<p>Yeah guys....c'mon, he reallys wants reasons why he should choose Cornell or Penn, so don't attack him. I think it's a him..whatever.</p>
<p>Anyway - I think Philadelphia sucks. It's ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in America. In my brief stay there, it was run down and nasty, and I honestly didn't feel to safe on the streets (except for one area around our hotel, which was nicer). They had 406 murders in 2006, and 10,971 robberies, according to city-data.com</p>
<p>I wouldn't say that Cornell is a lot more fun than Penn. Granted, if you have a ton of money you can do a lot more in Philly than you can do in Ithaca (clubs, day trips to NYC and DC, restaurants, etc.) but it's not like only rich kids have fun at Penn. If you don't party a city can offer you more non drinking stuff to do on Friday and Saturday nights than a small town like Ithaca (not saying that there is nothing but drinking, only that Philly offers more alternatives). About Philly being dangerous, Penn students run around town at all times of the day. You'll see people walking home from parties and the library at all times of night by themselves or with an escort. There has only been one violent crime against a student on campus last year, but it was rape, something not unique to Penn or Philly. There are crimes not too far from campus, but almost all involve people not affiliated with the university. Unless you're walking around waving a bunch of hundred dollar bills around, you should be safe.</p>
<p>Penn and Cornell have a lot of similarities and a lot of differences. You have to figure out what you want in a college and see if either Penn or Cornell is a better fit.</p>
<p>there's no place like cornell...</p>
<p>philly seems to be a city trying to be like boston...</p>
<p>rich folk at cornell do tend to get out of ithaca though...for weekends, holidays and whenever they want...</p>
<p>I went to Philly last year and did not feel safe... I was in one of the building when following the tour guide; I was afraid someone would rush in and start shooting at us...</p>
<p>I just feel Cornell has better environment, so I am EDing Cornell over Penn.</p>
<p>Old City and some other areas of Philly are definitely more exciting than (and as safe as) Ithaca. Unfortunately, Penn is not in one of those areas. West Philly sucks, but Penn is sort of like a bubble in the neighborhood that surrounds it. It's much safer on campus than it is, say, 5 blocks away from campus.</p>
<p>let's not overstimate ithaca's safety...</p>
<p>cant remember how many emails i've gotten always with a "black" suspect...</p>
<p>not being racist but just noting frequencies...</p>
<p>then why did you even mention his race in your post. </p>
<p>Ithaca is a really safe place. You still have to take care of yourself and be aware of your surroundings (as you should anywhere).</p>
<p>i felt safe walking from the library back to my dorm at 2am...that's saying a lot</p>
<p>racism assumes personal (not statistical) bias....</p>
<p>So the point of your post was that some people overestimate Ithaca's safety. Okay, fine. So to support the idea that Ithaca is less safe than people assume, you choose to mention the race of the suspect(s) in the emails. Why does that information contribute anything to your post?</p>
<p>I wasn't questioning whether it was true that the emails more likely than not reported the criminals to be black. But I do think that you mentioning race was a way of your saying "see we aren't that safe, we have BLACK criminals!" "Not only did we have a bunch of reported robberies on the streets of ctown, but the guy who did it was black!... This shows how cornell isn't as safe as you might think!" </p>
<p>This is how I read your post, and I don't really see any other reason why you mentioned his race other than to use his blackness to show that Cornell is less safe. Idk I think doing that is racism at least on some level. Or that it intends to draw on other people's racism.</p>
<p>"I went to Philly last year and did not feel safe... I was in one of the building when following the tour guide; I was afraid someone would rush in and start shooting at us..."</p>
<p>Lmao... How pathetic an attack. Unless this poster was serious, in which case they should be checked for some kind of paranoia disorder.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you walk 5 blocks east of Penn, you are in center city, VERY nice. 5 Blocks north you are going towards the beautiful and wealthy suburbs (Main Line), walk 5 blocks south you are in vibrant south philly, and 5 blocks west, OMG, POOR PEOPLE AND CRIME!!! RUNNNN.
