<p>Amazing mix of largely irrelevant information on a site oriented towards undergrad education. Penn is a great university (disclosure: I did my graduate work there), but its research and grad programs, the Med School, Wharton, Annenberg, Physics, anthropology etc are the basis of its strength. Columbia is actually underrated by most people. The massive biomedical programs at Penn and Columbia don’t look up to anybody, not Harvard or Stanford, certainly not Princeton. This has nothing go do with the admissions preferences of undergrads.
Penn’s campus went downhill for decades until the recent renewal. which made a big difference. Bad slums are still just a few blocks NE of campus. I was there a couple of months ago, so this is up to date info. At least you don’t have to pass through a semi-slum to get downtown, as at Columbia. Places like Brown and Dartmouth are not in the same class as Penn and Columbia as universities. Undergrads flock to Brown because Brown has few requirements, and they believe they are qualified to design their own programs (hahaha). Students are reluctant to go to Cornell because its is in Ithaca, and they are smart.</p>