<p>I have not yet visited UPENN. All I have to go by are FISK, Princeton Review, Insiders’ Guide, and Barrons. I would like to believe Barron’s, even though it is in stark contrast to the others on several points…</p>
<p>Does the Greek system dominate social life? (hopefully no)</p>
<p>Is there a real security issue near campus since it’s West Philly? </p>
<p>Is there close interaction with professors and small classes in the college of arts and sciences, or are the professors more concerned with grad students and research?</p>
<p>Does the school ever feel too big? Do you ever feel lost? Does the 11 college system make the social scene more intimate and less daunting?</p>
<p>Finally, I’m a city goer and from a suburb of Boston. I’ve been told that Philly and Boston are very similar?</p>
<ol>
<li> Greeks do not dominate social life.</li>
<li> Security is a matter of being smart, no different than Boston, NYC, Chicago.</li>
<li> While a lot of research does take place, Penn does focus on undergrads.</li>
<li> Feels like Harvard, except people are better connected to friends/peers.</li>
<li> I’d say just a little. West Philly feels more like Providence, RI. Although the city does have a similar vibe to Beantown.</li>
</ol>
<p>wow, I couldn’t have asked for a better response. My first choice is Brown, so a Providence feel is incredible. But what do you mean by “Feels like Harvard, except people are better connected to friends/peers?” How so?</p>
<p>although they have incredibly competitive attitudes and constantly-on-the-go schedules, students interact and socialize a lot more at penn. study hard. party hard.</p>
<p>The social scene at Harvard is very low key, with people sticking to the group of friends they made during their first week there. Less eye contact, more stress, less relaxing atmosphere.</p>
<p>At Penn, students seem to be friendlier, tend to like to make new friends, and say “Hi” more often. Penn kids are just more connected to what is going on around them and to their peers, and they are also better able to relax on the weekends. Penn students are better balanced is all.</p>
<p>Hope that helped.</p>
<p>PS–if you have time, check out Harvard and note the amount of times someone says “Hello”, starts a conversation while waiting in line, or makes any sustained eye contact. It’s an eye openner.</p>
<p>Yep. For me, the differences were pretty clear. I have friends that attend/attended one or the other. When I’d go to visit Penn, it seemed friendlier, more laidback, and easier to make new friends. At Harvard, more people were into their own thing, and stayed friends mostly with the people in their Houses. Most of the other Ives, except Columbia, felt better. Columbia and Harvard were toss ups in my book.</p>
<p>same with me. at the very very beginning, harvard was my first choice partly because some of my friends were there and i liked the near-boston location. a couple weeks after, it slipped down to third choice, after i visited… columbia became my first choice due to its human rights program with barnard. i also liked new york, although not as much as a city like boston. um… then i visited columbia too… LOL yeah it was no longer #1 on my list either… penn and stanford kept moving up my list as i found out more about their programs… there was no way i was going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere at cornell… then i decided against stanford precisely because it was too FAR to visit randomly so the situation was a pretty good representation of how often i’d get to see my family in toronto if i actually attended…</p>
<p>anyway, poinst is… definitely visit the campuses and see for yourself. i love penn’s vibrant community but you might interpret things differently and expect something else so visits are crucial! :)</p>
<p>just visited UPENN and loved it but the school just feels so huge (I was awestruck looking out into the freshman quad; it looked like a castle, something out of Hogwarts). My tour guide claimed that the many clubs, activities, sports, and housing options make it easy for students to branch out and develop new friendships and not feel lost in the midst of the big campus. I just need to hear that it feels smaller than it looks before making my decision to apply. any feedback would be most appreciated</p>
<p>that is so good to hear that you loved the campus! definitely it gets even better once you get here for your first year… there are so many things to get involved in that you won’t feel like it’s overwhelming at all. it’s more like you’ll have so many more resources at your fingertips to do what you’re passionate about in terms of activities, sports, clubs, political groups, and all sorts of other things. you’ll meet people like you, people unlike you, and make amazing friends with both types of people.</p>