<p>I am in Philly, in my hotel room, as I type this thread. I flew up here today to visit the campus. I can’t believe how massive Penn’s campus is!! I wasn’t big expecting it to be this big. It was some-what intimidating, but it IS NOT as dangerous as people make it out to be. I know there are areas and common-sense that need to be considered, but it is no worse than any other city, I promise. Actually, I can’t believe how many stores/shops and various other things there are to do around here. Nobody should ever be bored here.</p>
<p>from a philadelphian, welcome to the city of brotherly love, make sure u check out the quad...</p>
<p>Did you not go there earlier?
I recall that you were enrolled in Penn State before...</p>
<p>I'm sorry Duckstamper...you have the wrong person :)
luckycharms44...yeah I walked the entire campus. It is beautiful. Being an Ivy League, I kind wish it was a smaller campus, but it will definitely do.
We tried to go into the courtyard where the "castle looking" dorms are, but we didn't have a PennCard to gain access through the gates. Almost every building requires a PennCard.</p>
<p>Thanks for the report. We are visiting Penn with S this coming Wednesday. I grew up in the suburbs of Phila, so I am looking forward to a tour of the campus since I know it has changed since the middle ages when I took summer courses there.</p>
<p>just don't walk outside the penn campus, the only reason it's so beautiful is because penn OWNS that plot of land, the entire works is part of penn, plus philly pays to maintain it like that... outside it's... eep</p>
<p>I am staying in a hotel in the Business District of Philly, which is about 12 blocks away from Penn. This city is amazing. Penn definitely maintains their campus upkeep. I would imagine Columbia's campus is similar since they are both in the middle of the city. Previous threads were correct... Penn definitely has more "preppies" than any other school I have ever seen. The Penn bookstore is pretty cool, too.</p>
<p>cujoe- I live outside of Penn's "campus"- my house is nicer than any of the dorms. My neighborhood is safe and clean.</p>
<p>by no means was i implying all of philly's a mess, but if you head towards the railroad tracks... it gets a bit weird</p>
<p>I second muppetcoat!
And my rent is half the cost of a dorm at Penn.
MomofWildChild (and any other potential visitors) - I would definitely recommend taking a walk off campus! Cujoe is right that heading east is not much fun - personally I don't find it sketchy but there's not much to see and heading over the bridges is awfully windy. I would, however, suggest heading west of 40th. There are some really beautiful houses, Clark Park at 43rd and Baltimore and some great places to eat if you feel like taking a break from Starbucks and Cosi.</p>
<p>I hate to be a moderate, but I would tend to agree with both (well kinda). There are bad places and good places "off-campus" I would certainly recomend going east and not west, but thats not to say that the first few blocks into West Philly are really dangerous. As far as dorms go, I have a few friends @ Penn right now from my school's Class of '08, who I visit on the weekends, and not that the dorms are any worse than anywhere else, the do leak on occasion, along with all of the other things that come along with dorm life.</p>
<p>MomofWildChild- we are visiting Penn Wed morning too! We're taking both the Penn and Wharton tours- maybe we'll run into you- what a small world!!</p>
<p>What kind of rent are you paying for off-campus housing. Plus, how much did it cost to get into housing (i.e., deposit, first month's rent, etc.)? Although I am in my 30's, I am going back to complete the last two years of my Economics degree (undergrad), so Penn wants me to stay in graduate housing - due to my age. They told me to look into Sansom Place, East/West. I think I will head over there today and check it out. Some of the on-campus dorms looked fairly old from the outside, except The Quad. Any suggestions/advice...??</p>
<p>what are u supposed to do when u visit....i wanted to visit penn this summer with my family but idk what to do - do we just show up there?? kind of odd to me.</p>
<p>Ivybound...I just showed up. I flew from my home in Houston to DC and visited Georgetown for a few days, then I flew from DC to Philly. I just walked around on campus and went into buildings I could get into. Most buildings require a PennCard for access, so I just followed some students to a few I couldn't get in to on my own. I guess you should call and make an appointment, but I'm just doing my "own thing".</p>
<p>ivybound - i've visited twice lol. you can go on campus tours or sit in on information sessions - security may prevent you from getting a truly thorough look at the campus.</p>
<p>Thomas, I found Columbia and Penn to be very different. You may have noticed that the campus is pretty much open to Philadelphia - cross the street from a courtyard and you find yourself on a busy city street full of shops and people. Columbia was actually very contained by comparison; it also felt very claustrophobic to me, for some reason, with a ton of people crammed into that spot (this may have had to do with the fact that it was the first warm day in April so everyone was outside on the steps to the library). It was beautiful, though. Both campuses (campii? lol) were beautiful...but even though Penn has more people, Columbia seemed to be swarming with even more students than Penn</p>
<p>As I mentioned above, I kind of wished Penn was more of a smaller campus and had more of a personal feel to it (although it is very beautiful). I guess it's just that when I think of an Ivy League institution, I picture a smaller, enclosed campus. I know that's silly, but that's just how I envision what I want my experiences to be like at an Ivy. However, I am NOT deminishing the educational quality of Penn. I wouldn't turn down going to Penn just because of how big the campus is.</p>
<p>thomash32, i would recommend samson place west/east just because those dorms are slightly bigger than the others, gives off kind of a hotel feel but nice nonetheless</p>
<p>Thanks, cujoe169...I will go with that. I just hope I can get assigned one in Sansom Place. They say they assign rooms on a "rolling admissions" basis and I'm not sure how quickly Sansom Place fills up. :(</p>
<p>there are quite a few empty dorms in the upper floors*</p>