Why is UPenn not famous?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>I know this question is going to make me appear as though I'm a troll, and or an idiot, but I'm really curious: why is Penn not as famous as Brown, Cornell, ect?</p>

<p>I'm from California, so maybe that has something to do with it, but all the Ivy league schools are notoriously famous throughout California (in my experience), and the world for that matter. If I mention Brown, Cornell, Princeton or Columbia, everyone knows their top shop. However, if I mention Penn, I usually get a confused look like, "Sweet Penn State."</p>

<p>Obviously, people who are aware of the Ivy League schools by experience know of Penn, but beyond that, what's the deal? Why is Penn only known for Wharton??????</p>

2

<p>Frankly, it is the name. University of [Insert State] has become synonymous with flagship state schools. At the time of the founding, there were no state schools</p>

3

<p>It’s kinda obvious, isn’t it? University of [state name] is ALWAYS a state university, with one–and only one–exception. And Penn State is nationally famous as a football power. Doesn’t take much to connect the dots. :)</p>

<p>Meanwhile, as you imply, at places in California like the Harvard-Westlake School, they know of Penn. In fact, over the last 5 years, more Harvard-Westlake grads have gone to Penn than to any other school except USC:</p>

<p>[Harvard-Westlake</a> School College Matriculation](<a href=“http://www.hw.com/abouthw/SchoolProfile/Matriculation/tabid/2025/Default.aspx]Harvard-Westlake”>Matriculation)</p>

4

<p>I have definitely gotten that - I’m from the Bay Area near Palo Alto and so Stanford’s a BIG name here as well as HYPM. People who have kids that are in middle school/high school will be impressed when I tell them I got into Penn but others… are like… didn’t you get into UCLA and Berkeley too? Why don’t you go there? </p>

<p>It’s kind of sad actually…</p>

5

<p>Penn is world famous!</p>

6

<p>Penn is #5 tied with Stanford, it’s an Ivy, it’s the the 4th-5th best Ivy consistently and is currently only behind HYP and Columbia (thought this is the first time I believe Columbia has been ranked higher than Penn, previously Penn was ranked higher than Columbia).</p>

7

<p>UPenn should change its name to something with one word:</p>

<p>Harvard
Princeton
Columbia
Stanford
Brown
Wharton (one word)</p>

8

<p>They probably would or should, but UPenn is the fourth oldest college in America I believe, and they don’t want to change it’s name due to it’s long history of having that name etc.</p>

<p>I think a better name would be Penn College though?</p>

9

<p>Definitely should be Franklin University.</p>

10

<p>Benjamin College also works, but we all know it’s never going to change lol.</p>

11

<p>I used to care a lot about how unknown Penn is by a lot of ignorant people. But it’s never a reason not to attend. As a student here, I wouldn’t give a crap if no one knew what Penn was. I just feel bad they don’t know what they’re missing :P</p>

12

<p>I bet if Penn changed her name to “$100 University” then it will become the most famous school on the planet. Anytime you go outside the U.S and ppl ask you about Penn. Just tell them you study at the school founded by “the baldhead guy on the $100” (you can even be more impressive by adding “who the heck are John Havard and Leland Stanford? Nobody cares about them”) they will be hugely impressed. (No disrespect to Mr. Franklin, my greatest teacher. It’s just they call you by that name in other countries)</p>

13

<p>Certainly, University of Pennsylvania doesn’t sound like an elite private school. I learned that UPenn was a private school when one of Penn students told me so. Public recognition and ranking are important, but there are so many, more important things than what OTHERS think about your school. Your school is as good as what you think of your school. If you think it’s not as good as Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, or Cornell, then Penn is the worst ivy. On the contrary, if you think it’s as good as HYPSM, then it’s as good as Harvad. I don’t mean that pride is the most important thing here. What I’m trying to say is that those who think Penn is the best already found out the strength of Penn and likely to take advantage of it. Those who are obsessed by OTHERS’ recognition is likely to end up not knowing well or taking advantage of what Penn offers you.</p>

<p>In my opinion, it is not that Penn is not famous, but that people are near sighted. They don’t care and therefore don’t know about people and towns far away from their lives. People who need to know know that Penn is a good school, and what counts is these people’s opinion.</p>

14

<p>Of course, Penn isn’t the only university with some sort of name problem. </p>

<p>Princeton was the College of New Jersey for 150 years – more than half its history. The University of Chicago is often mistaken for the University of Illinois at Chicago, a second-tier state university. How many people in the East think USC is a public university? How many people in the Midwest, if you tell them you go to Columbia, think that you are an art student in Chicago, or that you are too embarrassed to say “Mizzou?” Then there’s Connecticut College and Colorado College. And Colgate University in Hamilton NY and Hamilton College in Clinton NY. Washington University in St. Louis (“What’s it doing in St. Louis?”) vs. the University of Washington, or Mary Washington, or Washington & Lee . . . </p>

<p>Northwestern University is pretty poorly named in retrospect – the Northwest kind of moved shortly after it was founded. (And, for that matter, it represented a certain migration from Michigan, whose fight song still hail, hails it as “the Pride of the West”.) </p>

<p>Harvard, Yale, Brown, Williams, Amherst . . . they’re all named for nonentities. (Well, Lord Jeffrey Amherst was only a semi-nonentity.) The first four effectively auctioned their naming rights, just like latter-day sports arenas, except it was for a pittance. (I think I remember that whoever Brown was may have purchased the name of the university in a bankruptcy sale. Elihu Yale donated $300 worth of books, which even with the miracle of compound interest works out to about $4 million in 2011 dollars – probably just about enough to get your name on a professorship today, or maybe get your kid accepted at Yale. If you use inflation to measure its value today, it may be less than $100,000.)</p>

<p>Stanford, Vanderbilt, Duke, Rice, Cornell, Johns Hopkins . . . all named for megalomaniacal rich people, often robber barons who stole as much as they earned. Of course, Stanford isn’t even named for the robber baron, but for the robber baron’s dead son who never made it to college. Lord knows how it has survived the ignominy of its pathetic full name – The Leland Stanford, Junior Memorial University!</p>

<p>Penn’s name has more gravitas than most. William Penn was a 17th-Century version of the megalomaniacal robber baron, but at least he had some ethics and a big vision of a peaceful world.</p>

15

<p>I actually like the word “Penn”. Not UPenn, not pennsylvania, but Penn. </p>

<p>Penn University or University of Penn actually sounds pretty cool…</p>

16

<p>From a prospective exchange student to Penn, you shouldn’t be worried about the name not being known. The people who matter will know that Penn is one of the best universities in the US and world.</p>

17

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<p>The University actually agrees with you, which is why about 10 years ago, it embarked on a campaign to consistently brand itself simply as “Penn”:</p>

<p>[Penn:</a> Web Style Guide: Logo Identity and Branding Standards](<a href=“http://www.upenn.edu/webguide/style_guide/identity.html]Penn:”>http://www.upenn.edu/webguide/style_guide/identity.html)</p>

18

<p>actually this really ****es me off too…when I’ve told some of my…uh, less intelligent friends that I got into “UPenn”, they literally were like, “Oh cool”, clearly having no idea what it truly means</p>

<p>even my own grandmother barely knew…if people want to be ignorant, let them be.</p>

19

<p>It’s definitely the name. Sometimes I say I go to Penn, other times I tell people I’m at Wharton, and I get completely different reactions from people. Not that I care much, or else I’d always say Wharton.</p>