<p>Penn gets that title ONLY relative to the other Ivies. By reputation:</p>
<ul>
<li>Harvard students are obsessed with studying and don't really enjoy their undergrad experience (although they LOVE the prestige of the school)</li>
<li>Yale (active social scence) and Princeton are the most self conciously intellectual schools in the Ivies (to the point of pretense according to some)</li>
<li>Columbia students are too busy trying to get "into" NYC and away from campus</li>
<li>Cornell students are too busy studying, digging out of the snow or planning to leap into the gorge</li>
<li>Brown students stay "high"</li>
<li>Dartmouth.....not sure what they do</li>
</ul>
<p>Penn is viewed as the study hard/party hard school. Students are viewed as having a much better balance than the other Ivies between - the life of the mind and life in general. </p>
<p>Also, the diversity of Penn's student body academically (preprofessional at Wharton, Nursing; intellectual at the College; both at Engineering) and individually feeds into a social scence with a large number of outlets for students.</p>
<p>The administation supports this partying in official ways (all schools do), but also pushes other social/learning environments (Kelly Writers House, Tech House, Civic House, etc.). </p>
<p>Penn tries very hard to allow students to have all the options (academically with the scope of its programs) and socially. They can also leverage Philly, which is the second largest city hosting an Ivy school.</p>
<p>BTW, binge drinking and frat boy partying are NOT big at Penn. Princeton and Dartmouth are much stronger drinkers. Cornell has a stronger frat scene.</p>