Ivy Tours

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you wasting time touring Ivy schools? Visit safety schools instead to a make sure your kid has some options they like and can get into

— Mom of 2023 grad with 4.9 W GPA and 36 ACT that did not get into any Ivy.

Did you ever figure out what was wrong with your kid? Your kid obviously turned off AO officers for some reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The point on Penn - it's a horrible campus for crime. I lived there one summer and gun shots were a regular occurrence as well as constant cat calling. Absolutely would not want my kid there.

How old are you? Is this an experience from this century? I went to Penn in the 80s, and your description isn't accurate even for Penn 40 years ago! Definitely not accurate now.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps OP and their family have unlimited amounts of time on their han and have also toured another 30-50 schools of varying size, location and selectivity, but it is not only a waste of time to tour every Iv, it sends a terrible message to your child about prestige and self worth. You can tell on paper that they are so much different from each other. Clearly you are chasing prestige as opposed to finding a location that fits your student where they can thrive. But the irony is that pretty much any HS student who has time to travel and visit every Ivy - along with a wide selection of other schools - probably does not have the level of depth and achievement that an Ivy is looking for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you wasting time touring Ivy schools? Visit safety schools instead to a make sure your kid has some options they like and can get into

— Mom of 2023 grad with 4.9 W GPA and 36 ACT that did not get into any Ivy.

Umm. Maybe it was your kid? One-dimensional? Bad interviewer? Boring and uninspiring?
My kid with 33 ACT and 3.8uw is going to Ivy.

Let ppl tour what they want. No one made you God.

Yeah. I assume there was something really off with this kid.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think it’s a waste of time to tour any school, you can learn something that applies to others on what you value. We toured safeties, targets and reaches where able. Son applied to 5 of the Ivies, unhooked, accepted 2, waitlisted 2, rejected 1. Did better with ivies than some other easier admits in T20. Son applied to schools he liked, really no telling how it’ll shake out which is exactly why kids are applying to so many now. It’s all so u predictable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you wasting time touring Ivy schools? Visit safety schools instead to a make sure your kid has some options they like and can get into

— Mom of 2023 grad with 4.9 W GPA and 36 ACT that did not get into any Ivy.

Umm. Maybe it was your kid? One-dimensional? Bad interviewer? Boring and uninspiring?
My kid with 33 ACT and 3.8uw is going to Ivy.

Let ppl tour what they want. No one made you God.

Feel free to waste your time. Just passing on what post people seem to need to learn the hard way. Its hard to get in. No need to get nasty.

Different poster here. Why come in to any Ivy post to talk about your kid who didn't get in 2 years ago? Clearly many kids DID get in and therefore it isn't crazy for the next crop of kids to visit the school(s).
You post your kid's stats constantly and it's been 18 months since he/she was rejected. It's really time to move on with life.

If the kid is as annoying as the parent, then there's the answer. No one needs that around. Everyone tries to avoid PITA kids and parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The point on Penn - it's a horrible campus for crime. I lived there one summer and gun shots were a regular occurrence as well as constant cat calling. Absolutely would not want my kid there.

How old are you? Is this an experience from this century? I went to Penn in the 80s, and your description isn't accurate even for Penn 40 years ago! Definitely not accurate now.

DP. Late last century (1998), I visited Wharton to look at the MBA program. Campus felt somewhat unsafe. I noticed mirrors had specifically been set up in the basement ladies' room to look around corners and there was a hardwired safety alarm button in the sink and stall area. That was just one of many clues that it wasn't a campus where I would feel comfortable. Later that spring, a female MBA was horribly murdered by a stranger in her Center City apartment. It took years for the police to solve the crime.

https://people.com/crime/shannon-schieber-troy-graves-people-magazine-investigates/

I'm mentioning this because PP threw 40 years out. My experience is 25 years old but memory lasts a long time. I'm parent age now and what I hear is that Penn is much better but there's still a bit of a safety island effect and there is still rough stuff nearby. I personally am reasonably aware of urban safety but I also value not having to think about it. I went to a different non-Philly urban school for undergrad and found that I had to plan ahead a lot to avoid walking alone at night. As a short woman, the risk of being targeted is much more concerning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The point on Penn - it's a horrible campus for crime. I lived there one summer and gun shots were a regular occurrence as well as constant cat calling. Absolutely would not want my kid there.

