<p>Ok, has anything similar to this happen to you guys? Every year at graduation, the principle announces the schools that the top 5% of the class are attending. I wrote down I would be attending the University of Pennsylvania and obviously was expecting to hear that school being called as I rose to go to the front of the auditorum. However, our principle instead said my name and boomed into his microphone that I would be attending Penn State. As many in my class figured I would at least try to get into a few ivies, most kids and parents were stunned to hear about this revelation regarding my college choice. Thus, after the graduation, like 50 people came up to me and said something like "OMG I THOUGHT U WERE GOING 2 WHARTON OR YALE! What happened?!?!"</p>
<p>Basically that's why I hate the name "University of Pennsylvania." Why don't they just change it to Franklin University or something. I know the school has history as the first real college (outside of HYP divinity schools) but its still an awkward name for an Ivy.</p>
<p>Meh…I thought about getting up and saying something sireddy. However, it was the last time I’ll see my school administrators. I know I’ll never see them again, but I didn’t wanna embarass them in front of over 1000 people.</p>
<p>Living in the midwest in a state with two big ten teams, I hear a lot of people confuse Penn with Penn State. Never school administrators or college counselors though. Around thirty five students applied to Penn from my school, so most of the very academically focused students have heard of it. Maybe if they put an appendage on the end of the name in signs like “the University of Pennsylvania founded by Benjamin Franklin” or “the University of Pennsylvania in the city of Philadelphia” (similar to Columbia’s complete name), it would help correct some of the confusion.</p>
<p>What pabank says is Truth. Honestly though,I can’t say i’ve ever had anyone confuse the two schools. Although if we changed it to Franklin univesity, not only is that name kind if gay, but now we’ll be confused with Franklin and marshall. Rather be confused with pennstate than f&m.</p>
<p>Yeah, a few minutes ago (I’m at school right now), my friend asked where I wanted to go to college and I said U Penn. She said “You could do better, shoot for an ivy league!” :/</p>
<p>The people who count know what Penn is. Hopefully, you are going to Penn because it is great school that will prepare you for life and not just because it is Ivy League. As time goes by, the “prestige” of your school becomes less and less important to you and the others around you.</p>
<p>As much as that is frustrating and sad, it’s actually kind of funny </p>
<p>But yeah, I totally understand. It’s pretty much always HYP that are “ivy league” in people’s minds. When I somebody asked me where I was going, I had to confirm that CU was indeed an Ivy League, and not the original response of: “Columbia…that art school in Chicago?” X_X</p>
<p>Haha nice tristan! Btw I don’t think I ever said congrats on Columbia to you. Its an outstanding school. In fact, 2 years ago we had a girl with perfect test scores, grades, and awards (USAMO, USABO, etc) get rejected flat out ED. Its great we both got into some great ivies!</p>
<p>Ya, though, I thought the whole event was pritty funny and frustrating. My parents (who both really don’t understand much about schools but have now come to love Penn) were really upset by it.</p>
<p>Thanks, Rtgrove! Congrats on Wharton to you too; I know quite a few people who are going to Penn next year :] Man, that’s intense…I’m just glad that it worked out for the best for us both haha Though our initial worries during application season weren’t entirely unfounded, considering the crazy admit rates all these schools churned out. </p>
<p>Haha yeah, I would have felt so slighted if that happened, particularly at a formal event where everybody wanted to hear where you were going :/</p>
<p>As someone living right next to a big 10 university, I can tell you right now nobody knows what Penn is, with the exception of few who care about academics and the few who are children of professors who attended Ivy League schools. </p>
<p>Say Penn, and it automatically means Penn State here. Say *UPenn<a href=“with%20extra%20emphasis%20on%20the%20U”>/I</a>, and it automatically means Penn State still. Hell, no one even knows what Wharton is. </p>
<p>99% of the people are partying types or simply “I don’t care about the rest of the world I’m living in a box” types. Learn to stick with the 1%.</p>
<p>As someone who has nothing to do with UPenn, I vote for a name change to Wharton University. “Franklin University” sounds a little like one of those for-profit colleges that advertises on TV and tries to sound prestigious, and Wharton has a stellar brand recognition already.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if Wharton people would want to suddenly be directly associated with, for example, the nursing school at Penn, but perhaps the business school could be distinguished by saying “Wharton Business” similar to how “NYU Law” is used to separate it a little from the rest of NYU.</p>
<p>In the end, the people who need to know will probably know that you went to a great school.</p>
</p>
Though our initial worries during application season weren’t entirely unfounded, considering the crazy admit rates all these schools churned out. </p>