Sounds like you didn’t have much of a chance to really partake of Philly’s many superlative cultural offerings (e.g., Philadelphia Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Curtis Institute free recitals, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Barnes Foundation, Rodin Museum, PA Academy of Fine Arts, Brandywine Museum, walking tours of numerous historical neighborhoods, Fairmount Park and its trails and colonial mansions, suburban locales like New Hope, Chadds Ford, Doylestown, etc.). I also think that the relative friendliness of a city is highly dependent on personal experience. I’ve lived as an adult in several cities (including Philly, DC, and NYC) and visited several others (including Chicago), and wouldn’t rank Philly as less friendly than the others.</p>
<p>I do agree with you that that Penn’s membership in the Ivy League is a pretty weak reason to choose it over a comparable non-Ivy school.</p>
<p>Nah 45 percenter I did Phila Orchestra, Barnes Foundation, Rodin, Academy of Fine Arts, I lived in Society Hill for a while, lived by Fairmount Park, often ran right around the Philly Art Museum area, went to the Wilma Theatre often, etc etc. I definitely tried to dive into as much as Philly offers, and I still don’t think it compared to Chicago AT ALL. Personally, give me the Gold Coast or Old Town or Lincoln Park or Wrigleyville over anything Philly offers in terms of neighborhoods. </p>
<p>It could just be me, but I found Philly to be dirtier, less friendly, and gave me much less of a “wow big city” feeling than Chicago. I guess case in point - I LOVE Broad St. in Phila - the wide thoroughfare, the big buildings, etc. That’s the ONLY street in Philly like that. In Chicago, all streets are like that, and I just liked that sort of feel a lot. I loved being right by the lake, I thought Chicago was cleaner overall, and there was just a different energy to it. Again, it’s just my opinion, but I found Chicago to be a much more enjoyable city than Philly, and I tried to do a lot of “Philly” stuff during my time in the city.</p>
<p>You’re right about Chicago having much more of a “wow big city” feel than Philly. That’s really not Philly’s thing–it’s more of an 18th/19th century neighborhood kind of place (think narrow cobblestone streets the width of a carriage in Society Hill, etc.). Still, I’d put neighborhoods like Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, etc. up against the best Chicago residential neighborhoods any day of the week–of course, you have to get out of Center City to see them. And, of course, Center City neighborhoods like Society Hill, Rittenhouse Square, etc. also have their charms. It’s really a matter of taste, and I can definitely understand how one could prefer the broad thoroughfare feel of Chicago to the quaint 18th/19th century feel of Philly. But, as I said, it’s a matter of taste.</p>
<p>I actually like both cities a great deal. :)</p>
<p>That’s certainly true - it is a matter of taste. I think the geographic location of schools is oftentimes underestimated. NU and UPenn have many similarities, but UPenn strikes me as much more of, well, an “East Coast” school. Obviously a much larger population of Long Islanders and New Yorkers (for better or worse), an even more pre-professional vibe than NU, and the city itself can have kind of a fast pace. People underestimate how much of a difference location can make.</p>
<p>PS - I agree, Philly certainly has its charms, and to each their own. I never found West Philly in particular to be a particularly great place for a college, though. I prefer Evanston’s feel a lot more.</p>
<p>I know I can’t base this off just one school, but comparing the kids from my high school that are attending penn (4) and northwestern (3)…there is a difference in the quality of students</p>
<p>If I hadn’t gotten into Penn (I’m personally going to Wharton, but even CAS) I would have chosen Northwestern (this is also considering I got rejected from Yale/Brown/Stanford).</p>
<p>I LOVE Chicago, having lived downtown, and I personally like the trimester system and Evanston seems nice, but I feel that Penn offers more opportunities, in one way because it’s a bigger school.
