Are campuses like Penn or Johns Hopkins actually unsafe and ugly? Or...
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Anonymous
| Or do some people just think they are because they are not in idyllic settings? We're from a major city and our DD is used to seeing homeless, dirty scaffoldings, etc but she has never actually come close to a potential robbery or sexual assault. Do Penn and JHU just don't look that pretty? Or are they actually unsafe and ugly compared to an average "nice" college campus? |
Anonymous
| JHU isn’t ugly. Have you been to campus? It’s quite nice and the surrounding neighborhood isn’t bad. They’ll drive kids wherever they want to go in Baltimore. That said, Baltimore itself isn’t super safe. |
Anonymous
| Penn is an urban campus. It's really that simple. The buildings are beautiful (many of them) but if you're looking for 200 acres of rolling green quads, you ain't gonna find it. Different kids seek different environments and there are plenty of each type to go around. |
Anonymous
| I actually attended both, Penn is more urban and borders a sketchier neighborhood, but the area has improved markedly since the 1990s. The campus has some really pretty gothic architecture but some of the on campus housing, namely the skyrises, are butt ugly. Hopkins has more green spaces and a different look with Georgian buildings. The campus is in a very safe area of the city and borders two of the most upscale neighborhoods in the city. A kid who grew up in a city could handle both easily. I grew up in the suburbs and did just fine. |
Anonymous
Agree. Used to be you wouldn't venture more than a couple of blocks West of campus, but now you can travel a good 2 miles West of campus before you hit the sketchier parts. Just like 1 mile East of campus and you are in the Rittenhouse Square part of Philly which is considered quite nice and it's essentially nice the entire way East from UPenn to the DE River. |
Anonymous
| Both JHU and Penn are fairly nice campuses. So is Chicago. Columbia too. But these are all urban schools. Security on campus is always very good. Students do need to be streetwise and have common sense when venturing into nearby neighborhoods. But thousands and thousands of students at these schools do manage to get a great education and a great experience. |
Anonymous
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Have you actually visited either of those schools? Neither could remotely be described as ugly.
And on campus I think you're just as safe at either of them as any other campus. Off campus you'd need to be aware of where you're going and how you're doing it, but that's true of any city school. |
Anonymous
Both for Penn. It looks like it was planned by a committee that didn’t have a chairman, & the lowlifes in the area roam the campus freely. |
Anonymous
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My dd loves the Penn campus and thinks it is beautiful! She loves locust walk and urban living. But she is a city kid at heart. Like many campuses, she is mindful about walking alone late at night and takes ubers when coming home very late from parties. She couldn't be happier. I went to Columbia back in the day when the surrounding area was awful, and still loved it. City living is not for everyone
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Anonymous
I think the Penn buildings are beautiful, but yes there's a problem with some unsavory types from the area roaming the campus and even a few attacks against students. It's not gated, and that's becoming more of a problem. |
Anonymous
| I work at JHU, it's a classic Georgian campus setting. Lots of students live off campus the last few years, mostly in Charles Village, which is quite safe. |
Anonymous
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A lot probably depends on your definition of safe and whether you are male or female. At Cal, my son and his friends started carrying a dummy wallet with a few dollars and useless cards (used gift cards) whatever. This way when you are mugged you don’t lose your ID and everything. They don’t carry their laptops with them very late at night unless they are traveling in a bigger group or within running distance/near very populated areas. It’s worse during the beginning of the year when criminals target the new students. He’s had a number of run ins with aggressive homeless people on drugs but he’s always been able to de escalate, walk away or push back. One tried grabbing his backpack but he’s pretty strong so the guy didn’t get it. The girls usually get someone to walk with them if it’s late.
He’s encountered a good amount of “crime” but has lived to tell the tale and isn’t bothered by it. Just an inconvenience. |
Anonymous
| With most of the urban campuses (Penn, Cal, USC), usually the campus only borders a bad neighborhood on some sides of it, and there are sides that are considered safer. So a good thing to do is just make sure you master your directions and an awareness of how far to venture off campus in each direction. |
Anonymous
| People always call JHU, Chicago, USC, Penn, etc as having unsafe campuses when it's all false. Chicago has the largest private police force in the entire country and your kid is safer on campus there than most other universities. Problems only start when you wander cluelessly too far south/west. JHU is in a swanky neighborhood. Penn is steps away from the nicest parts of Philly and the sketchiness is miles away. USC is completely fine and safe if your kid doesn't lack awareness. It's all an exaggeration. |
Anonymous
| penn ugly asl |