UPenn vs. UChicago vs. Brown

45_Percenter
Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:39:36 +0000

Regarding Penn:

For several decades, Penn has had what it calls its “One University” Policy. Under that policy, Penn strongly encourages all undergrads to take courses in more than one of the undergraduate schools (College of Arts and Sciences, Wharton, Engineering and Applied Science, and Nursing), as well as in eight of the graduate schools (including the Law School, Annenberg School for Communication, School of Design, School of Social Policy and Practice, Graduate School of Education, etc.). Penn is very serious about this “One University” policy, and views it as a uniquely defining feature that sets Penn apart (similar to how Chicago and Columbia view their cores and Brown views its open curriculum). It really gives undergrads an unparalleled opportunity to pursue a course of study of extraordinary variety, breadth, and depth, far beyond what they could experience in a traditional liberal arts curriculum.

Penn’s high ranking is NOT mainly because of Wharton. While Wharton is obviously a major component of Penn, Wharton consists of only about 1850 undergrads out of Penn’s total undergraduate population of over 10,000, with the College of Arts and Sciences having about 6400 undergrads, the School of Engineering and Applied Science having about 1600 undergrads, and the School of Nursing having about 500 undergrads. Obviously, based on those numbers alone, Penn’s US News ranking in the range of 4-7 every year for the past 11 years could hardly be attributable mainly to Wharton.

Further, many of Penn’s liberal arts departments (including Economics) are ranked in the top 10 in the country, and many others are ranked in the top 20. In fact, in the last National Research Council (NRC) ranking of Ph.D. programs, the most respected ranking of its kind, Penn was one of the top 10 schools with the highest number of departments ranked in the top 10. Additionally, in the Top American Research Universities report issued by the Center for Measuring University Performance (based on 9 objective measures), Penn is ranked in the highest tier, tied with Columbia, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford:

http://mup.asu.edu/research2007.pdf (see page 8)

So as you can see, there is quite a bit more to Penn’s outstanding academic reputation and high ranking than Wharton. Nevertheless, as an Economics and/or Political Science major, it could be interesting to also take some classes in the business school with the best undergraduate business program in the world, and with the largest and most published business school faculty in the world. Again, under Penn’s “One University” policy, you could easily expand on the traditional Economics/Political Science liberal arts curriculum by taking classes in Wharton, the Law School, the Annenberg School for Communication, the School of Social Policy and Practice, etc. It’s an amazing opportunity for an undergrad and is, as I said, unparalleled anywhere else.

And speaking of Penn’s city-campus, if you haven’t already done so, you really ought to go visit it and hopefully spend a couple of days there. While it is relatively near Center City Philadelphia and all of the amazing cultural, historical, entertainment, dining, and nightlife opportunities it has to offer, the campus is quite lovely with beautiful greens, shaded paths, quiet courtyards, and a unique collection of historic and quirky buildings with a lot of character (lots of gargoyles, “Ivy Stones” placed by every graduating class going back to the early 1870s, etc.). In many parts of the campus, you really can almost forget that you’re in the middle of a major city.

Good luck with your decision! You really can’t go wrong with any of the three schools.