<p>also, given that 5% of cornell applicants (~1300 people) did not indicate a school selection and are therefore auto-rejected, the actual (practical?) admit rate for cornell is a bit higher than 25%.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2007/08/the_idiocy_of_cornell_applican.shtml[/url]”>http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2007/08/the_idiocy_of_cornell_applican.shtml</a></p>
<p>similar things, i’m sure, happen at other schools, perhaps even penn.</p>
<p>Percy…those were 2006 numbers for all schools, not just Penn.</p>
<p>2007 looks something like this:
Harvard- 9%
Yale/Princeton/Stanford/Columbia(overall)- 10%
MIT- 12%
Brown- 14%
Dartmouth- 15%
Penn- 16%
Cornell- whatever it’s cornell</p>
<p>Does Columbia’s ranking include the SEAS data? That is the real question.</p>
<p>"But Penn should be cautious now that Lee Stetson is leaving & Philly is going to hell in a handbasket. "</p>
<p>No reason to think that whomever they get to replace Stetson will do anything different - why mess with success? Stetson hasn’t done this alone - he has built a large staff of adcoms who are familiar with the “Stetson method” and will almost certainly continue with it.</p>
<p>As for Philly going to hell, I wouldn’t say so. There has been a slight uptick in crime nationwide and Phila. has been no exception but the sky is not falling. People search for sociological/political/economic causes for such increases but usually the reason is demographic - the same reason that college admit rates are down - there is an increase in the population of 18 yr olds - the same age group that applies to college is also in its peak years for criminal activity. When the # of 18 yr olds falls in a few years (as it will) so will the crime rate.</p>
<p>Also, admit rate influenced by the # of seats they have to fill. Penn is 2nd largest Ivy, after Cornell, with 9500+ undergrads. Columbia is 2nd smallest, with fewer than 1/2 as many seats.</p>
<p>Yes, Columbia’s ranking does include SEAS data, Johnny boy.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“http://wikicu.com/CC-SEAS_relationship[/url]”>http://wikicu.com/CC-SEAS_relationship</a></p>
<p>
For 11 years worth of rankings (1998-2008), it has been 4th through 7th, i.e., this is the 11th year in a row that it has been ranked 4-7. Got it, now?</p>
<p>Well then I shall shut my pie-hole ;)</p>
<p>I must agree with Percy that Philly is far from “going to hell in a handbasket,” and improvement need not wait for demographics, but from the impending election of a mayor who is not staggeringly incompetent–and also has a set of aggressive anti-crime measures, some of them lifted right out of Giuliani’s playbook instrumental in saving NYC (most notably, ‘stop-and-frisk’)</p>
<p>UNBIASED POSTER: Penn is a fantastic school. It’s obviously far better than it gets credit for here on CC. Over the past years, Penn has been ranked:</p>
<p>7 6 7 6 5 4 5 4 4 7 </p>
<p>Given the small number of total points that differentiate schools in this range from each other, it is clear that Penn isn’t going anywhere and people should accept it as easily a top 10 school and stop trying to rank it below HYPCD when comparing the ivies. It’s up there to stay.</p>
<p>If the USNWR rankings would’ve dropped Penn to, say, 9th or 11th, some people on this thread would be looking for a bottle of pills to swallow. For those of us who attend or will be attending, I hope these rankings aren’t the only inspiration we have to put our best feet forward at such a great institution. The better we make our experience at Penn, the harder we decide to work, the more control we will have over the next few years with how USNWR or any other recognized ranking agency ranks us. Hell yeah I’m happy with the ranking, but Penn speaks for itself.</p>
<p>who cares dudes</p>
<p>“people should accept it as easily a top 10 school and stop trying to rank it below HYPCD when comparing the ivies”</p>
<p>It does rank below HYP and I don’t think many dispute that though at this point if Wharton were a separate school it would be about even w/ the top 3.</p>
