<p>This is my main concern as a female. I don't like to party but I know I will work late at the library and then walk back to my dorms. I dont want to call campus police each time...what are my options? anybody have any stats?</p>
<p>You’ll get more responses to this–and better informed ones–in the Penn forum:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/</a></p>
<p>The matter of safety on a major urban campus is better informed by a personal experience than by crime statistics that a city or school might publish. Visit the campus (and this is true for any campus you visit) and try to stay overnight. As part of your visit, go for a walk (with a friend!) sometime after 10 pm and go in multiple different directions around the campus. Your own personal safety meter will kick in and you’ll be able to judge if the environment is acceptable or if it gives you the heebie-jeebies. </p>
<p>As for U Penn, I am not a fan and have visited some of the surrounding geography at different times during the day. Some folks might consider it safe. I don’t and would not walk outside the central campus area by myself at night. I think that 45 percenter feels differently and maybe you would as well after visiting. But I would not take this issue lightly if you are at all skittish-who wants to go thru four years of college experiencing fear in their home environs.</p>
<p>Actually, after we hired this intense lady to run our school’s security, Security Magazine rated us #1 for safety in the educational market. You honestly can’t walk a block without seeing at least one security officer. I’m from a city rated top 10 safest in the United States and I don’t get the “heebie-jeebies” on campus.</p>
<p>Security and police are very visible. However, anyone from Philly knows W. Philly is the worst part of town. Lots of shootings, some very close to campus. You need to be careful at any time of day but especially at night. That being said, UPenn does keep an visible police force. If you are not willing to deal with it, look into rural or small town campuses.</p>
<p>^^^^Nonsense. There are plenty of top quality schools in medium sized cities that are relatively safe.</p>
<p>Look at the crime reports. Most read something like this:</p>
<p>“Unaccompanied female mugged while walking down deserted alley at 2AM…”</p>
<p>If you have your wits about you and make smart, sensible choices, you’re fine.</p>
<p>^^^^I’ll assume you think the area around USC is safe as well. ;-)</p>
<p>As long as you’re not stupid, it’s fine. No, it’s not in the best neighborhood, but it’s not like you’re gonna walk out the door of the library and instantly get raped! Make sure you’re with somebody if you’re walking alone and it’s late. That’s just common sense, even if you’re at a small school in a safe place.</p>
<p>if you are an idiot, you are not safe no matter WHERE you go. Even in a remote place like cornell, the same idiot that would walk alone at 3 AM in West Philly will be the SAME idiot who accidentally stumbles off a gorge while drunk.</p>
<p>If you aren’t that type of person then you should be relatively safe at any school.</p>
<p>
I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. But I thought that if are w/ somebody, you are not walking alone.</p>
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<p>Again, maybe just me, but I did not know walking alone in a city is the same thing as falling down drunk in the country. Must be that clean air!</p>
<p>True story: my dad attended Penn for grad school and was playing a game of hoops in Penn’s gym on the weekend. He accidentally fouled a guy (it’s basketball…fouls happen), and in response, he attacked my dad with a barrage of punches and kicks and broke my dad’s thumb. He then ran towards his locker and claimed that he was going to retrieve his gun when finally he was restrained by his posse.</p>
<p>Turns out the guy (and most of his posse who didn’t take action when this guy was attacking my dad) didn’t even attend Penn. I don’t know whether Penn’s policies about letting non-students into the campus has changed since (this happened a good 20-25 years ago), but the account of the event has left a sour taste in my mouth about Penn. Of course, it’s unlikely that a student at any school will ever encounter such a scary scenario, but keep in mind at the same time that the conditions of the surrounding city can affect the safety of the campus, and that taking all possible precautions is still not a foolproof defense from all of the dangers a campus like Penn’s can pose.</p>
<p>In reference to Penn, I have seen hobos (homeless people) just randomly sitting on benches along the Penn campus. Not saying that this is dangerous, but if you are not someone who is ok with random people in/around your campus and a campus that is surrounded on nearly all sides by shady places/people, maybe Penn is not for you.</p>
<p>^ So I take it that their policies for allowing non-students into campus has remained unchanged? And it can be very dangerous if the people they are letting in are gun-toting hoodlums from West Philly that assault Penn’s students. Once again, not saying that this is the norm, but they need to reform these policies or at least seriously improve campus security and maybe then claims of how dangerous Penn’s campus is will start to dwindle.</p>
<p>There are no random non-Penn students using Penn’s athletic facilities. A woman leaving the library at 2am should get an escort. I would say that about Vanderbilt, too, which I consider quite safe.
Penn’s campus and the surrounding area do have safety issues. They are trying to address the issues, but that fact remains that there are gunshots, the McDonald’s attracts gangs of kids and there are incidents. It is a city school and you don’t get a warm, fuzzy feeling about the safety of the area.
My son is a senior and has known several kids who have been mugged or assaulted. He had an apartment which was broken into. You have to be very vigilant.