Walk 5 blocks west of Cornell... there are trees. 5 blocks east, trees. 5 blocks north, trees and 5 blocks south, OMG MORE TREES. The area is very nice, in the foresty sense. But I would rather have a vibrant city with more things to do than a university can offer.</p>
<p>Penn is not SURROUNDED by crime and poverty as these people who feel "unsafe" in Penn make it seem. There is only one side that faces Penn which I would not be in after midnight. Everything else is fine. Besides, Penn has the biggest university police department in the country.</p>
<p>08senior08-
I can speak as a graduate of both Cornell undergrad and Penn grad so I am familiar with both areas -
It doesn't sound as though you have ever been to Cornell.</p>
<p>agreed tahoe...</p>
<p>the only bad thing about cornell is that you cant get out unless you have money (for those of us who come from out of state (south/west))</p>
<p>"Besides, Penn has the biggest university police department in the country."</p>
<p>I should hope so...they're located in Philly. ;D</p>
<p>Perhaps the point of resurgam saying black suspect was to point out that Philadelphia is, in fact, 43.2% black, which may be one of the reasons it has a crime rate of 703. The US average crime rate is 309.6, so Philadelphia is WAY over. Ithaca, on the other hand, is 6.7% black and has a crime rate of 233.5, below the US average. </p>
<p>Of course, that'd take a bit of digging into Resurgam's post.</p>
<p>If anyone finds my post racist, they're too sensitive. I have done nothing but state facts in my post. I am in no way racist, I don't judge people by color, and I would never think less or more of a person because of a skin color. Having said that, however, it is a fact that the higher the African American percentage, the higher the crime. I'm not even saying that they CAUSE the crime - I could just as easily have said "The higher the pollution in the air, the higher the crime" this is just the two statistics that seem to be directly proportional.</p>
<p>Anyway, arguing/toying with Cornell CC students is slightly more annoying than fun and humorous, so I'll pull away from this thread as reading some of their overtly bias posts make me have more of a negative view of Cornell than I should considering almost everyone I know going there is a good friend.</p>
<p>ILOVEWHARTON: visit both. After that the choice should be pretty clear.</p>
<p>Oh and if you think Cornell's party scene > Penn's... HAHAHAHAHH. Funny if not for the obvious reason that we have a huge city and other universities to party in. Not that Cornell's party scene is bad.. just limited by its location compared to Penn.
Love to hear this one argued.</p>
<p>OH AND PENN IS SOOOO MUCH MORE PRESTIGIOUS THAN CORNELL.
Love to hear this one argued too.</p>
<p>And yeah Philly is pretty black.. much more so in the outer circle than center city, which Penn is in-between. That unfortunately does scare many people, whether they want to admit it or not.</p>
<p>soccer guy: great to know you learned that correlation does not imply causation ^_^</p>
<p>I must say, as an unbaised source who is applying to both schools, that UPenn does seem more prestigious and I'm under the impression that you would get better job opportunities there. However, Cornell is still a great school and you probably do have a better chance of getting in. As for the city, I haven't been West Philly, but I've been all around the downtown area on foot and you would have no idea it was a high-crime city from there alone.</p>
<p>in the south Cornell sounds more prestigious...UPenn sounds a bit too much like PennState...</p>
<p>To Clarify: I have visited both at least twice. My sister and both my parents attended cornell, so I have visited at least 10 times. I visited Penn for the second time this spring and fell in love with the place and was certain that I wanted to go there, because the location seemed perfect and I was very attracted to the interdiscplinary nature of the university. After this visit, I was certain that I was applying to Penn early decision. Then, I spent my summer at cornell and had an awesome time. The campus and surrounding area is beautiful, my professors were incredible, and best of all every student I met was awesome and incredibly down to earth. The greek life is incredible and being outside a city gives off the real college experience. However, I am still slightly leaning towards Penn because it has greater prestige and I am very intrigued by its interdisciplinairy programs. Still, I am nervous that Penn is all snobby rich kids and that it is more preppy and less down to earth than Cornell.</p>