<p>Don't forget Penn's nursing school is one of the top 2 in the nation. Not only that, its SEAS is a leader in bioengineering (evidenced by the new building coming up next year) SEAS is also strong in other engineering fields such as materials science, chem e, chemical biomolecular e, etc.</p>
<p>Much of the credit for Penn's amazing endowment turnaround goes to investment genius John Neff.</p>
<p>Elleneast writes:
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I lived in West Philadelphia during the late 70's. I wonder if we crossed paths. I managed the Urban Outfitters at 4040 Locust while my husband was in grad school
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<p>I went to the dental school (4001 Spruce) during that same period. I remember my then GF's wardrobe was 99% from that store. You probably made a lot of commisions from her.</p>
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You probably made a lot of commisions from her.
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<p>I wish we had been commissioned employees. We were salaried. No complaints though, I was paid a fair wage and was able to support myself in fine grad student style.....lots of spaghetti dinners. I have very fond memories of my early married life in West Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, my dental school years were pretty miserable (though well worth it!) and my memories of West Philly aren't as fond. However, I visited Penn with my D last March and I was amazed with the progress that's been made in University City and downtown. I would love for her to attend Penn if she so desires (and gets in).</p>
<p>bern700, thanks for the post. On a less academic note, the shops along Walnut and along 40th are quite an improvement. As far as the basic area west of campus being gentrified, I don't see it on a large scale, though Rome wasn't built in a day. It's a shame because it's apparent by the beautiful architecture the area was once a fine residential place. </p>
<p>My memory stinks but didn't Urban Outfitters in addition to clothes for sale have a restaurant (more like cafeteria), and didn't they sell records or tapes or whatever they were in the late 70's? It was a cool place, not that we had any extra money to spend but I recall it being in a small converted warehouse. Is it still there?</p>
<p>I live right outside philadelphia! And it's an awesp,e city!!</p>
<p>2331clk: The Urban Outfitters now is on 36th and Walnut next to the bookstore, a Cosi, and an Eastern Mountain Sports. Also Sansom Row is awesome with White Dog, LTs, Black Cat, Bubble House, Bucks Country Coffee, etc. The shops on 40th are getting better. Plus a new bowling alley/lounge/bar (Strikes) was added on Locust near 41st. It is a pretty cool place I was watching CNN the other day and they featured it as a place that's putting bowling back on the map, lol :) In addition some of the residential neighborhoods around penn are really nice. Take Pine Street for example. It is comprised of many beautiful Victorian manors. These are popular with the wealthier students. They are really nice. The areas west of campus, such as beige block, are amazing too. Now that the company, Campus Apartments (I believe partly owned by penn), is buying up a lot of properties west of campus and remodeling them the west end (between 43rd and 39th and between Pine and Walnut) is getting revitalized.</p>
<p>lol they are even tearing down the "GhettoMagic" Movie Theater...wait I meant to say Cinemagic...</p>
<p>Yeah, I went to visit my old frat house on 41st & Walnut and saw it was now owned by Campus Apartments. Instead of rickety, broken steps up to the front door, there was a glass enclosed foyer with ferns & tile floor. It's probably even air conditoned now. Lost all it's charm.</p>
<p>Penn like WashU is over-rated.</p>
<p>Par72: I agree in a sense that Penn is over-ranked on USNWR...it is an amazing school but I still believe Stanford, MIT, & Caltech are better. However, if we are talking undergraduate quality I think that many people just ignore Penn and don't take if for what it's worth, in that sense Penn is under-rated. In this sense as well I think that the undergraduate education of Harvard is greatly over-rated. Undergrad-wise I would put it behind Princeton, Yale, MIT, Caltech, Stanford, and many top LACs (AWSP). </p>
<p>everyone is entitled to their opinion but I think you should do some in depth research on Penn and you'll see that in many ways it is under-rated (but I will concide over-ranked).</p>
<p>peace out</p>
<p>2331clk, I may have lived at 4522 Pine. I can't remember if the cross street was 45th or 48th.... How's that for senility? :)</p>
<p>To all the old-timers who lived way out west in the "badlands" - things haven't changed a whole lot. Well, housing prices have gone up but there are still plenty of great Ethiopian (and Vietnamese, Chinese, West Indian etc.) restaurants around, and you are still much, much more likely to experience crime on campus than up around 48th street.
But yes, I like Penn (I have to cause I didn't get in anywhere else!), I like West Philly, and although you could make an argument for it being over-rated, who wants to go to Stanford, Caltech or MIT anyway? (apart from the thousands of people that apply there of course.)</p>