There are many good things about Penn, but there is a tendency on this forum to act like the safety concern is unfounded. It isn’t.</p>
<p>^^Uhhh monstor…I take if you’ve never been to Penn. And you’ve misinterpreted Hop2getrice’s post. A homeless person sitting on a campus bench is not a reflection of Penn’s “policies.” First of all, it’s a college campus, not a private luxury resort. Campuses aren’t typically shut off from the rest of the world. People visit them. They walk around. And Penn’s campus is contiguous with the city, not set off from everything, so off course non-Penn affiliated can be around. Have you ever been to Berkeley? There are homeless people EVERYWHERE. It’s not like Penn security guards see a homeless person and throw them out into the middle of the street. But to answer your questio, YES, policies are different. You need to swipe your Penn card to get into the gym. People can’t wander off the street into Pottruck.
But the security force is EXTENSIVE. Sometimes I think its extensiveness gives off a vibe that the campus is really unsafe and so may officers are needed, but that isn’t the case. If you’re off-campus at 2am by yourself, sure you are going to feel uncomfortable. But it’s not like people just come out and shoot you. The security force isn’t like an army defending invaders from West Philly constantly trying to attack the school. Yes there is crime in surrounding areas, but I don’t think people really understand what the situation is like. And honestly, nothing if going to happen to somebody on campus at 2am. Walking home from the library to an off-campus house at 2am, yeah, you should be careful. But on campus? There is nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>^ Regardless, the fact remains that on-campus safety is affected by the people living directly outside of campus. I don’t think it’s fair to say that if you’re not “stupid” (as in, you don’t want around West Philly at 2 AM), then you’ll be fine, because there are risks that students can’t control at campuses like Penn, and I think that point needs to be made clear.</p>
<p>But it’s good to hear that they’ve made the gym and other facilities more secure after my dad graduated.</p>
<p>Yes, since Penn is not in a wealthy suburb, there is a greater likelihood of safety issues. But you have never experienced it so you wouldn’t know the reality of it. I honestly have never seen people from the “community” wandering on-campus. At places like WaWa and the movie theatre, sure. That doesn’t mean they’re going to take out a gun and kill you, though. It’s not like drug dealers stroll down Locust Walk. If anything, you’ll see people from other parts of the city (Center City I’m guessing) jogging through campus or walking their dogs. I’d be very surprised to hear anything that actually happened ON campus, as opposed to a break-in 2 blocks away. I get what you’re saying, there is inherently a greater risk. But that risk hardly ever results in anything. </p>
<p>Check out this article as well: [How</a> Safe Is Your College? - Page 1 - The Daily Beast](<a href=“The Daily Beast: The Latest in Politics, Media & Entertainment News”>The Daily Beast: The Latest in Politics, Media & Entertainment News)</p>
<p>Harvard, Yale, and Brown made the 25 worst list in terms of safety. Penn didn’t.</p>
<p>I analyzed crime statistics in [another</a> post](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063048037-post43.html]another”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063048037-post43.html). Penn is the 6th most dangerous Ivy in terms of campus crime, behind Harvard and Columbia.</p>
<p>
I don’t know if I’d say that. Extremely unlikely, yes, but the possibility is certainly there. </p>
<p>[One</a> killed in Philly Diner shooting<a href=“not%20a%20student”>/url</a></p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2006/01/15/BreakingNews/Penn-Student.Shot.At.38th.Sansom-2146133.shtml]Penn”>http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2006/01/15/BreakingNews/Penn-Student.Shot.At.38th.Sansom-2146133.shtml]Penn</a> student shot at 38th and Sansom](<a href=“http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2006/01/09/News/One-Killed.In.Shooting.At.Philly.Diner-2146038.shtml]One”>http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2006/01/09/News/One-Killed.In.Shooting.At.Philly.Diner-2146038.shtml)</p>
<p>One thing I wanted to say was an overall message to the Penn community. Before what I used to do was justify a robbery happening by saying [the victims] were at the wrong place, they were out at the wrong time, [and] it’s never going to happen to me. Everyone probably reading this is thinking, It’s never going to happen to me. I’ve read in so many articles that Penn students feel so safe and they should because a shooting probably won’t happen. But I think the most important idea is not to take for granted those things that you think might never happen to you because they can. Don’t be in denial. This is real. It’s an urban city and it’s unsafe. Every urban city is unsafe. And any positive thing that can come from this is everyone being a little safer, thinking more about their choices, and not making risks that are unnecessary because there are a lot of things you can do to protect yourself.</p>
<p>[Shooting</a> victim: Caution always needed](<a href=“http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2006/01/20/News/Shooting.Victim.Caution.Always.Needed-2145912.shtml]Shooting”>http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2006/01/20/News/Shooting.Victim.Caution.Always.Needed-2145912.shtml)</p>
<p>I was there over the summer. They gave out rape whistles. Also, we figured out how to play songs on said rape whistles. It was awesome. </p>
<p>In all seriousness, I never felt unsafe, just don’t wander off campus late at night</p>