<p>blusweetie, This same question comes up pretty often, so you can search older threads and read much of the same advice as above, which is good. I would summarize it by saying that there are people you NEED to impress for your career, and other people you do not need to impress. 99% of the former group will know about Wash U and respect it. If it is important for you to impress the other group, then you might want to go somewhere else, but as Nervous1 points out, that group might be more impressed with Penn State than with Penn.</p>