<p>1) Well, I live extremely close to Philadelphia, and frankly, the "brothers and sisters" are NOT running the city.</p>
<p>Penn's campus is extremely safe. Even once you go West of 42nd St. there isn't that much to be scared of, though I really don't see why you would do that on foot, as there isn't much there except residential areas. Going the other way, East, into the city, is also safe, as long as you use common sense. You're obviously not going to walk alone in a dark alley at midnight.</p>
<p>2) Public transportation is not that expensive. You can use the Penn Transit Services, <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/transportation/using/%5B/url%5D">http://www.upenn.edu/transportation/using/</a> , or, alternatively, buy a PennPass ($250 per semester) to have unlimited fares for SEPTA.</p>
<p>3) It's probably better to stay on the campus, rather than live in a suburb. To get to Penn, it takes about 20 minutes from the closest suburb, simply because of city traffic (it's also 20 minutes using SEPTA from the suburbs).</p>