<p>What I think does rankle people (esp. people who go to those schools) is that Penn now consistently ranks above all the other Ivies except for HYP. This is has been established over the last decade but people have long historical memories and certainly in the more distant past Penn was NOT ahead of the other Ivies except maybe for Cornell. So Penn is viewed as a “pretender” or accused of “manipulating the scores” or USNWR’s methodology is criticized. Even now on certain selected measures others are ahead and the anti-Penn people point to these. However that’s to be expected - for example even if Penn is not the lowest in admit rate after HYP (and it ain’t, except again for Wharton), admit rate counts for a whole 1.5% of the total USNWR score. The biggest factor is the “reputation” score which is something like 30% weight or 20x as much as admit rate and here the peer judgment does not lie. Those who claim other wise are just playing out the sour grapes fable.</p>
<p>While Penn has improved dramatically over the last 10 years, its rate of improvement will accelerate over the next 10 years with its Penn Connects campus expansion, improved student housing (high-rise renovations, the Radian and the new dorm), better faculty via the Penn Integrates Knowledge initiative, and a host of other improvements…Penn has been fortunate of late in having visionary leadership and increased resources with which to make improvements.</p>
<p>As a Penn student, I feel its the greatest school on earth. Regardless of any ranking.</p>
<p>Uh, Penn is a lot bigger than its rankings. It’s in a cadre of the best-of-the-best and it seems to be getting better and better. Number 1, number 5, number 25, it speaks for itself.</p>
<p>And I didn’t even go to Penn. I am just damned impressed with it.</p>
<p>“and also has a set of aggressive anti-crime measures, some of them lifted right out of Giuliani’s playbook instrumental in saving NYC (most notably, ‘stop-and-frisk’)”</p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>“its Penn Connects campus expansion,”
Don’t tell me they’re building more campus right in the middle of the sketchy areas?
This may be hearsay but wasn’t the idea to make Penn an “open” campus, more integrated into the community, so that the school wouldn’t garner animosity from the townies for being a bastion of wealth and snobbery?
This idea hasn’t really worked out, has it? Wouldn’t Penn be a little better off as a more secure campus? Yale is in a similar situation - New Haven is not the nicest city - and it’s secure campus seems to work.</p>
<p>Penn remains my number one choice. But no matter how much the students on this board say on the contrary, I can’t shake off that Philadelphia stigma.</p>
<p>The Penn Connects campus expansion will be towards the east, to “connect” Penn with Center City, and not towards the west, further into West Philly.</p>
<p>There’s not a “stigma” attached to Philadelphia as a city any more than there is to any big city. It has a lot of fantastic neighborhoods with a plethora of offerings in the arts, culture, cuisine, nightlife, etc. If you really want to come to Penn, you should plan to embrace the city and all it has to offer, and not view it as a “stigma” or hindrance.</p>
<p>I’ve posted this kind of stuff before, but remember, Philly has: some of the greatest art museums in the country, one of the greatest orchestras in the world (no joke), one of the largest–if not THE largest–urban parks in the world, several incredible restaurant districts–including over 200 sidewalk cafes within a mile or 2 or Penn’s campus, beautiful historic neighborhoods from the 18th and 19th centuries, etc., etc.</p>
<p>A crime problem in certain high-crime areas? Yes. But don’t allow that to define the entire city for you. There are an amazing number of positives that come with that negative.</p>
<p>If you want more info on the Penn Connects master plan…</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.evp.upenn.edu/news/UPenn_ExecSummary.pdf[/url]”>http://www.evp.upenn.edu/news/UPenn_ExecSummary.pdf</a></p>
<p>Thanks to both of the above.</p>
<p>I’m sure I’ll be over the whole security thing within a week. I just have to PRAY TO GOD that my mom never never never hears about any crime in Philly. She is honestly the biggest worrier ever. I’m not exaggerating. She has an amazing knowledge of tragic events that have happened in every different activity I’m going out to do - driving, dancing, working out, ice blocking, whatever. If someone gets murdered, I’m coming home, LOL</p>