<p>Don’t go to Penn if you are being swayed by the Ivy name. It is a sport league. It is harder to get into MIT, Duke, Stanford (I could go on and on) than some of the Ivys. Go if you feel it is the best fit for you. D got into Princeton and Dartmouth but picked Gtown SFS over them. That being said D2 got into Wharton and ND, Gtown, etc and has chosen Penn because it fits her best. Go where you think you fit in the best. Go with your gut.</p>
<p>Don’t worry so much about the drinking issue. Chances are very good you’ll change your mind eventually.</p>
<p>ArmoMom: completely untrue.</p>
<p>Upenn had a 17% admit rate this year just like last year. Duke also had 17% this year, but Stanford was 7.6%, MIT a bit less than 12%, as well as numerous others who have either equal or even tougher admit rates.</p>
<p>My words stand - go where you fit best.</p>
<p>I’m not against drinking, in fact I’m quite open to it. I just never drank on high school. Do most kids start drinking in college?</p>
<p>ArmoMom: I got a letter from Penn saying they admitted a mere 13%.</p>
<p>“At the University of Pennsylvania, which received 4 more applications this year when compared to last, the admission rate is the same as last year 17 percent.”</p>
<p>This is from a NY Times article dated March 31st, 2009.</p>
<p>March 31, 2009, 12:54 pm
A Few More Colleges Report Low Admission Rates
By Jacques Steinberg</p>
<p>Librado Romero/The New York Times</p>
<p>Myabe that admit rate was for the specific school you applied to but overall the admit rate for Upenn was 17%.</p>
<p>All I would say is that a ton of people come to Penn saying they don’t like drinking / don’t drink, and by the time you graduate everyone drinks. Maybe it’s the under 21/ over 21 thing, but I think it’s a common trap that incoming students fall into.</p>
<p>What do you mean “a common trap”?</p>
<p>I guess I mean that most Penn students were pretty nerdy in high school, didn’t drink in high school, and come into Penn thinking that life will be mostly the same. Sitting around during Fling (which comes in April, and is the one weekend you can guarantee that everyone on campus will be drinking), you hear countless stories of how “my first drink was during NSO, freshman year, at Penn”. There tends to be a very large number of people who think that the partying lifestyle “just isn’t for them” or it’s “not what they’re into”. Those ideas tend to change within about a week of college. I’ll admit - I was probably one of these people, and while I didn’t drink on my first night of NSO, I did on the second.</p>
<p>I think that pre-frosh/incoming students then try to make plans about college based upon this idea that they won’t be heavy partiers/or drinkers in college. Don’t get me wrong - the people on CC are highly correlated with the people who don’t ever drink in college (:-P) and there are some schools where drinking is huge (Dartmouth) and some where it’s not so much (Chicago), but I would say on the whole that college is unlike what you would expect. </p>
<p>My advice would to always be open to things, and not to assume too much about your future self. Incoming Penn freshman are attracted to the high rises because they see a private bathroom, and kitchen, but then by the end of their freshman year they wish they would have lived in Hill or the Quad because they have very few friends. It’s a similar thing with drinking/partying. You just don’t know what you’re getting into.</p>
<p>Of course, YMMV, and there are always a few people who never drink, for medical reasons, strict religious reasons, or legal reasons (despite the fact that Penn does not care about underage drinking, some people are just too afraid of what might happen). And of course there are those people who drank a gallon of booze a day in high school…</p>
<p>What’s NSO?</p>
<p>nso = new student orientation, which starts the moment you get here in august</p>
<p>This summer is the first time I’ll actually want it to end sooner :).</p>
<p>Lol I totally went off-course with this thread. Anyways, is there any particular advantage I would have by attending Georgetown instead of Penn?</p>
<p>just go to penn gurl</p>
<p>georgetown and penn are equivalent academically, but georgetown has a premier basketball program, whereas penn can’t beat cornell</p>
<p>omg stop ■■■■■■■■</p>
<p>you fail, Georgetown basketball was awful last season</p>
<p>georgetown is gonna be really good next year</p>
<p>Lol I mean anything significant to making my decision…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That could be the College’s particular admissions rate they quoted you. Penn has 4 undergrad schools, each with its own admissions rate.</p>
<p>I also never drank until I got to Penn. Turned out fine.</p>
<p>
Well Georgetown’s immediate surrounding neighborhood (“Georgetown”) is more upscale than University City…but that’s not exactly a dealbreaker…</p>