<p>Hello. I guess this is for any current Cornell students who would know about stuff like this. I am unhappy here and would prefer to be in a city with more fun things to do. I am going to wait to officially decide at the end of the year, but I have to complete applications next semester. I would really love to transfer to Upenn. I am a freshman in Arts and Sciences, undecided, and will most likely have a 3.3-3.5 gpa. I have no idea yet. Will being a Cornell student help me get into Upenn? Thank you.
- Bila</p>
<p>comming from a place like CU will be an advantage, though "wanting to be near a city" usually isn't a very compelling reason (you knew about this before hand), and your GPA is certainly on Penn's low side for admission.</p>
<p>Ithaca is definitely not Philadelphia, so if you need the big city, you need the big city...</p>
<p>but I encourage you to open your mind to the possibilities that Ithaca offers...it is a VERY vibrant place if you just open yourself up to it...</p>
<p>The music scene is incredible...start going to see live music if you're into that</p>
<p>Live theatre is available off and on campus...(Schwartz Center, Hangar Theatre, etc...)</p>
<p>Many, many incredible lectures take place there every week...let your imagination and intellectual curiosity take hold...go hear somebody talk about a subject you know nothing about...you're in CAS...poke around the Law school, the Ag school, Computer Science, etc...and see what's going on...you'll be surprised at how amazing the speakers are that come to campus each and every week...I know Jeff Katzenburg just spoke about Computer Animation</p>
<p>Go to Poetry readings...humanities symposiums, etc...</p>
<p>Get involved in a group - WVBR, Cornell Daily Sun, etc...</p>
<p>Go ask a professor that you think is particularly inspiring to do a research project with...you won't know about the really cool stuff until you ask...</p>
<p>While the street level noise at Penn may be louder and there are a few more restaurants, all the same stuff is there</p>
<p>in Ithaca, you just have to be a little more observant to see it...</p>
<p>Dare I mention Bball/SimbaJune?? He was in a similar position to you. Was not happy at Cornell and wanted to transfer to UPenn/Columbia etc. Didn't get into those schools (I think his Cornell GPA was higher than yours) but he did "successfully" transfer to Northwestern.<br>
I do not know if that change in environment helped much as I think he is considering transferring back to Cornell.<br>
You may want to "track" him down and see if he can offer any thoughts about transferring from Cornell to UPenn. Good luck!!</p>
<p>I know of three people at UPenn who want to transfer to Cornell. This is the first time I've heard of wanting to go the opposite way.</p>
<p>Doesn't coming from an ivy really help. Well, I don't know how to calculate gpa here. I will most likely have 2 A's, 2 B+'s (maybe A-) and a B. Yes, I know that wanting a city is not a compelling reason, but I can write a compelling essay. Though, I have yet to join a student organization b/c I need time to do work (to get good grades to transfer). I will next semester. Will this work against me for Penn admission?</p>
<p>I'll be pretty honest - </p>
<p>no matter what type of essay you write, a 3.3-3.5 GPA with NO EC's will not get you in. Sorry. Even a 3.9 with no EC's won't get you in. </p>
<p>Perhaps join a club. You're not taking advantage of anything at Cornell, so why would Penn think you would be at their school?</p>
<p>I'm at an LA right now (I'm a GT) and let me just say I wish I had Ithaca...lol if only you knew what you had...</p>
<p>I'm an alum not a student and this perspective is likely dated, but I went to Cornell and now work in Philadelphia. Philly is a great town, but there is a time and place for everything. You have the rest of your life to live near cities; you may only get the chance during college to live in a place as beautiful as Ithaca. There are many mornings, driving through traffic, that I remember that my "commute" used to be a walk up the gorge from downtown Ithaca. Beyond the beauty of the place, I agree with the other posters -- there wasn't all that much free time to begin with given Cornell's work load, but I can't remember ever feeling bored with what was around there. Other than pro sports (and more sophisticated municipal corruption), Philly doesn't have anything that Cornell doesn't have, just in smaller doses. The sports, the restaurants, the movies, the culture, are all there. Just don't let the weather get you down. And good luck, whatever you decide.</p>
<p>You live in Philly for a couple of weeks and you'll get bored with the city already. So why move if you'll end up with the same thing: getting bored and unhappy.</p>
<p>To the OP - Before deciding to transfer to UPenn to be in a city with whatever fun things you perceive there are to do there, please visit UPenn. As someone who went to Cornell for undergrad and Penn for grad, I can tell you that West Philadelphia, where Penn is located, may not be the vibrant city atmosphere you may be picturing. Though Penn has made great strides to expand its borders and to make the community surrounding Penn safer and economically healthier, West Philly still has its issues. To the very best of my knowledge (based upon the many people that I know who went to Penn, and who have children, neices, nephews, etc. who now attend Penn), the students at Penn don't make it into Center City Philly very often. Just make sure that Penn offers what you are looking for before you make the leap.</p>
