Safety at Yale vs Penn vs Columbia vs...

<p>I heard Yale is in a worse area than U Chicago, which everyone says is in a bad area (and those who live there claim it isn't) and I've also heard Columbia was in a bad area (not just dull) and of course U Penn borders West Philadelphia... born and raised... on the playground is where I spent most of my days...</p>

<p>lol openedskittles...gotta love the Fresh Prince. </p>

<p>Anyway, when I visited UChicago, I saw some sketchy behavior...like two black guys (and no, I'm not racist for stating their race) at a gas station...well how do i say this nicely...going number one right on the building in front of everyone, and then a worker came out yelling and they started to fight a bit...and some other seemingly sketchy stuff that i don't need to go into now...so I guess what I'm saying is..would I really feel uncomfortable at somewhere like Yale if i didn't have a good experience w/ Hyde Park? I loved the actual campus of Chicago if that makes a difference...</p>

<p>Like any city, Chicago varies widely block by block, and if you were probably at one of two gas stations I'm thinking of. If you're at the one I'm thinking of, it's one that's not in Hyde Park proper and not in a neighborhood that students typically travel to (though it is the most physically close gas station to campus, right near the hospitals).</p>

<p>Cities have all sorts of oddballs, and it does take some getting used to. And even New York, which many consider "safe," creeps me out quite a bit. If I can get by at the U of C, I imagine anybody can, and use safety services to your advantage. Same goes with any other college.</p>

<p>Safety is, above all, a state of mind. If you feel like safety will play into your daily life in a distracting way, don't choose that campus. But calling the door-to-door shuttle or the campus police to walk you home is always an option.</p>

<p>wow. such confusing opinions about Yale. </p>

<p>what's the consensus? Yale = safe, or no??</p>

<p>Yea, Yale seems to be the only campus I don't have a lot of info on or input from people i know. Searching the threads can help but there are so many contradictions and opinions from people that I don't know what to believe anymore. I can't visit so that's not an option for me to gain more insight for myself...I also need to eliminate colleges from my rather lengthy list, but love everything about Yale. I'm just unsure about safety in New Haven...</p>

<p>Yale is plenty safe, I'm a current student. Here is a good description from a Yale website:</p>

<p>"Yale University has one of the better safety records in the Ivy League. According to reports filed with the U.S. Department of Education in 2000, the total number of crimes occurring on and around Yale's campus was below the Ivy League average. In fact, Yale University reported the second lowest number of on-campus crimes of any Ivy League school. Overall, crime in the City of New Haven is down by more than 50 percent since 1990."</p>

<p><a href="http://yalestation.org/local/safety%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://yalestation.org/local/safety&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>There's more information about New Haven on that link and you can look up more about New Haven at Yale</a> University. You're fine in New Haven as long as you use your common sense (same goes for any city). The only people who really risk their safety are those walking alone and far off campus around 2 a.m. on the weekend. I have NEVER felt unsafe at Yale.</p>

<p>Safety aside, New Haven (or at least the area right around Yale), is a great college town with [literally] hundreds of restaurants, shops, bars and clubs, etc.</p>

<p>^ i knowww! everybody has their differing opinion on Yale. it's so confusing. i wish i could visit. my parents are mostly worried about how to get there from an airport and the danger of traveling by myself if i go. </p>

<p>a word on upenn from my friend who goes there: "you'll hear sirens everyday, a person got mugged on teh end of campus, but at the end of the day, the campus security is always there."</p>

<p>Yale is MUCH safer than a lot of other top universities btw.</p>

<p>Safety in New Haven</p>

<p>Students crisscross campus heading to course discussion sections, study groups, libraries open until midnight and various places. Yale students and New Haven residents are often found exploring downtown well into the evening hours. Many stores are open until 9:00 PM and many restaurants are open until at least midnight.</p>

<p>Yale University has one of the better safety records in the Ivy League. According to reports filed with the U.S. Department of Education in 2000, the total number of crimes occurring on and around Yale's campus was below the Ivy League average. In fact, Yale University reported the second lowest number of on-campus crimes of any Ivy League school. Overall, crime in the City of New Haven is down by more than 50 percent since 1990.</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/529519-safe-new-haven.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/529519-safe-new-haven.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Thanks for the replies so far.</p>

<p>bump......</p>

<p>Don't forget that Yale's location has not stopped the 70% of admitted applicants from attending. Don't let it stop you either. New Haven right around Yale is a great college town, and safety is not an issue as long as you use common sense (as in any city).</p>

<p>In the end, Yale students are among the happiest and prideful students in the nation.</p>

<p>The area around Yale is safe. Virtually everything you could need is within that area - shops, restaurants, etc. If you venture a few miles away from Yale, you'll be in the heart of New Haven, which is the more dangerous area. If you go to Yale, you'll probably never have to be in the scary part of New Haven - you'll be, for the most part, in a shady college-esque atmosphere, perfect for walking, jogging, biking, etc. You won't have any problems if you stay fairly close to campus.</p>

<p>^ Anyone who tells you crime is not an issue in New Haven is selling you a load of horse manure. That said, I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to send my D there, if she applied & was accepted. It's a terrific school. By and large, the crime issues are peripheral to the lives of the vast majority of Yale students, and most potential problems are easily avoided by a little common sense and "street smarts," which if you don't have already are extremely valuable skills to acquire. I'd say the same about Columbia, NYU, U Chicago, Loyola Chicago, BU, and just about every other school on the OP's list. </p>

