Penn CAS or Georgetown COL?

PennCAS2014
Thu, 20 Apr 2017 22:56:18 +0000

@everlyhanly congrats! you have two amazing options in front of you and they’re both quite similar institutions, in my opinion. That being said, Penn is the stronger of the two overall and equally strong in the areas where you’re most interested.

I’m curious which Penn Prof’s lecture you sat in on. I was a Poli Sci minor and while not all of them are superstars, Penn’s poli sci professors do tend to be pretty great. You should look at Mary Frances Berry, John DiIulio and Rogers Smith, among the department’s other renowned scholars. It is also important to consider how poli sci and econ will intersect if you’re truly interested in both, and Penn is making moves to integrate them in a way that Georgetown is not. With Penn’s new Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics, both departments will be housed in one, absolutely gorgeous building that is going to allow for collaboration in the most state of the art poli sci/econ facilities available in higher education today.

“The Perelman Center will be home to two of the School’s largest departments, along with five centers with a global and/or public policy focus. It will become a hub for the social sciences that will foster intellectual interaction and collaboration across disciplines, and will bring interdisciplinary scholarly expertise to bear on contemporary issues and events, at home and around the world.”

https://www.sas.upenn.edu/foundations-and-frontiers/foundations/education/ronald-o-perelman-center-political-science-and-economics
https://www.sas.upenn.edu/supporting-sas/giving-priorities/our-campus/ronald-o-perelman-center-political-science-and-economics
https://news.upenn.edu/news/penn-receives-25-million-gift-create-perelman-center-political-science-and-economics

It is hard to express just how profound this will be for the two departments and undergraduate education in the social sciences in general. Furthermore, Penn’s new Perry World Forum is also a major investment in political science and public policy that has been bringing the brightest minds in international relations to Penn’s campus with unprecedented frequency, all while substantively engaging the undergraduate community in new and innovative ways.

https://penncurrent.upenn.edu/news/former-un-ambassador-samantha-power-to-keynote-perry-world-house-conference
https://news.upenn.edu/news/distinguished-panel-penn-s-perry-world-house-addresses-national-security-election
http://www.thedp.com/article/2017/03/perry-world-house-bonnie-jenkins-tarun-chhabra-nell-crocker
https://news.upenn.edu/news/penns-perry-world-house-launches-inaugural-visitors-program
https://news.upenn.edu/news/penn-s-perry-world-house-announces-inaugural-undergraduate-fellows
https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-are-implications-emerging-technologies-ai-driven-robotics-and-automation-globalization

Honestly, the edge I once would have given to Georgetown and Columbia in terms of bringing fantastic, politically oriented speakers to campus 5 or 6 years ago, I no longer believe exists. Penn has invested so much in making its home in Philadelphia a center for global and domestic politics that I no longer see a difference between those three fantastic schools on that front. And let’s not forget that Joe Biden is just chilling on campus these days leading the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.
http://www.upenn.edu/spotlights/vice-president-joe-biden-lead-penn-biden-center-diplomacy-and-global-engagement

He’s also actually now a professor at Penn and he has spoke at Penn 2 times within a two month period already: http://www.thedp.com/article/2017/03/joe-biden-discussion-march-30

Needless to say, your desires to engage with local, state-wide, national, and international politics will be ably satisfied by Penn. And I won’t even get started on the strength of Penn’s economics department and the added value of having one of the best business and law schools right on campus. I mean, I can if you want me too! Just ask – but i think i’ll leave it there for now.

You’ll also have absolutely no trouble landing an incredible internship in DC during the summer if you want it (or, I believe you can do a semester in DC). I happily worked for the Federal Government in one of the executive departments (State, Treasury, Justice, Defense, etc. etc. etc.) and i had several friends at other executive departments, in the White House, on the Hill, in nonprofits, at think tanks, and more. Penn is VERY well represented in DC. Having an internship during the school year won’t really help more with law school apps than having one during the summer, but there are plenty of great opportunities in philly as well if you’re interested. You can do work with one of Penn’s centers (Fel’s Institute of Government, Fact Check, anything at Penn law) and there are a bunch of think tanks and nonprofits in philly of which you can take advantage. Genuinely, you won’t have trouble putting together a great application to law school. In fact, the top 5 law schools at which students from penn matriculated last year were: Penn, NYU, Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/20152016lawstats – and those are only the students that actually decided to enroll-- many more students are accepted to those law schools from penn undergrad each year than are represented on that chart.

Generally, I don’t think you can go wrong with these two schools. They’re both fantastic and are strikingly similar in the ways that i think matter most in a university. That being said, Penn is the better choice in my opinion. I’m happy to answer any other questions you might have-- just let me know! good luck