<p>To expand a bit on what sallyawp was saying:</p>
<p>Penn and Cornell have something in common besides academic qualilty: at both schools, upperclassmen tend to live off campus. This means that your concerns about safety shouldn't just be limited to the campus itself but should also encompass the surrounding area. </p>
<p>To put it bluntly, would you feel more comfortable walking back to your apartment late at night in West Philly or Collegetown?</p>
<p>My brother goes to Penn. It sounds just like Cornell, only in Philadelphia. And Philly isn't all that exciting.</p>
<p>grass is always greener.. Still I wonder if something else is going on, some reasons not articulated.</p>
<p>No way a freshman there doing well academically should have enough free time to worry about the city.</p>
<p>Ithaca area is great, in it's way; I found I made better use of it mostly after I got a car though. But before that I was too busy to notice.</p>
<p>If you want to transfer, great, but I suspect there are other reasons. You might want to hang on, try switching dorms, try seeking out the (many)opportunities to do stuff that exist.</p>
<p>I agree with above posters. If you want to tranfer simply to be in Philly, then you should rethink this. You have all of the rest of your life to be in a city with all that cities offer, so enjoy this time in a different kind of place. </p>
<p>You haven't said so, but there may be other reasons besides city life behind your desire to transfer to Penn. There isn't any harm in putting in a transfer application, but in the meantime, try taking advantage of what Cornell and Ithaca offer. Take a skiing or snowboarding PE class next semester. See if you don't come to appreciate the outdoor life a bit more than you seem to do now.</p>
<p>At least apply to transfer, you can always decide not to later, but you want to keep your opportunities open. And yea, of course start engaging yourself in other arenas than academic.</p>
<p>Come to Penn, it's all sorts of spectacular. Philadelphia is a great college city (and has either the 2nd or 3rd most college students of any east coast city, with 120,000 college students in the city and just under 300,000 in the entire metropolitan area).</p>
<p>Also check out:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.onebigcampus.com%5B/url%5D">www.onebigcampus.com</a> and <a href="http://www.campusphilly.org%5B/url%5D">www.campusphilly.org</a></p>
<p>Ithaca is beautiful... there are things I like about it. I really do think that the campus is beautiful.. but I just find it very dismal and isolated. There are things to do, but they are not all in one place and it is hard to GO to the culture. and it is still not even close to being like a city. at night, the campus is dead. There are limited food choices late at night... not many options for activities during the day. I know I am busy with schoolwork.. but I just think that I will have more fun in a city. Also, just an urban atmosphere lifts my spirits. (I live in Chicago). I just feel like I am at a summer camp and having a campus was at first a very big priority but now I think that a campus is overrated. There are other things of course. I don't like how the frats dominate the social scene. The parties are not that great. I have not made the decision yet to transfer. I have some great friends, I do think that the campus is beautiful... but my instincts tell me that this is not the perfect fit for me.</p>
<p>well, it's clear you havn't tried that hard - when you mention it's hard 'going' to culture, it's clear you miss all of the stuff they usually throw in at RPU with the lectures and so forth. </p>
<p>"There are limited food choices late at night..." It's harder on north campus, but take a walk down to collegetown (use the bus!). </p>
<p>"not many options for activities during the day" Go to the mall, go downtown, go read at barnes and noble - the campus isn't a "summer camp" so they dont schedule fun activities for students during the day, it's a school. </p>
<p>My suggestions:
roam visitithaca.com
see the CU2Nite website (shows where the campus isn't 'dead' at night)
inside cover of the sun for more stuff to do</p>
<p>Philly isn't that great, especially where Penn is. Really. Not quite a college town area. I did a bike race there last spring and got a flat tire after I ran over somebody's old syringe they left on the road. Gross. </p>
<p>I hate to say this, but everybody I've known who poses the same problem as you has always complained, and then gone into their rooms to play video games or watch TV. They would just whine about it and then not do anything to fix their problems. Fun isn't going to find its way to you, be proactive.</p>
<p>Scraping off the cobbwebs- I remember I spent one semester on North Campus and absolutely hated it. The whole rest of my time was spent on West campus. in or near Collegetown, downtown and in a coop. All these other living arrangements were far better than North campus, for me at that time.</p>
<p>Of course everything's changed now, but I'd imagine it's possible there could still be a material difference in one's living situation vs. quality if life. For one thing, there's got to be a lot more evening happenings near Collegetown than on North Campus.</p>
<p>FWIW.</p>
<p>Some of the other expressed issues: frat influence, preferring a city environment- are legitimate issues of fit that may indeed not be optimally addressed at Cornell.</p>