Hi! Ive recently been accepted to my top 2 schools, UPenn and Northeastern University in Boston. Im currently planning to study Criminology and International Relations, but who knows if that will change. I love both schools, and both offer a lot of opportunities for what Im interested in. My main concern about Penn is the rigor of the curriculum. I know it will be difficult, and Im not afraid to work hard, as I have all through high school. Ill most likely end up doing something in Liberal Arts, so it wont be as rigorous as something in engineering or math for example, but Im still worried Ill be worked to death at Penn by required core classes and the rigor in general. Any advice?
By reported SAT scores, NU and Penn are similar. My advice is that you should choose the school you prefer and not think much about the workload unless it becomes a problem after attendance.
Isn’t Penn ED?
Your apprehension is part of Ivy League branding and is totally understandable. Do you have any actual data showing rigor is higher at Penn? Probably not. GPA’s suggest otherwise.
I would be more concerned if you were asking about Holy Cross
If you have been accepted to Penn it would have to be through and ED program and you are bound to go. As my son’s guidance counselor said, colleges are very good at choosing students who will be successful at their college. If you got into Penn you should feel confident that you can do well there. IMO Northeastern is a fine school, but not close to Penn.
I believe a lot of people think you are talking about Northwestern University, which is in Evanston and very much a peer of Penn.
Anyways who cares, even if you are below average at Penn you will probably have more doors open for you than Northeastern. There are always easy classes in every university. Find those to bump up your GPA.
Penn admitted you as an ED applicant? If that is the case, you have no choice, unless if you indicated that you require FA and Penn has not met your need while NEU has. Also, while NEU is an excellent university in its own right, it is not as good as Penn. This is a no brainer, unless financial considerations come into play, in which case, you (and your parents) have a decision to make.
Is this a joke? NU is Northwestern. His post mentions Northeastern (NEU, not NU) and Penn is ED so he is bound to go. So there’s nothing to discuss. And it’s his first post - sounds hard to believe.
Northwestern does not have EA. so he could not have been admitted to Northwestern and Penn at this point.