Also, the weather in Chicago does kind of suck in the winter and I’m looking forward to winter in Philly haha. Chi-town’s a great place, but I feel Penn offers me more opportunities than NU and I can live in Chicago after I graduate, anyway.</p>
<p>hcvops - is there a big difference in student quality? I’d imagine the SAT avgs, number of kids in the top 10% of the class, etc. is roughly equivalent between both these schools, right? (This is not including Wharton, which obviously stands on its own.)</p>
<p>Overall, I don’t really think there is much between these two schools from all the statistical evidence I can find. Seems like they have similar students, the academic rep scores in US news seem similar (slight edge to UPenn here), financial resources seem to be similar (slight edge to NU here)… I dunno, from all the factors I can find, these schools seem to be pretty much neck and neck. Am I missing something here?</p>
<p>Penn does have quite a better name. NU is still amazing, but Penn is just a little more amazing. IDK much else about NU so… other than its too far and cold for me</p>
<p>Excepted - again, between peer schools, its really hard to say which school has “the better name.” Again, I have a background in the midwest, so when I was growing up, Northwestern had a much better name than UPenn. Everyday you’d find coverage of Northwestern somewhere in the Chicago Tribune (if for nothing else, in the sports results for the sports section), NU had a great reputation in the area… everyone seemed to know about it. I just hadn’t heard of Penn that much, and honestly would have confused it for Penn State until I was around 16 or so, and really started thinking about college.</p>
<p>I think what you’ll find is that there are maybe a half dozen schools with true, strong national recognition. (Harvard, Yale, etc.). Beyond that, when looking at peer schools, the strength of the name shouldn’t really be a factor, because again, with peer schools, your performance and happiness will matter SO MUCH MORE at your respective school. There really isn’t enough of a tangible difference in strength of name between Penn and NU, or Hopkins and Cornell, or whatever. Between Harvard and Penn? Sure. Between NU and Yale? Sure. Once you go beyond the few truly national name recognition schools however, this becomes a useless exercise, and shouldn’t really factor into the original posters’ decision.</p>
<p>Cue, I think you are pretty off. I live in NYC (who doesn’t these days) and Penn beats NU and JHU in many respects, especially with jobs. Also, the answer on Final Jeopardy was Ivy League lol, so I think its worth it to be a part of the “top group” of colleges.</p>
<p>Excepted - what I’m saying is that, if you go by region, beyond a few schools (Harvard, Yale, etc.), making a decision based on perceived name recognition is useless. In Chicago, NU certainly has a stronger name than UPenn because NU is just north of the city. In NYC, I’m sure UPenn has great name recognition because Penn is literally 90 min away from Manhattan. </p>
<p>Again, when deciding between comparable schools, this is the worst way to make a decision. It shouldn’t even play into the decision. Does Penn have better name recognition than NU? Does Hopkins have better name recognition than Cornell? This is a useless exercise. Again, there are like 6 schools with great recognition, and after that, decisions should be made on other factors. If you’re debating between Harvard and Penn, then sure, Harvard’s phenomenal name recognition should come into play - there’s a big gap there. Between Duke and Penn though? Between Hopkins and Cornell? At this point, it doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>What are you talking about with Final Jeopardy? Again, with ROUGHLY EQUIVALENT SCHOOLS, ivy status should not matter at all. NU is certainly in the top group of colleges, whether or not it’s an ivy. If you’re deciding between Columbia and NYU, then ok. Between UPenn and NU? There are so many other factors that should come into play. By every significant metric (student quality, financial resources, etc.) these schools are roughly equivalent.</p>
<p>You’re right. Northwestern is a comparable school to Penn in more ways than just academics (a lot of students who like Penn seem to like Northwestern). Still, I feel Penn would be a better choice. Yes, Ivy Status shouldn’t matter, but it does play in I feel, for better or worse. I would recommend Penn because of its access to Philadelphia’s outstanding health system, of which HUP is a part of. Also, it doesn’t hurt to have one of the ultra-elite med schools on campus if you’re interested in going that route. I’d presume there may be a number of opportunities or interesting experiences that would arise from that (I don’t know because that’s not my thing).</p>
<p>Cue, I agree. Prestige is not everything. You are certainly right in this case. It would actually be naive to choose a college based on prestige and perception of a school. You should choose a school where you think you could thrive best for the next four years.</p>
<p>But again on the other hand, would you say that one should choose between Columbia and NU or Brown and NU or Dartmouth and NU because of prestige? Or do you think that Yale and Harvard (and sometimes princeton) deserve that kind of stature that if you get in, you go.</p>
<p>The atmospheres of the schools are very different. The OP should do a lot more research based on personal preferences.</p>
<p>Excepted - yah basically what I was saying is, there are only a few schools where “name” or prestige should be ONE FACTOR to consider when selecting a college. I’d say roughly, it’s HYPS (maybe MIT or Cal Tech if you are into science/engineering) and that’s it. </p>
<p>What I mean is, if you get into HYPS and then a “lesser” college, the prestige factor should be ONE FACTOR to consider. Between NU and Penn or Duke and Columbia or whatever, the prestige factor should NOT be a factor to consider much at all. Between NU and Yale though, sure, prestige should be one factor to consider. I do think, even now with so many great schools, HYPS have a bit of an edge over everywhere else. Even then, prestige should only be one factor to consider. With schools where the gap is FAR LESS (like Penn and NU), it just shouldn’t come into play at all.</p>
<p>no, I imagine that the actual kids who attend penn and NU are similar in stats, intelligence, etc.
just that the kids from my specific school that end up choosing penn and choosing NU are different
yeah I think what region you’re from plays a big part.</p>
<p>I’m from nyc so that’s probably why the top kids in my grade would prefer penn.
even so, northwestern is still a very popular reach among our students</p>