How old are you? Is this an experience from this century? I went to Penn in the 80s, and your description isn't accurate even for Penn 40 years ago! Definitely not accurate now.

DP. Late last century (1998), I visited Wharton to look at the MBA program. Campus felt somewhat unsafe. I noticed mirrors had specifically been set up in the basement ladies' room to look around corners and there was a hardwired safety alarm button in the sink and stall area. That was just one of many clues that it wasn't a campus where I would feel comfortable. Later that spring, a female MBA was horribly murdered by a stranger in her Center City apartment. It took years for the police to solve the crime.

https://people.com/crime/shannon-schieber-troy-graves-people-magazine-investigates/

I'm mentioning this because PP threw 40 years out. My experience is 25 years old but memory lasts a long time. I'm parent age now and what I hear is that Penn is much better but there's still a bit of a safety island effect and there is still rough stuff nearby. I personally am reasonably aware of urban safety but I also value not having to think about it. I went to a different non-Philly urban school for undergrad and found that I had to plan ahead a lot to avoid walking alone at night. As a short woman, the risk of being targeted is much more concerning.

So 25 years ago, a woman was murdered in her center city (for you non-Philly people, that means downtown and is across a river, a couple miles, and about a half million residents away from Penn)? And how is this helpful to me with my rising hs senior who was born 8 years after this event?

Truly odd

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The point on Penn - it's a horrible campus for crime. I lived there one summer and gun shots were a regular occurrence as well as constant cat calling. Absolutely would not want my kid there.

How old are you? Is this an experience from this century? I went to Penn in the 80s, and your description isn't accurate even for Penn 40 years ago! Definitely not accurate now.

DP. Late last century (1998), I visited Wharton to look at the MBA program. Campus felt somewhat unsafe. I noticed mirrors had specifically been set up in the basement ladies' room to look around corners and there was a hardwired safety alarm button in the sink and stall area. That was just one of many clues that it wasn't a campus where I would feel comfortable. Later that spring, a female MBA was horribly murdered by a stranger in her Center City apartment. It took years for the police to solve the crime.

https://people.com/crime/shannon-schieber-troy-graves-people-magazine-investigates/

I'm mentioning this because PP threw 40 years out. My experience is 25 years old but memory lasts a long time. I'm parent age now and what I hear is that Penn is much better but there's still a bit of a safety island effect and there is still rough stuff nearby. I personally am reasonably aware of urban safety but I also value not having to think about it. I went to a different non-Philly urban school for undergrad and found that I had to plan ahead a lot to avoid walking alone at night. As a short woman, the risk of being targeted is much more concerning.

So...you have a problem with every urban school in every city in the USA.

Also, your example is of a person murdered in Center City Philadelphia who was an MBA student at Penn...are you implying the dangers of the Penn campus followed her to Center City...because those are two different neighborhoods entirely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve toured a couple schools twice so know the weather, tour guide, and other factors can greatly influence impressions. Here’s ours on one particular day in spring.

Harvard - sat through a long presentation and unfortunately 2 students working that day were incredibly similar and soft-spoken so didn’t get much out of it. Felt like takeaway was to be super impressed with school and to have zero expectations on getting in. Building smelled horribly of fish. Tour guide was okay. Nothing stuck out, felt touristy, and underwhelmed but know it’s Harvard so expectations were likely too high.

Princeton - phenomenal freshman tour guide which was impressive, beautiful campus and well-maintained, didn’t love eating clubs, love undergrad focus.

Penn- loved proximity to hospital, main walkway area is very cool, we must have had a sheltered stay as didn’t notice it being a rough area. Didn’t do official tour, students appeared happy and social. Not a fan of Wharton vibe though.

Brown - agree with person yesterday that quad felt like “funny farm” staged, Providence was nice, students seemed very happy, great tour guide, needs some updates on some interiors and felt worn in places.

Cornell - felt intense, beautiful campus and interesting architecture, Ithaca is cute, food looked amazing. Also felt worn in some buildings.

Yale - nice AO led session with q&a, another phenomenal tour guide, my favorite campus, interiors were astoundingly nice to me in some buildings. Didn’t see a lot of kids walking together or life outside but partially time of day.

