<p>I looked further into those rankings and discovered that Penn has 15 departments (not including any business departments) ranked in the top ten. It has 21 departments ranked in the top 20 and 35 departments ranked in the top 25. And those rankings are from ten years ago (I couldnt find more recent ones), so all those statistics have all improved. The website where all the rankings are laid out is: <a href="http://www.stat.tamu.edu/%7Ejnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41.html</a>
In my opinion, every one of those departments is a reason why Penn is not only a good university, but a great one.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>There are 4 undergrad schools and 12 grad schools on one campus. You can take classes in any of the undergrad schools or pursue minors or dual degrees. You can also take classes in some of the grad schools or submatriculate into graduate programs. Penn is extremely interdisciplinary and really pushes the whole "one university" concept.</p></li>
<li><p>Philadelphia. It's a great, totally underrated city. There is so much to do in Philly but it's not overwhelming at all. It's completely walkable and that makes it so manageable. It really has a lot to offer. In my opinion being in a city is a HUGE asset.</p></li>
<li><p>Campus. Penn's campus is gorgeous. It has the feel of a collegiate campus with the greens and the historic buildings, but it's also in the middle of a city. There are a ton of stores on campus like Urban Outfitters, GAP, EMS, etc. And the bookstore is incredible.</p></li>
<li><p>Social atmosphere. Penn is known as the social ivy. Students know how to balance their social lives with their academic lives. </p></li>
<li><p>School pride. For an ivy, Penn students have a lot of school pride. No it's not uniform for all sports, but football games are fun, and if you ever go to a basketball game you will understand.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hey I'm from Philly, and have spent a lot of time on the Drexel and Penn campuses. I personally loved the quad enough to apply (though I got into my ED school and thus don't go to Penn), and though the area around Penn isn't 100% great, Phidelphia is definately an awesome city for a lot of reasons. People will think you're cooler if you say you live in Philly, trust me. I have to take issue with people saying that Penn is the only social Ivy though. Especially since I'd bet most haven't ever partied at any of the other Ivy league schools. I've partied a lot at both Penn and Brown, and while the atmospheres are quite different, both are very wild. Come on up to Brown, we'll show you a great time.</p>
<p>what's the best hangout place in Penn?</p>
<p>bartotoast, those rankings are for grad programs i believe, which doesn't really apply to the poster</p>
<p>yea, but they are run by the same faculty</p>
<p>And they are a reflection of the quality of the university as a whole, as there aren't really any undergraduate rankings on individual liberal arts subjects available</p>
<p>Yeah but then look at the History rankings. UCLA is in the top ten, but I'd bet you receive a much more quality education at Amherst or Williams than at UCLA (not that its a bad school). Yet Amherst and Williams don't even appear on the list.</p>
<p>Half of life (make that 3/4) is about</p>
<p>a) perception
b) networking</p>
<p>Even if a LAC gives someone a (marginally) better education than an Ivy League university, the Ivy Leaguer will have a more "wow" reputation and a much larger alumni network for connections.</p>
<p>"Yeah but then look at the History rankings. UCLA is in the top ten, but I'd bet you receive a much more quality education at Amherst or Williams than at UCLA (not that its a bad school). Yet Amherst and Williams don't even appear on the list"</p>
<p>Well, theyre not on that list because it is only ranking universities. Also, you have to be careful with the criteria you are using when it comes to "quality of education". Amherst and Williams may be the two top elite liberal arts colleges in the country, but UCLA is also just as selective. In addition, it is much more difficult to gain admission into UCLA if you live outside California than just about any University in the country(I think they take 5, maybe 6 percent of out of stater). Students may recieve more individualized attention at Amherst and Williams, but is the overall quality of education better there? I would have to say no.</p>
<p>and the LAC gets the University smack-down.</p>
<p>Yeah, but you also have to consider that a lot of students want to attend a U such as UCLA because of the athletic teams image. I'm not saying you don't get an outstanding education there, but some schools like, Duke, UCLA, Texas, etc, etc, have athletics to help build their reputaions. LAC's don't depend on thatn nor do many of the Ivies.</p>
<p>Yeah, my point is that grad school rankings can't tell you much, because they rate quality of research and not quality of undergrad teaching. Good research or famous profs does not necessarily equal good teaching. Does anyone know if anyone has ever ranked colleges or departments strictly by undergrad education?</p>
<p>Moat...No, it's hard to find a publication that ranks schools by a general undergraduate experience. The publication normally has to break it down into specific majors to rank them.</p>
<p>Didn't US News and World report do it a few years back? I thought I remembered an article about that somewhere...</p>
<p>Accompanying the growing trend of lower barriers to entry is the importance of a skill set/education. Therefore, the name will carry much less weight. And by the way, a upenn degree doesnt carry a whole lot of WOW.</p>
<p>4feynman I sense a lot of hypocrisy in your words here (when comparing to your post pertaining to PTon). You obviously have something against Penn. Penn degrees carry quite a bit of WOW. You also called Caltech a mediocre school? I think you are a bit Princeton-centric in your opinions... which is fine, but I think it's just skewed.</p>
<p>Found it!</p>
<p>here's the link</p>
<p>Marcus, i never once called Caltech mediocre. Rather, i stated that by just looking at acceptance percentages as a way to measure schools (which some moron was proposing) would have Caltech as mediocre which is far far from the truth. Sorry about my lack of explanation.</p>
<p>Don't worry 4feynman I'm not too shallow. I don't care if my school doesn't carry as much wow as Harvard or Yale (be realistic princeton is also pretty unknown to the general population)...</p>
<p>It's cool I don't mind going to a school whose average compensation 10 years out is a cool 450k...I'll survive. Feel free to try to make yourself feel better by bashing other schools...it only makes you look insecure & childish...have fun at Princeton, it's a really good school. While at Princeton I suggest you try and emulate your classmates there are a lot of people with class there, it might do you some good. :)</p>