Reply to When did Penn become prestigious?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "When did Penn become prestigious?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]'I actually picked Penn over Cornell and Columbia' in the 1980's.

If the choice was Wharton, sure, understood. But the CAS ??? No way. It was not anywhere near to Columbia College or to Cornell A and S. Columbia College was small and intellectually powerful then with 700 in a class. Cornell is a beautiful rustic campus.

Did you like your experience at Penn  ? I was accepted but turned off by the large class size,  unattractive Locus Walk with a hodgepodge of buildings that were non-descript, and the frat culture with its building signs looming over the campus and can be sen from classroom windows. It did not feel 'Ivy'.[/quote]

You seem intent on knocking Penn. It may not be for everyone. It's definitely urban and Philly has its warts. With that said, some of the comments are clearly false for anyone who has some familiarity with the school and the campus. Locust Walk is fabulous. Perhaps it's been awhile since you visited? The campus in general holds its own just fine against any of the other Ivy's I've seen, which is most. There are frats and sororities, but the school is not particularly known for its frat culture relative to many others. Also, CAS and Penn in general does a fantastic job with its outcomes. In fact the highest starting salary ( not that this means everything) for graduating seniors is not from Wharton, but from engineering and CS. This year that # will be right around $100,000 grand on average. As others have mentioned, we are splitting hairs here between this elite and prestigious school vs. this other elite and prestigious school.

I'll add that Penn has embraced interdisciplinary studies between its four undergraduate schools. This is in turn embraced by many students. [/quote]

I would not raise the issue of money and salaries as a measure of college's quality when talking about the 'greatness of an undergraduate college which is supposed to be about deep learning, and about promoting values on dedication to learning.

I know some teachers who were among the greatest humans I ever learned from who were making relative pennies on the dollar as high school teachers. They were graduates of Princeton and other deeply intellectual places who dedicated themselves to developing the life of the mind for our nation's children.  Now, that is greatness.

This is one of the problems I had with Penn, measuring academic excellence in terms of salary. No. measure it in terms of books, scholarship cultivating a committing among students for a thirst for knowledge and for sharing this knowledge with everyone and with anyone else over subsequent generations, even as an 80-year-old. .

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics