I am planning on going to Grad School for Urban Planning. I am in Wisconsin, and will definitely travel out of state to do this. I want to go to a big private school because oftentimes, they end up being cheaper because they are much more generous, lavishing their accepted students with offers that cut down tuition significantly.

UPenn is one of my Top 5 Choices (With Washington, UCLA, USC, and Columbia), and I just wanted to know if you'd recommend it. I hear the area around UPenn is pretty rough, but how are the rents? USC and UCLA might be impossible for me because I would not be able to afford to chuck out 1,000 dollars a month for a run-down studio in a questionable neighborhood.

My friend who is from Virginia had some choice words about Philadelphia, and other people I have asked also have made me believe that it might not be the best choice for me, despite being by far the cheapest option, at least living-wise.

Try not to be biased!

Penn is a pretty nice school. I don't think rent prices are too high, otherwise I would've heard complaints from my old friends from high school when they would come back to Delaware for breaks.

Temple's Med school is good as well, but that doesn't matter for you really.

Other than that, I don't have much to tell you.

i would go to philly becuase of the graduate program...not go to the school becuase of philly. with that said, i lwould have loved to have done my masters there.

No, don't move here. Philly sucks.

No, don't move here. Philly sucks.


what?

^^Joking??? Hopefully... Anyway, yeah Philly's great especially if you wanna go to Penn. In terms of living, it's much cheaper than other NE cities and the quality of life is great so long as you don't go and live in North Philly or select neighborhoods in West, South, and SW Philly. Chances are that anything bad and especially extremely bad about Philly from an outsider is either outdated, largely based on a Hollywood "Philly is a ghetto" perspective, complete ignorance, or on a very bad expereince.

Philly is wihtout a doubt a fantastic town and if you can and want to go to Penn I would highly reccomend it.

^ I agree. Philly is definately better than the majority of cities in America because it is historic, progressive, has soul and character, and is structurally and functionally dense. The amount of amentities in the Philly area is amazing as is the city's location near other major cities of the Megalopolis.

well i'm fromout of state and i am in grad school at penn. i think west philly (at least the area around to penn) isn't as bad as it's made out to be. just stay south of market, north of baltimore and dont go farther west than 48/49th. The area isn't expensive and it's convenient to center city. before i moved here i was under the impression there'd be lots of violence and gangs everywhere, but that hasn't been the case at all. i can only think of a very few incidents where i've felt unsafe walking home. even if you do feel unsafe the university has several options (pennBUS, penn shuttle, escorts) to get you to and from where u need to be.

My cousin goes to Penn State in State College and she loves it. She goes there for International Business.

Penn is awesome. I go to Temple. The neighborhood around Penn is fine. It is improving all the time and Penn's campus is magnificent. Being a geography major with a focus on planning, I can say that Philadelphia is a great example of what regional planners should seek to immitate across the country. I think it would be a mistake to go to a school out west where everything is sprawled. Good luck.

Go Villanova! :cheers1:

What should matter to you right now is your education and Penn certainly has that for you.

I've had limited exposure to the University City area, but what exposure I've had was positive, left a good vibe. And as far as Penn goes, from an educational standpoint it's about as good as it gets.

My cousin goes to Penn State in State College and she loves it. She goes there for International Business.

Well done :)

It is like a 3-4 hour drive to Philly from here though but same to Pitt and DC, 6 to Cleveland and NYC

If you like Madison I think you would like The SC except without the capital or a lake

Well done :)

It is like a 3-4 hour drive to Philly from here though but same to Pitt and DC, 6 to Cleveland and NYC

If you like Madison I think you would like The SC except without the capital or a lake

6 to Cleveland!? As a Penn State alum who frequently road-tripped to major cities to actually see a decent live band every now and then... Cleveland never took me 6 hours...

approx. travel times to major cities from State College... and I'm definately not the speeding type

Pittsburgh: 2 1/2
Baltimore: 3+
Philly: 3 1/4+
DC: 3 1/2 - 4 (depending on their notoriously bad traffic down there)
Cleveland: 4
Buffalo: 4
New York: 4+

I currently live in a little hole called Wooster, Ohio about an hour south of Cleveland and it takes me 4 1/4 hours to get back to State College.

I don't go to Ohio much (I can't see any Penn Stater wanting to), those times were max though.

Philly all depends on the traffic around Harrisburg as it seems they have been working on that road for years. Baltimore is known to be the closest and NY all depends on traffic in NJ

yes... NYC is variable as well... especially depending on where you want to go...

and Harrisburg is always a nightmare... I managed to always get stuck in some traffic jam there

It will be quicker to get to Altoona and thus Pittsburgh once they finish the damn interstate but they had all those acid rock problems

And the rest of here fam lives in Philly so its a win win. She has A's so far and is going to Milano(Milan) for the summer next year to study.

what?
Of course I was joking. Philly's my favorite city after NY.