<p>In the past decade Penn has seemed to make huge strides in it's reputation. Do you think that in the next few years they will be able to continue to have such a marked growth in prestige?</p>
<p>They have some really cool construction going on so aesthetically, yes. Academically, I cannot say. Last year Wharton lost its #1 position to Mendoza (at Notre Dame), but Penn is expected to take it back. If you count regaining a past position as gaining prestige, then yes, I suppose.</p>
<p>Please ask after you or someone else supplies us with a 100% accurate in future prediction crystal ball.</p>
<p>I don’t think the rankings that truzzi182 is talking about changed anyone’s perception about Wharton still being the best of its kind. If anything, those rankings were pretty much scoffed at by most people (I think they put NYU Stern at 15 that same year).</p>
<p>I personally think that Penn (and Columbia) is a black horse.</p>
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<p>That ranking is a joke, even my high school friend at ND doesn’t buy it. </p>
<p>It’s just like how Harvard will always be #1 regardless of how many times US News puts princeton at the top.</p>
<p>^thats totally true, USNews rankings are the only ones that make sense, Im sure every sensible person will go to wharton over mendoza any day</p>
<p>I know Wharton is still the best - and I know USNews ranks suck. It’s just all that I have to go off of. Unless they run an annual, “What do you think of Penn” poll, there is no way to answer this question.</p>
<p>To answer this question accurately, one can look at the past trend, in which Penn has gained a significant amount of prestige over the past 15-20 years. That much is already set in stone. However, the future’s murky as always, but Penn hasn’t made any drastic changes (either good or bad), so I would assume the prestige growth will continue, if at a slower pace. However, if prestige is your main concern for applying to a school, Penn will never really have the high presige afforded Harvard and Princeton and Yale. I mean, compared to those three, Penn’s still a minimal school to the majority of people.</p>
<p>I completely and utterly agree with bpsbgs. When applying to a school you really shouldn’t care about prestige. IF you do, however, you probably should not apply to a place that is commonly mistaken as Penn State.</p>
<p>In fact, I don’t know why that wasn’t my original response.</p>
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<p>I completely disagree. Who’s definition of prestige are you talking about? Who cares if joe schmo down the street gets Penn mixed up with Penn State? Penn is still very prestigious to those who matter (namely recruiters, etc)</p>
<p>Well, thanks for calling my parents and my entire neighborhood “joe schmos” who “don’t matter.” That’s a tiny bit elitist.</p>
<p>And you thought I made a generalization? :D</p>
<p>I don’t even tell people that I want to go to Penn because i’m tired of saying, “no, it’s not the same thing as Penn state.” nonetheless, my love for the university burns on, even if no one else knows that it exists. :)</p>
<p>I think the change in their testing policy is an indication that they are still trying to increase their prestige. See[my response](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/1048396-sat-act-question.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/1048396-sat-act-question.html</a>).</p>
<p>@Ivystriver2 - If by the grace of God I get accepted, I’m just going to tell people University of Pennsylvania. It’s a mouthful, but I think the misconception would drive me nuts!</p>
<p>They’ve gone about as high as they can go. HYPS are immovable objects. I think the room for improvement is in the reputation percolating to the average joes.</p>
<p>Exactly. Penn is a top 5 school (IMO). I don’t know how you can get much better. All businessmen know of Wharton; I live in Indiana where very little focus is given to the Ivies. Although many do not know of Penn, the moment you mention Wharton, they know all about it.</p>
<p>Correction to one person who said something about the US News rankings, they’re the ones people follow. BusinessWeek is the one who’s nuts ranking Mendoza and UVA higher than Wharton, Stern out of the top 10, and a bunch of other random stuff no one agrees with. Nobody understands the metrics they use to calculate the rankings.</p>
<p>As for prestige, a lot of it is regional. On the East Coast, almost anyone who knows anything will automatically be impressed that you go to UPenn. Midwest/Central, a lot of people tend to think the only Ivies are HYP. West Coast, people think HYPS is top-tier and nothing else compares. Ranking-wise, many students/educators/administrators would probably rank it:
- HYPS
- lower-tier Ivies (UPenn, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown)
- top-25 schools</p>
<p>If finance/business is your goal though, Wharton is only rivaled by Harvard. Princeton falls below those two, Yale places hardly any kids because it’s historically been the most liberal HYP and graduates more future doctors, lawyers, and academics, Stern and Ross at UMich follow, and then the remaining 5 Ivies and other top-15 undergraduate business programs comprise the rest of the “targets.”
- H/W
- Princeton / Stern
- Ross / Haas
- Ivies + top-15</p>
<p>Double post, connection issues.</p>
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Yeah besides being an elitist prick, you’re limiting the definition of prestige here by a ton. You can’t just decide to not count those peoples’ opinions when it is convenient for you to do so. The fact that random Americans don’t know that UPenn is different from Penn State is largely because UPenn hasn’t done enough to boost its prestige and publicity. </p>
<p>Also a lot of people care. You care enough to be so bitter about it, apparently.</p>
<p>i think upenn has gone as high as it go. the only way to go now is down…or staying constant behind HYPS =)</p>
<p>just staying constant is i think what you guys should be hoping for; it’s already a top 5 school. at least according to usnews it is. i personally still think HYPSMC is a rank higher than upenn</p>