Curious to hear about others experiences.

Have a ‘22 grad and a current student: it is not the Penn from the 90s! It is safe on and around campus, much much safer than Hopkins area. University city is more like a college town that is across the river from downtown Philly, as I am sure you saw. Hopefully you saw the main college green , locust /woodland walk, but without the tour, you may have missed the quietest and best nature/greenery areas? Bio Pond(just south of the freshman Quadrangle dorm area near the old/classic bio and psych research buildings), River fields and Penn park, the Eastern/SE border of campus. Faculty with kids, and students , are always riding bikes or jogging down in that area. Pull up apple maps and you can find it all. They are on campus, just hard to know exactly what sidewalk to take unless you are familiar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The point on Penn - it's a horrible campus for crime. I lived there one summer and gun shots were a regular occurrence as well as constant cat calling. Absolutely would not want my kid there.

How old are you? Is this an experience from this century? I went to Penn in the 80s, and your description isn't accurate even for Penn 40 years ago! Definitely not accurate now.

DP. Late last century (1998), I visited Wharton to look at the MBA program. Campus felt somewhat unsafe. I noticed mirrors had specifically been set up in the basement ladies' room to look around corners and there was a hardwired safety alarm button in the sink and stall area. That was just one of many clues that it wasn't a campus where I would feel comfortable. Later that spring, a female MBA was horribly murdered by a stranger in her Center City apartment. It took years for the police to solve the crime.

https://people.com/crime/shannon-schieber-troy-graves-people-magazine-investigates/

I'm mentioning this because PP threw 40 years out. My experience is 25 years old but memory lasts a long time. I'm parent age now and what I hear is that Penn is much better but there's still a bit of a safety island effect and there is still rough stuff nearby. I personally am reasonably aware of urban safety but I also value not having to think about it. I went to a different non-Philly urban school for undergrad and found that I had to plan ahead a lot to avoid walking alone at night. As a short woman, the risk of being targeted is much more concerning.

It is not rough nearby campus. At all. This information is way out of date, is about downtown which is miles from Penn, and is not consistent with current campus. I am there all the time to see one or the other kid the last 6 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The point on Penn - it's a horrible campus for crime. I lived there one summer and gun shots were a regular occurrence as well as constant cat calling. Absolutely would not want my kid there.

How old are you? Is this an experience from this century? I went to Penn in the 80s, and your description isn't accurate even for Penn 40 years ago! Definitely not accurate now.

DP. Late last century (1998), I visited Wharton to look at the MBA program. Campus felt somewhat unsafe. I noticed mirrors had specifically been set up in the basement ladies' room to look around corners and there was a hardwired safety alarm button in the sink and stall area. That was just one of many clues that it wasn't a campus where I would feel comfortable. Later that spring, a female MBA was horribly murdered by a stranger in her Center City apartment. It took years for the police to solve the crime.

https://people.com/crime/shannon-schieber-troy-graves-people-magazine-investigates/

I'm mentioning this because PP threw 40 years out. My experience is 25 years old but memory lasts a long time. I'm parent age now and what I hear is that Penn is much better but there's still a bit of a safety island effect and there is still rough stuff nearby. I personally am reasonably aware of urban safety but I also value not having to think about it. I went to a different non-Philly urban school for undergrad and found that I had to plan ahead a lot to avoid walking alone at night. As a short woman, the risk of being targeted is much more concerning.

So...you have a problem with every urban school in every city in the USA.

Also, your example is of a person murdered in Center City Philadelphia who was an MBA student at Penn...are you implying the dangers of the Penn campus followed her to Center City...because those are two different neighborhoods entirely.

PP. I didn't feel comfortable visiting the school itself. As I mentioned. Where grad students live was relevant to me at the time. And the police were not competent in expeditiously solving the crime. You are correct that crime risk is a consideration for urban schools. It is not the only consideration, but certainly is one. Do you represent that Philadelphia has more effective policing today than in the past?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious why proximity to the hospital is a plus for Penn.

