoxious and grow up. If you didn’t like Philly, why the hell are you going to Penn in the first place?</p>
<p>I think Penn has already taken everyone off of the waitlist for this year, so Hafsa you might want to give up on your strategy now.
Unless, of course, you are applying this year and hoping to cut down on competition. Careful though, karma is a b–ch.</p>
<p>If you look at Wikipedia, which is where I assume you got your information, there’s a key note for Philadelphia: “Number of reported crimes per 100,000 population.” In other words, the stats you are citing are not the actual numbers at all. To compare fairly, one must also convert London’s figures (you cited the raw totals) to a ratio figure.</p>
<p>Homicides per 100,000: 27 Philadelphia > 2 London
Robberies per 100,000: 714 Philadelphia > 490 London
Aggravated assault per 100,000: 666 Philadelphia > 46 London</p>
<p>Please, let’s not use the tired old excuse “All major cities have crime” as a transparent fig leaf for disturbingly high crime statistics.</p>
Yes, IT IS, for the vast majority of students.</p>
<p>Apparently not for you, though. Hopefully, you’ll quickly learn to appreciate all that Penn and Philly have to offer, or else transfer out and open up a space for one of the thousands of eager applicants who DO appreciate it.</p>
<p>I wanted to come to Penn to be in Philadelphia and a lot of other people did too. For someone who wants an urban setting Penn is perfect because it has a lively campus and is only across the bridge from downtown. Philadelphia is a great city for college aged people because of it’s size and ease of transportation.</p>