Princeton too isolated and subarban-y?

rhandco
Thu, 17 Sep 2015 21:02:15 +0000

" Plus, i have relatives who used to live in Philly and tell me its an amazing city. Will i , as a penn SEAS student, be able to take out time to just visit and explore the city once a week? "

I was Penn SEAS, and I had no problem going to parties during the week and going to South Street on the weekend.

As for the smell, Princeton smells pretty bad too, all those noses in the air can’t tell maybe?

I think you need to consider greatly the difference between what is immediately around Penn, not just in Center City and South Street, vs. what is immediately around Princeton. As a NJ native, I do not feel that the vibe around Princeton is in any way like a college town. Penn has many small businesses such as shops and restaurants in the immediate (as in within 3 blocks of campus) area. It will be clear where you can easily go, and where you should stay away from in the immediate area.

I guess my point is, at Penn you don’t have to be limited to only on campus, whereas Princeton has much more of that vibe - what you get it only directly on campus unless you have a car. Yes, you could go to NYC or Philly, but the time and trouble to do that is much more than going to Center City or South Street from Penn.

However - if you are married to the idea of an aerospace degree, you may want to look at schools that actually have one. Not that they haven’t had students doing aerospace research, but you would be an exception.

USN&WR doesn’t have Princeton in the top 10 for aerospace engineering:
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/aerospace-rankings

but then I did check, and they are #11. So the top ten might be good places to start looking.

Cornell, UMDCP, and Virginia Tech are all tied with Princeton at #11. Penn State is #16. RPI is #22; my son is there and got pretty good merit aid based on his SAT scores (not wonderful, but I hope your test scores are better).