Premeds! I am a doc and went to a school with the med school on campus(not penn): it is much easier to get back and forth to shadowing, medical research buildings, etc. In med school it was surprising to hear how much harder the students had to work to get a class schedule that allowed for research and hospital experience during the semester, when the med center was not on directly attached to main campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The point on Penn - it's a horrible campus for crime. I lived there one summer and gun shots were a regular occurrence as well as constant cat calling. Absolutely would not want my kid there.

How old are you? Is this an experience from this century? I went to Penn in the 80s, and your description isn't accurate even for Penn 40 years ago! Definitely not accurate now.

DP. Late last century (1998), I visited Wharton to look at the MBA program. Campus felt somewhat unsafe. I noticed mirrors had specifically been set up in the basement ladies' room to look around corners and there was a hardwired safety alarm button in the sink and stall area. That was just one of many clues that it wasn't a campus where I would feel comfortable. Later that spring, a female MBA was horribly murdered by a stranger in her Center City apartment. It took years for the police to solve the crime.

https://people.com/crime/shannon-schieber-troy-graves-people-magazine-investigates/

I'm mentioning this because PP threw 40 years out. My experience is 25 years old but memory lasts a long time. I'm parent age now and what I hear is that Penn is much better but there's still a bit of a safety island effect and there is still rough stuff nearby. I personally am reasonably aware of urban safety but I also value not having to think about it. I went to a different non-Philly urban school for undergrad and found that I had to plan ahead a lot to avoid walking alone at night. As a short woman, the risk of being targeted is much more concerning.

So...you have a problem with every urban school in every city in the USA.

Also, your example is of a person murdered in Center City Philadelphia who was an MBA student at Penn...are you implying the dangers of the Penn campus followed her to Center City...because those are two different neighborhoods entirely.

PP. I didn't feel comfortable visiting the school itself. As I mentioned. Where grad students live was relevant to me at the time. And the police were not competent in expeditiously solving the crime. You are correct that crime risk is a consideration for urban schools. It is not the only consideration, but certainly is one. Do you represent that Philadelphia has more effective policing today than in the past?

Grad students most commonly live near campus—ie in University city , 1-3 blocks walkable to campus or in apartments directly adjacent. Med students often live on Pine or the woodlands—it has upgraded row houses with little front yards and is closer to the south end/med center area . Very gentrified. Rittenhouse in downtown philly is posh and expensive and takes longer to get to campus (unless you bike). Most grad students do not live there but that is definitely not a high crime area!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The point on Penn - it's a horrible campus for crime. I lived there one summer and gun shots were a regular occurrence as well as constant cat calling. Absolutely would not want my kid there.

How old are you? Is this an experience from this century? I went to Penn in the 80s, and your description isn't accurate even for Penn 40 years ago! Definitely not accurate now.

DP. Late last century (1998), I visited Wharton to look at the MBA program. Campus felt somewhat unsafe. I noticed mirrors had specifically been set up in the basement ladies' room to look around corners and there was a hardwired safety alarm button in the sink and stall area. That was just one of many clues that it wasn't a campus where I would feel comfortable. Later that spring, a female MBA was horribly murdered by a stranger in her Center City apartment. It took years for the police to solve the crime.

https://people.com/crime/shannon-schieber-troy-graves-people-magazine-investigates/

I'm mentioning this because PP threw 40 years out. My experience is 25 years old but memory lasts a long time. I'm parent age now and what I hear is that Penn is much better but there's still a bit of a safety island effect and there is still rough stuff nearby. I personally am reasonably aware of urban safety but I also value not having to think about it. I went to a different non-Philly urban school for undergrad and found that I had to plan ahead a lot to avoid walking alone at night. As a short woman, the risk of being targeted is much more concerning.

So...you have a problem with every urban school in every city in the USA.

Also, your example is of a person murdered in Center City Philadelphia who was an MBA student at Penn...are you implying the dangers of the Penn campus followed her to Center City...because those are two different neighborhoods entirely.

PP. I didn't feel comfortable visiting the school itself. As I mentioned. Where grad students live was relevant to me at the time. And the police were not competent in expeditiously solving the crime. You are correct that crime risk is a consideration for urban schools. It is not the only consideration, but certainly is one. Do you represent that Philadelphia has more effective policing today than in the past?

The topic of this thread is "Ivy Tours" which I gather is asking about people who have visited recently.

Why do you feel the need to constantly post about your visit as a possible grad student from 26 years ago?