<p>The one I have some qualms about is Penn but maybe that's partly because I just don't know Philly as well as I know NYC, Chicago, Boston, DC, and New Haven. From everything I've heard, the Penn campus is pretty safe. What concerns me a little is hearing that a large majority of upperclassmen live off campus. My own "street sense" tells me the area around Penn deteriorates pretty quickly into some of the toughest-looking neighborhoods in Philly--unlike, for example, Morningside Height in NY or Hyde Park in Chicago, where there's a fairly substantial university-dominated neighborhood surrounding the school. I just don't get that same sense at Penn. So that raises questions. But perhaps someone can correct me on this.</p>

<p>I don't know if you were addressing me, bclintonk, but I didn't say crime wasn't an issue in New Haven, I said the area immediately surrounding Yale is much safer than the heart of New Haven, which is several miles away. A Yale student would almost never have reason to venture that far away from campus, thus safety is pretty much a non-issue. Obviously students at Yale, as with anywhere else, should exercise some amount of caution when walking around alone or at night, but in general, Yale is a safe place.</p>

<p>EDIT: I've been to Penn, and it really seems to integrate right into Philly. There's a good buffer area around campus of safer, college-dominated areas, but it doesn't take long to find the more gritty area of Philadelphia. Again, though, anyone with a sense of caution and "street smarts" would do fine at Penn, too.</p>

<p>^ Sorry, highhopes, I didn't mean to single you out. I think we're basically in agreement about Yale and New Haven, except that I disagree about the "heart of New Haven" being "several miles away." Downtown New Haven is just a block or two to the east of the eastern edge of the Yale campus, and can be a bit dicey, especially at night. (For reference, College Street and Elm Street both front on New Haven Green, the historical center of New Haven; Yale is located immediately to the west and north of the Green, downtown New Haven is situated immediately to the east and south of the Green). Dixwell Avenue, the historic center of New Haven's generally impoverished black community, starts at the northwest corner of the Yale campus (at Whalley and Howe). Fairhaven, another poor, high-crime area, is less than a mile east of the Yale campus, essentially just on the other side of downtown. So no, I don't agree that poverty, urban distress, and high crime areas are "several miles" away from Yale. There's almost nothing in New Haven proper that's "several miles" away from Yale. But I do agree that on a daily basis, crime and poverty do not affect most Yale students, and their lives are generally quite safe if they take appropriate common-sense precautions.</p>

<p>Penn I'm still less sure about. What worries me is not wehat goes on on campus, but what goes on in the "buffer area" you describe, where (as I understand it) most upperclassmen and grad students live. The Penn campus seems pretty safe and buffered. The Penn police patrol parts of the buffer zone, but per their description only the area bounded by Market St to the north, 30th to the east, Baltimore Ave to the south, and 43rd St. to the west. Perhaps this takes in most of the upperclassmen and grad students; I don't know. But walking and driving around that area, especially its western, northern, and southern fringes, I didn't pick up a good vibe. (To the east, I agree, Penn fades pretty quickly and more or less seamlessly into center city Philly). I'd like to hear more from people who actually live there.</p>

<p>I may have exaggerated the "several miles" to make a point about the separation between Yale's campus/surrounding area and New Haven itself. Sorry about that, lol ;)</p>

<p>bclintonk, the vast majority of Penn students who live within Penn's surrounding neighborhood live within the Penn Police patrol zone (which is why the zone has the boundaries it does). Although there have been isolated incidents of violent crime involving Penn students within that zone, such incidents are statistically extremely rare (and comparable to what occurs in off-campus areas of many other urban schools, e.g., Columbia, Yale, U Chicago, etc.).</p>

<p>As you may be aware, Penn and other educational and research institutions in University City have invested and continue to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in that area of West Philadelphia, significantly enhancing its quality of life and safety. In fact, Penn has become a national leader in that regard as this Washington Post story describes:</p>

<p>Urban</a> Colleges Learn to Be Good Neighbors</p>

<p>To further these aims even more, Penn has recently sponsored the construction of several private dorms right next to campus (the newest one opens in a couple of weeks, and is literally across the street from campus: PennConnects</a> : <em>—</em>Radian Overview ) and is also planning the construction of a brand-new college house on campus ( PennConnects</a> : <em>—</em>Hill Square Overview ) in order to bring many students currently living off-campus either onto campus proper, or much closer to it. One of the main reasons for this is to allow Penn to escalate its efforts to further stabilize and enhance the neighborhood where many students are currently living through conversion of the numerous Victorian rowhomes there into renovated, single-family, owner-occupied dwellings, many of which are sold to Penn faculty and staff and to a growing young professional population. As the Washington Post article indicates, Penn and its institutional neighbors have been extremely successful at enhancing the neighborhood over the past decade (which the high property values in University City now demonstrate), and the near future should bring even greater success. Similar to what has occurred in Morningside Heights, University City is fast becoming one of the hot "in" neighborhoods for young professionals and young families.</p>

<p>Of course, greater West Philly beyond University City presents a much more intractable urban challenge, but Penn students virtually never go to those parts of West Philly, just as Columbia, Yale, U Chicago, etc. students virtually never go to the relatively nearby areas of their cities that present safety issues.</p>

<p>^ OK. good to know. But it's still my sense that this process, while making good progress, is not quite as far along at this point in University City as it is in Morningside Heights.</p>

<p>^ Perhaps--I'm not familiar enough with Morningside Heights to make an informed comparison.</p>

<p>For what it's worth, however, the Washington Post article makes the following observation: </p>

<p>
[quote]
As a case study, Penn's urban renewal effort is probably the most comprehensive -- targeting every service and institution that makes a community vibrant.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Any school in north carolina particularily safe?
Any school in NC unsafe?</p>

<p>Thank You =]</p>