<p>^ Well exactly my point when I first stated Columbia and Penn are not underrated on this forums. Nice taste btw lol, and Penn is much better than Columbia for pre-med, Duke is also great but not at the level of Penn, same goes for law and economics.</p>
<p>How exactly is Penn better than Columbia for pre-med? (I am a pre-med stuck between the two.)</p>
<p>I think I will end up hating the Core, but I rationalize it by considering that it will be not bother me after two years and the courses are really, really inflated grade-wise. </p>
<p>It seems they both offer great research opportunities but Penn seems much more competitive for pre-med and I don’t think their placement is as good (despite having the higher ranked med school across the street).</p>
<p>^ Penn has the first hospital created in America, the #2 ranked pre-med program in America, and the #2 ranked Medical School in America which takes many of Penn’s own undergrads, and has one of the highest placement in Top Medical schools in America.</p>
<p>@shahierunderdog: lol. Go to Duke. I don’t know who fed you that nonsense about Penn, but that person is most certainly an idiot.</p>
<p>Hi wrybread. 
I chose Columbia over Upenn. And I think what we were looking for in a college is pretty similar. Anyways, here’s why I chose Columbia:</p>
<p>There’s a hierarchy at Upenn: M&T and Huntsman kids get everything when it comes to jobs and recruiting. Whartonites snatch up what’s left. There’s a hyper-competitive pre-professional atmosphere there, which sucks if you’re pre-med and didn’t get Vagelos for example, or aren’t a JWS but are still interested in Grad-school. It is very fratty which leads to kind of an exclusive social scene. Somewhat dangerous surroundings. I personally didn’t feel too comfortable there. It often gets confused with Penn State, and no Whartonites like to say they go to Penn, or even wear shirts that say Penn without saying Wharton. Is this really school pride? When 30% of your student body is embarrassed to be associated with your department. There’s no guaranteed housing for all four years. This really mattered to me. There’s a higher proportion of larger classes than at Columbia. Penn’s classes are, on average, much larger. Upenn’s student body is much larger and less cohesive because of the intense school segregation there. The Huntsman kids already live separately, and M&T has its own exclusive club with exclusive alum connections, for example. Also, Columbia and Upenn have the same Medical school placement rate. But, at Columbia you have the advantage of taking those inflated Core courses. </p>
<p>I hope that helped. Good luck with your decision. :)</p>
<p>lol, duke is even losing this thread</p>
<p>title: grammar fail.</p>
<p>OP, u mad?</p>
<p>@PrinceonDreams: Who ever gave you your idea about Penn is the true idiot.</p>
<p>HafsaRox, you are completely mistaken in many of the statements you made. I know plenty of kids in the college who are going into fields such as finance if they are interested and have gotten competitive jobs/internships. And if you are referring to Vagelos MLS, the program is not designed for pre-meds, it is designed for students who are interested in scientific research. Additionally, over two thirds of the people who start in the program do not finish it, often because they have different interests.
Penn’s social scene is very diverse and not centered solely around one group by any means. This even includes the fraternities.
As a response to the Wharton shirts, I see Penn engineering shirts worn just as much if not more. If you actually went to Penn, you would know that many Wharton kids hold science majors in very high regard, and readily admit that Wharton is easier.</p>
<p>From what I have heard, Columbia is seen by many as antisocial, lacking a campus, and as having an apathetic administration. However, I don’t go to Columbia, so I will not state this as fact, just as these generalizations that you made about Penn have no factual basis.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The admissions tutor at my school (one of the most prestigious in the world). She knows every elite school admissions dean, and has more knowledge on colleges than anyone you could possibly know.</p>
<p>^ For all we know you could be making all of this ******** up. And yes, she is an idiot if that really is who you got your info from.</p>
<p>@HafsaRox: But the problem is that I think I’ll really hate the Core. </p>
<p>I don’t really know how valid your claim about Penn class sizes is, too.
This is probably unrelated but I was accepted to Vagelos, though, like Poeme said, it seems mainly for people interested in pure research careers. (I’m interested in research, but perhaps not as a career.)</p>
<p>@lovesavage79: lol I lol’d at the same thing, PrincetonDreams, please stop making us laugh at your idiotic posts, they’re too funny to bare.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>^ The sad words of a public school-educated person.</p>
<p>@shahier: Yeah, ok. lol, think what you want. =)</p>
<p>^ If it’s not Andover/Exeter/Philips Academy/Stuyvesant/Thomas Jefferson then it’s not a prestigious high school in my eyes</p>
<p>“public school-educated”, Thomas Jefferson High School, the best high school in the U.S. and the world is a public school.</p>
<p>^ I live in the UK so I only know of Andover, Exeter, Deerfield and a few others. And the school is Eton btw.</p>
<p>Not even nearly as prestigious as Thomas Jefferson High school which sends the most kids to Ivies in the nation and the world, a public high school.</p>
<p>
What’s wrong with public schools? It’s not like everyone can afford to attend private schools, and there are a lot of public schools that give a perfectly good education and send kids to Ivies and other top schools. </p>
<p>Anyways I agree with lovesavage79. Columbia and Penn are both awesome schools and people should be proud to attend either. Let’s get off this high school topic, this is turning into a p***ing match.</p>
<p>@wrybread,
Ignore anything that isn’t said by someone <em>currently</em> at Penn (ok, you can listen to the '15ers, they kind of know what they’re talking about…more than the people who chose elsewhere, anyway, and as far as I have seen aren’t spreading misconceptions). Search on the forum for other posts that had lots of replies from current students, like me, sunkist, etc.</p>
<p>And PrincetonDreams, take it from someone who went to one of those “prestigious” high schools that you know of (Exeter): get off your high horse. At Stanford, probably more than half your classmates are going to be from public school, and no one wants to be friends with someone who has his head up his a*s.
And as for your “college admissions tutor” or whatever you called your college counselor, for being employed at a “top, prestigious” school as credentials…have you seen the King’s Speech? Remember this part?:
Lionel Logue: I believe sucking smoke into your lungs will kill you.
King George VI: My physicians say it relaxes the throat.
Lionel Logue: They’re idiots.
King George VI: They’ve all been knighted.
Lionel Logue: Makes it official then.</p>
<p>There are many public high schools (including my own) that do quite well in college admissions and send over thirty kids to ivy league schools each year. You should be careful putting down public schools, it makes you sound out of touch with reality. We pay taxes for public schools, why not utilize them?
Honestly, the private school kids I’ve met are no smarter on average than those who went to public school. They are on average lot snobbier, however (This is a generalization, there are plenty of people who don’t fit this stereotype). I know that some elite private schools do provide aid, but I don’t think that fact is widespread enough to allow for much economic diversity in those schools. If people claim the Ivy league is full of rich kids, I am sure private schools are much worse.
What you need to realize is that being smart on paper doesn’t always correlate to being intelligent in person. Many of the people I have met who claim to have mile long resumes in reality are very narrow minded people who do not have the ability to think critically. More naturally gifted people usually have impressive accomplishments but are more humble and down to earth, willing to take chances intellectually.</p>
<p>Dear all,</p>
<p>I encourage you to ignore hafsarox and princetondreams; you cannot win arguments with people like this, and it will only serve to keep this thread at the top of the list.</p>
<p>If you have any serious questions about Penn, you should send a message to me or scribbler or poeme or any of the Penn students on this board.</p>