<p>I got a likely letter from UPenn two days ago, so now I have my mind set on going there. I still haven't had the chance to visit - Is the neighborhood around UPenn as bad as everyone says?</p>
<p>No it is not. The campus area and bordering streets are generally safe and busy. It IS a city, so you have to use some sense, but unless you wander into areas that you don’t need to be in anyways (50th street etc) you will be fine. You have Drexel to one side of campus and center city in another. The Penn campus and surrounding retail/restaurant areas are fun and vibrant.</p>
<p>Is it going to be quiet an peaceful like Princeton? No</p>
<p>Are you going to get mugged/shot/raped? Definitely not</p>
<p>definitely not?</p>
<p>all those things have happened to students in the past few years…</p>
<p>but chances of those things happening are low</p>
<p>Does anyone recommend a specific dorm for incoming freshmen?</p>
<p>Over 40,000 people live, work, or study (or a combination of the foregoing) at the University of Pennsylvania. It’s the size of some small cities. Based on that, some level of crime is pretty inevitable.</p>
<p>When it happened to students, it was generally off campus and late at night. That kind of stuff could happen anywhere.</p>
<p>yea…careful of getting mugged…try to stay on campus as much as possible…those alleys behind 50thish are like drug dealing…
i have heard ppl getting mugged on pine…which is just behind the veterinary hospital</p>
<p>If you go west of 40th, you’d best have your trusty gun with you. Same goes for south of Pine, but in all honestly, it’s not that bad during the day. (Or you could live in Center City like I do! Have fun with the rent though…)</p>
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<p>Dude…wait til you set foot on campus before you start giving security advice ;)</p>
<p>Wayward<em>trojan’s “west of 40th” line is silly. (Sorry, wayward</em>trojan.) 40th is the western edge of the campus, approximately, but from there through 49th, at least, especially on the southerly side, there is a nice, middle-class, multi-ethnic neighborhood with tons of student housing but also real people with families, dogs, and kids. I lived there for well over a decade, including during the crack epidemic, and still visit friends there frequently, so I have a good sense of it.</p>
<p>It’s true that the block west of 40th can be somewhat sketchy because there really aren’t permanent residents there, but once you get to 41st or 42nd, it’s actually pretty nice at least as far as 49th, except along the heavily trafficked streets to the north side. The Penn-sponsored elementary school is at 43rd and Spruce. Clark Park, which is home to all sorts of community activities, is between 43rd and 45th, Baltimore and Woodland. The 46th-47th block of Osage, and 46th between Spruce and Baltimore, are especially ritzy. There is a great swim club on 48th near Pine.</p>
<p>Understanding that its neighborhood has a lot of impact on students’ experience, Penn has invested a lot of money in maintaining and improving this area since the beginning of the Rodin Administration – mainly in the form of mortgage subsidies for faculty and staff buying houses there.</p>
<p>To the extent there is a “line” anywhere, it’s the classic one: a set of SEPTA tracks between 49th and 50th. On the “other” side of the tracks (west), the demographics are much poorer, and the housing reflects that. (Further out – past 60th – in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood, it actually gets nice again, but that’s farther from Penn than students live, and there isn’t really a lot of rental housing around there.)</p>
<p>umm…i set my foot on campus like literally every week…my parents work there so there are weeks in summer when i am at penn everyday…besides…my parents lived right off campus before, they know what is going on around there</p>
<p>Not at all…Penn pretty much bought up all the land surrounding its campus over the past decade or so, sonow its as if it is its own little town…outside of the penn campus, there are definately some bad neighborhoods, but if you’re an out of state undergrad, you probably wouldnt have any reason for venturing there…all in all, its a beautiful campus, i would highly suggest it.
source-me i lived in philly my entire life, both parents went to+worked at penn.</p>
<p>I’ve said this in other threads, but here’s the deal with Penn’s location.</p>
<p>To the north/northeast is Drexel, so you’re fine. To the east is the Schuylkill River / Center City. To the south there’s really no reason to go there. You’d have to go past the Schuylkill Expressway and River to get to anything of use, but even then there’s literally nothing worth your time. To the west, once you get past the Penn patrol zone, you’re going to get into some rough areas.</p>
<p>The Penn Police patrol zone is bordered by 30th Street to the east, Market Street to the north, 43rd Street to the west and Baltimore Avenue to the south. If you are in that zone, chances are you are pretty safe. Penn’s police department is the largest private police force in the state and is the largest actual police force behind Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Reading, Erie, Harrisburg and Allentown. Officers have power of arrest anywhere in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and carry handguns.</p>
<p>The area from 40th to 43rd Street from Walnut Street south to Baltimore is almost exclusively inhabited by students. Granted, 40th and Market can get pretty dangerous at night, but that’s only because it’s a major El hub for SEPTA. But seriously, beyond the patrol zone, it gets real sketchy real fast at night. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.</p>
<p>As a comparison, though, West Philly is heaven compared to North Philly and Lower Kensington. In those areas, to be frank, you have a very good chance of being victimized by violent crime, and if anybody tells you otherwise, they’re either lying or they’ve never been there to see for themselves. You just don’t want to go there.</p>
<p>Be on your guard at night… don’t walk too far off campus without people with you especially if you’re a girl or drunk. And as sad as it is, don’t leave your things unattended, even in buildings in which you need to swipe to get into (i.e. the library). upwards of 75% of reported crime is unattended theft, including theft by students.</p>
<p>As for where you want to live as a freshman… Riepe/Fisher Hassenfield/Ware are the three Quad college houses… all are desirable. If you don’t really care that a building is falling apart, things don’t work, there is no air conditioning and your room is comparable to a prison cell, go for Hill. It’s the most social of the college houses… primarily because you’ll go insane from claustrophobia if you don’t keep your door open. Kings Court/English House pretty much sucks. Stouffer is not very social but the rooms are pretty nice. Same with Gregory. I know nothing about Du Bois College House. Harrison, Rodin and Harnwell are the three high rises, where most of the upperclassmen living on campus reside. If you’re interested in music, consider applying to the Arts House residential program through Harnwell College House. You’ll meet a ton of great people through it.</p>