<p>All i have to say is I'm getting the best education in my chosen field (finance), I actually have a REAL social life (unlike people at MIT,Harvard, Yale, and even Stanford), and in business circles when I say wharton people definitely respect me. </p>
<p>This year I'm doing an internship in nyc with many students from other top schools and all i can say is my bosses pass those students over for many projects because I have more knowledge BECAUSE I go to Wharton (it's funny to see the Harvard kid's faces when they get passed over). Plus afterwards the losers go home while I go clubbing at Bungalow 8, Marquee, & Cain (living the penn life of course)...</p>
<p>honestly, i do not think penn gets wows from the general pop. For instance, I was talking to a peer last night, who was 2 years older than me, not the smartest guy, and I was like I wanted to go to penn, and he was like why would you pass up an ivy league school for penn state. I said, upenn, univ of penn, the ivy league school, he was like, wait penn state is an ivy league.</p>
<p>As I've quiestioned numerous times in various posts..."Are you more interested in impressing people in the corporate world/law schools/business schools, or would you prefer to make all of the workers down at the Jiffy Lube go WOW?" If you want commoners to be impressed, go to LSU, Penn State, Michigan State and stay out of the Ivy League...lol
The only reason I posted the remarks above is because I struggled with it at first, as well. :)</p>
<p>"PENN gets an instant response among most illiterates.</p>
<p>These are the schools that get WOWs:</p>
<p>PENN
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
MIT
Stanford
Cornell
Berkeley</p>
<p>those are the top."</p>
<p>Wow, this list is quite absurd. Where is Columbia? That school alone is more respected than about half the schools you listed. Where is Dartmouth/Uchicago? Where is Caltech? And for Pete's sake, why is Berkeley there?</p>
<p>Also, as much as I LOVE Penn, I hate to point out that it has the lowest grad placement save for Cornell. It even loses top spots at top schools to "inferior schools" like Columbia, Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst, Duke, and Brown.</p>
<p>But I would much rather go to Penn and have a life with really cool people than work till I died at Cornell.</p>
<p>Are you kidding amnesia? HYPSM and Penn, Cornell, and Cal??????????? Yeah right!! Duke, Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia all should be above Cornell and Cal and in line with Penn.</p>
<p>I'm with you, Devil.
Being that I'm a little older than most posters on here (not that it amounts to anything), but the public's perception of "prestige" alters throughout the years. When I was going through high school in the late 80's, the U of Chicago was viewed as THE BEST school by all males in my generation. Now, it is still a very prestigious instituion, but I believe that other schools have surpassed it over the last 10-15 years. That goes for Penn. Wharton aside, I feel Penn's image has risen greatly over the last few years. My uncle used to work for Bain & Co., an investment firm in Boston, and recently I sat down with him about choosing between Yale and Penn. He said 15-20 years ago, companies scurried to get anyone coming out of HYPS, but he said now companies are changing their philosophies of "prestige". Anyway, I thought I would share my ultimate wisdom...LOL!!!</p>
<p>I'm sick of defending Penn's prestige. It doesn't need defense.</p>
<p>If Penn is really an "obscure" school unworthy of the attention it has been recently getting, then why are all of these paranoid people taking the time out of their busy schedules to attack it? I don't see them attacking Penn State...</p>
<p>The fact that they're trying to put Penn down demonstrates that Penn really is becoming a big deal, and some people just can't accept it. We're probably just seeing some bitter rejects out of the last admissions cycle...</p>
<p>I think it is time that we stop responding to these ridiculous know-it-all posters, because it really isn't worth our time and effort to refute their arguments. We don't need random people trying to judge our educations and our abilities. We're better than that.</p>
<p>People, get over yourselves! This conversation is so pointless. If you factor in the quality of faculty or the prestige of academic departments and research, then Penn is definitely really good. Other than that, a school is only as good as what you make of it. 'Nuff said.</p>
<p>All I ask is... is prestige really all that important, honestly? If you go to Harvard but still suck compared to a true, hardworking, cordial genius from, say, UCLA or Tufts or UChicago (other great schools but not as "prestigous" as Harvard).... what is the point then? </p>
<p>If you want to do well in life do you really have to rely on some name to carry you through? It's not like people are going to just throw you money <em>just</em> because you went to Harvard or Yale or Stanford or MIT etc... you have to show that you totally own face. At the top-25 schools, the resources are just amazing and your skillset depends on how you utilize what you've got.</p>
<p>I know plenty of "geniuses" who went to "lesser" schools, compared to the not-so-genius-like guys who are just packaged correctly in such a way that they get into a "greater" university. With that said, can this foolish debate over prestige possibly be wrapped up? Am I missing something?</p>
<p>I guess what I am trying to say is that people shouldn't really be whining over prestige at an Ivy League school. It's like a privileged 5-year old whining at his parents because he was just given a huge box of delicious candy but the kid next door had a box with slightly different candy that he doesn't happen to possess.</p>
<p>Come on, thousands of people would be ecstatic to have your seat at an Ivy League school... quit the whining, go to school, own it up, and own the real world after that -- that is, if you're truly capable of doing so. Sorry if Penn isn't "good enough" for some of you. </p>
<p>It sounds like too many people just choose schools because they rely on the opinions of their peers and want to "wow" them with brand-names as opposed to choosing a school because they love what it can offer. I apologize to those who live their lives based upon the judgments of others. If that's how you live, you're screwed anyway.</p>
<p>UPenn is prestigious when you drop the phrase "ivy league." It's not prestigious in and of itself but it is certainly prestigious by association to HYPS in the ivy league.</p>