Penn: The Social Ivy

HYPSMIT
Mon, 27 Dec 2010 12:10:07 +0000

Two points:
1.) Penn is most definitely the social Ivy. As a current Princeton student who has visited Penn, Columbia, MIT, and Cornell, I can definitely say that Penn is by far the “coolest” Ivy I have been to. The kids there are really fun, and no other Ivy embodies their laid back yet simultaneously inquisitive personality. I love Princeton, but objectively, I can definitely say that Penn is way more “socially cool” than we are.
2.) @ivyrow15: your overgeneralized point about all kids from top public schools applying to prep schools is a blatantly incorrect operationalization. Many of my smartest friends at Princeton were at the top of their public high schools, and they never even thought about going to a prep school. So yes, the cream of the crop is definitely present in public high schools. Remember, paying for those schools is extremely difficult. For example, my family made just enough not to get any aid from them, but couldn’t afford to pay 150K for HIGH SCHOOL and then 200K+ for college. However, I don’t think I was disadvantaged in any way- on the contrary, coming from a large, high performing public high school, I had access to a ton of resources (20+ APs, superb ECs, etc).