star_s

You think the people in Philly are nice?

Compared to WHERE?!?! Haha...

teenage_cliche

There are certainly parts of New York that are less safe or dirtier, as there are in any major city, but Columbia's neighborhood is certainly not one of them. I mean, I wouldn't advise strolling through Harlem alone at night on your way back to your dorm, but if you're just taking the subway to the Columbia exit you're more than fine.

Coolbrezze

I thought everyone knew Columbia was the party ivy league....

Gordon_Gekko

"@Gordon_Gekko

If you thought Columbia was in a rough neighborhood (which it really isn't, it's just near one :P), have you seen Philly? Penn is right in the middle of a pretty ghetto neighborhood.

I visited both and can safely say NYC is a lot more fun and safer (relatively)"

Yeah, I know a lot of Philadelphia is bad. Unfortunently I haven't visited Penn, I love Wharton though so I'm a little biased. I heard the area Penn is in is alright, but Temple is supposed to be really bad. Philly does have a bad reputation but I wonder how much of that can be attributed to neighboring Camden.

eatsalot

i hope this is sarcasm lOL

monstor344

I thought it was Brown or Dartmouth, but Penn also makes sense, given both its location and the fact that there are a considerable number of legacy kids there who might not be as serious about their studies. From my high school, it seems that the people who choose to go to Penn (3-4 a year) are usually legacy admits, and they also tend to be heavy party-ers.

diontechristmas

No, it's not, thank you very much.

B Man 22

Penn is known as the social Ivy.

BananaSandwich15

The people in philly did seem much nicer than the people in new york.

and i don't think harlem is that bad of a place. i'm sure it has its areas but so does every other city on the planet. i spent half the time i spent visiting columbia in harlem and im just fine.

45 Percenter

Only about 15% of Penn's undergraduate student body consists of legacies:

Penn Admissions: Incoming Class Profile

I'd be quite surprised if the percentages of legacies at Penn's peer schools, including Columbia, were much lower than that (if they're even lower at all).

ilovebagels

Thanks, noooob. Your user ID is an appropriate one.

Look, nobody in their right mind would doubt that NYC is a bigger, more dynamic, more important, simply better city than Philadelphia. However, there are two conclusions people jump to from this, both of which are wrong.

1. NYC is better than Philadelphia, therefore Philadelphia is bad
False. Philadelphia is the 2nd largest city hosting an Ivy League school, and the 2nd/3rd most interesting. It's also one of the few cities in America where real estate prices haven't cratered, and its economy is has a base of industries (biotech, medicine, law, education, Federal government) that, unlike NYC financial business, have not evaporated and taken their tax revenue with them.

2. NYC is better than Philadelphia, and therefore NYC/Columbia is a better place to go to undergrad than Philadelphia/Penn.
Spectacularly false. The very superiority of NYC is what kills the campus community at Columbia compared to Penn. A thousand and one student committees, task forces, (and all the kings horses and all the kings men) could not make Columbia students stay put on their 32 acre campus rather than diffuse into the shadows of New York.

Philadelphia offers the Penn community no shortage of restaurants, bars, clubs, museums, etc...but not to the point where students readily abandon campus for it.

It's a Goldilocks scenario. NYC is too big, Providence/Princeton/Hanover/Ithaca/New Haven are too small...Philly is 'juuuust right' for undergrad.

You have your whole life to "do the New York thing." But only 4 years for college. It is a special and wondrous and unique experience that should be experienced and celebrated in its own right.

Save Columbia for grad school.

eatsalot

I completely agree with ilovebagels.

that's exactly what i decided to do myself

IBclass06

On campus statistics for 2005, 2006, 2007

Drexel
Robberies/Burglaries: 38, 29, 26

Penn
Robberies/Burglaries: 52, 43, 58

Temple
Robberies/Burglaries: 65, 124, 102

Source: US Department of Education OPE database

midatlmom

I agree that the Core is a huge distinction between Columbia and Penn--the OP should definitely check out the requirements of the core to see if it is appealing.

As to the campuses, I am very familiar with both. Columbia is much smaller and although the inside area is pretty, I have to say that I prefer Penn--many of the individual buildings are quite beautiful, it is much larger than Columbia and the main Locust Walk area is great.

New York City is definitely more fun than Philly, but I don't really know how to factor that in. My personal preference is for a school where most of the social life takes place on campus. I think that at Columbia, many of the students peel off because NYC is so intriguing. Although there are people at Penn who find their social life off campus, I generally feel that there is a pretty strong on-campus/campus-related social life. In addition, there is a much more active Greek scene at Penn, and most of the Greek houses are on or adjacent to campus, which keeps the social life on campus.

I find Columbia's neighborhood, Morningside Heights, more appealing than Penn's University
City neighborhood. While a 5-10 minute walk from either campus will take to areas that are not that great, both campuses are in perfectly safe areas, assuming you use common sense.

I know that this begins to sound like a broken record, but if there's any chance you can visit, you should do so. It's easy to get from one campus to the other and you might well have a strong reaction to one or both.

diontechristmas

That's nice.....