<p>And Philly can't compare with SF.</p>
<p>^^ agreed, id take stanford no question, especially since it offers more flexibility in changing majors than penn does, and you seem very undecided. i would only take penn over stanford if i got into one of the joint degree programs (huntsman or fisher mnt). personally, stanford is my first choice because of its great weather, beautiful campus, athletics worth rooting for, laid back atmosphere, and the #2 engineering department in the nation.</p>
<p>"I've heard that Palo Alto gets pretty boring though, since you can't just pop into San Fran like you can with Philly if you go to Penn."</p>
<p>That's not true! I biked to San Francisco from the Stanford campus before. Sure it might have taken 3 hours.....but it definitely convinced me that the city is not as far away as one may think.</p>
<p>Are you kidding me dusk? (especially that "except for wharton" remark!). I was actually talking to the CEO of a major chain of hispitals here and the topic over Stanford v Penn came up and he said that although he prefers penn students (keep in mind, this was also for non-business careers as well) at as high of a level that the schools are at it makes no difference. I can guarentee you that aside from the special programs, if one takes the same student and places said student in either Penn or Stanford, both trajectories will be similar if not identical. What I have noticed, however, is that West Coasters seem to prefer Penn and east coasters seem to prefer Stanford (this is speaking of prestige as viewed from a high schooler. job markets will be equally open to both of them). I think johnny's analysis (aside from the tongue in cheek aspects!) is very sound.</p>
<p>Penn15: med schools know this. they rank schools based on grade inflation and penn is one of the lowest major schools in terms of grade inflation. stanford is the highest.</p>
<p>I didn't like Stanford's Campus. Though that is probably because I have been raise as an east coast elite, and Stanford's doesn't feel proper enough. It is insufficiently pretentious.</p>
<p>Though I don't realy think Penn's campus is a real looker, either. It suffers from beign the result of the sprawl of unanticipated success as opposed to a master plan. The only campus i ever REALLY liked was Columbia's, but I don't want to go to school in NYC...</p>
<p>As for the actual education, I think Stanford's is a smidgen above Penns' (not an entire tier!!)</p>
<p>I'm in Penn and Duke. And I would murder someone to turn the rejection letter I'm going to get tomorrow from Stanford into an acceptance. So my recommendation is obvious.</p>
<p>I'm in a similar situation. Penn v Stanford v Duke v Yale. But I think I'm narrowing it down to Penn v Duke because I don't feel like moving all the way out to Cali. I was also very unimpressed by what New Haven had to offer. What about Duke? Everyone here seems to have forgotten about it. </p>
<p>Also, I applied to the College of Engineering at Penn because I didn't really know what I wanted to do at the time so it seemed like the most practical choice. Is there a way that I can transfer immediately to the College and start there instead of at SEAS?</p>
<p>If the rules are the same throughout the schools, you can change after your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th semesters.</p>
<p>I'm in a similar situation, Penn v. Duke v. Stanford v. Brown.</p>
<p>I'm probably going to choose Stanford for the following reasons
a. as a prospective Polisci/Econ double major, Stanford's departments are in the top five nationwide
b. the weather in Palo Alto is pretty damn good
c. SF!
d. I'm a West Coast (SoCal) guy, and travel back home is much easier, cos my parents cant afford much travel on top of the bill
e. the Stanford in Washington program, Frosh/Soph seminars, the Honors Thesis...tons of undergraduate academic opportunities
f. the prettiest campus in the nation. Dartmouth gives it a fight, but Stanford still wins.</p>
<p>Pretty is a bit subjective. I have an east coast sense of architechture and not surpringly found Stanford's to be rather unappealing. </p>
<p>Collegiate gothic or neoclassical are the only acceptable ones as far as I'm concerned.</p>
<p>Stanford's campus is almost too beautiful that it seems unreal. That's the biggest complaint. :)</p>
<p>"agreed, id take stanford no question, especially since it offers more flexibility in changing majors than penn does, and you seem very undecided."</p>
<p>I'm not really sure about Stanford, but Penn is VERY flexible when it comes to switching majors. You can pretty much take any class you want from any of the four schools, and transferring between schools is a pretty simple affair (at least between SAS and SEAS, Wharton has some requirements). In fact, I just switched from Bio to a bioengineering/biology dual-degree; it only took one short form to fill out. If you're extremely indecisive, I think Penn is a very good choice. But Stanford is....well, Stanford, haha. It's a tough one, no doubt.</p>
<p>it is soooooo simple man...
you like basketball go duke
you like shake/bake/earthquakes, go Stanley Ford
you like steak go to Philli</p>
<p>outside of wharton, stanford is undoubtedly better than penn. transferring into wharton is iffy, so stanford would seem like the safer choice. youll get ur opportunities for greatness at either place, so pick what "feels" better. im a prestige whore, so i pick the higher US News ranking (thats an exagerration, but there was no question in my mind to take princeton over columbia and penn).</p>
<p>how is stanford undoubtedly better than penn?
i can agree with most stuff after "youll get ur..." though.</p>
<p>stanford weather is nicer, their econ department is top 5 i believe, etc etc, its just awesome. i would kill to be on the waitlist.</p>
<p>oh. i guess that proves it.</p>
<p>yes it sure does.</p>
<p>Poor example of econ, as that is one of the non-Wharton departments in which Penn actually does excel as being among the best of the best.</p>