<p>Back in the day, Penn was known as a great pre-professional school in a bad neighborhood. Is that characterization still accurate? Thanks. I appreciate the input.</p>
<p>The neighborhood around Penn–University City–has actually become quite nice. Penn has been very much responsible for this (along with its neighboring institutions such as Drexel Univesity, Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, University City Science Center, etc.), and has garnered a great deal of national recognition and praise for its effors. For example:</p>
<p>[Urban</a> Colleges Learn to Be Good Neighbors](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010801164.html]Urban”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010801164.html)</p>
<p>[Penn’s</a> $500m project could be Harvard’s model - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/05/03/ivys_growth_transforms_a_city/]Penn’s”>http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/05/03/ivys_growth_transforms_a_city/)</p>
<p>The positive tranformation continues unabated, as typified by the opening a few months ago of Penn Park:</p>
<p>[PennConnects:</a> Penn Park Overview](<a href=“Penn Connects : A Vision for the Future.”>Penn Connects : A Vision for the Future.)</p>
<p>Further, new shops and a wide variety of restaurants and pubs continue to open in University City, which is becoming a real desination neighborhood in Philly.</p>
<p>In terms of academics, Penn still has some of the best preprofessional programs in the nation (Wharton, Nursing, and Bioengineering, for example, at the undergrad level, and Medicine, Wharton, Law, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine, etc. at the graduate level). However, Penn has also spent billions of dollars building on its liberal arts strengths over the past couple of decades, and boasts lots of top-10 and top-15 liberal arts departments (e.g., English, History, Art History, Religion, Music, Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropololgy, Linguistics, French, Spanish, etc.), as well as the wonderful and unique Kelly Writers House, the Platt Student Performing Arts House, the Penn Humanities Forum, and other non-preprofessional centers and programs. In other words, the undergraduate liberal arts program at Penn has become quite strong, equal to the quality and eminence of its preprofessional programs, and that trend continues.</p>
<p>According to Penn police, the most frequent crime is theft of unattended property. Doors propped open, bikes unlocked, purses left in shopping carts, money in desk drawers, etc. Student behavior is a real component in neighborhood crime.</p>