Opinions / Observations: Temple / "Templetown," and Philly

[debbus]

hey everyone!

so this is my first post...let me introduce myself and my situation...

i grew up in central pa...not exactly a bustling region of the state, eh? so, because of how much i resented the boring days and nights there, i moved south to charlotte, nc for college. after being here for a year, i've decided i don't like the college i chose. i decided to transfer to a public school in pa to save on tuition and ultimately the amount i will owe in a few short years. i have always said that if i moved back to PA for college or career, it would be to Philadelphia and not Pittsburgh, and so Temple topped my list. I am about to send my enrollment deposit in for the Fall 2005 transfer class and was wondering:

- What is the true story behind the area surrounding the campus?
- What is there to do in Philly for college students (I'm under 21..but list them all anyway hehe )
- How are relations between the Temple students and Philly residents (and vice versa)
- How bad is the subway, *really*?
- What kind of oppurtunities does the city present for a Political Science / pre-law student?
- Anything else related...?

Thanks in advance!!

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by debbus

hey everyone!

so this is my first post...let me introduce myself and my situation...

i grew up in central pa...not exactly a bustling region of the state, eh? so, because of how much i resented the boring days and nights there, i moved south to charlotte, nc for college. after being here for a year, i've decided i don't like the college i chose. i decided to transfer to a public school in pa to save on tuition and ultimately the amount i will owe in a few short years. i have always said that if i moved back to PA for college or career, it would be to Philadelphia and not Pittsburgh, and so Temple topped my list. I am about to send my enrollment deposit in for the Fall 2005 transfer class and was wondering:

- What is the true story behind the area surrounding the campus?
- What is there to do in Philly for college students (I'm under 21..but list them all anyway hehe )
- How are relations between the Temple students and Philly residents (and vice versa)
- How bad is the subway, *really*?
- What kind of oppurtunities does the city present for a Political Science / pre-law student?
- Anything else related...?

Thanks in advance!!

welcome to the post, and welcome to philadelphia (in advance). I went to Drexel University which is in west philly, right next to penn. the neighborhood around temple is bad, no other way to put it. north philly is one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country (and west philly isn't much better...) I don't know what you mean by "how bad is the subway really". it's not bad, it could be more extensive, but for what it is it does the job. yes, there was a murder there last week but it's not like that happens every day.
as far as I know, the relations between temple and the residents is a state of d'etat. they don't bother each other for the most part. some fraternities have outreach programs to help clean up the neighborhood, but that's probably the most interaction between town and gown (temple students/alums please correct me if I am wrong.)
pre-law and poli sci majors have a pretty good outlook. there are a freaking ton of law firms in philly, some of the largest in the country. of course, there are a ton of law students, so the competition is somewhat fierce (my dad is a lawyer so I have some knowledge of this). I would say that if you wanted to go into a law practice then philly is a great place to be. as far as political science, the opportunities are less, although they are not zero.
can't help you with the extracurriculars around temple; as I said, I went to Drexel and I'm an old fart anyway (35).
hope this helps.

[Killadelphia]

North Philly isn't a neighborhood, it is a district and only some neighborhoods in it are anywhere near callign "one of the worst in the country". West Philly is hardly bad, and i nowhere near is as bad overall as North Philly. Although I am not in highschool yet, I knwo that the Temple area is progressively getting better. It is not a good neighborhood but it isn't so bad that you should be scared when you're there. You should definately visit soon befroe you make the decision.

[debbus]

Sorry if my question about the subway was a bit "foggy." What I've heard about SEPTA is pretty much that the subways are dirty and should be avoided at night thanks to the presence of, well, "shady" characters for lack of a better term.

I think I might have read somewhere that the area around Temple was getting progressively better, though at a somewhat slower rate than desired. I've also read that people prefer to take the subway off of the Temple campus rather than walk through the neighborhood to downtown due to the dodgy, dangerous atmosphere of it all. I just didn't know if that was an exaggeration or if there was some truth behind it. I certainly have seen and survived my share of dodgy areas, but I didn't know if in this case it was an extreme case.

I'd have to add that being here in Charlotte has been a gift...it really is cleaner than most cities and is pretty safe at night. Although it does have its less favorable parts, they aren't really all that bad. Then again, Charlotte is the equivalent of a lawn gnome in Philly's backyard :P

Thanks for your answers so far...feel free to add anything else

[Killadelphia]

LOL, I like your avatar. I have no idea about SEPTA, only rode it once and it was a bus when I was like 7, to go the movies with my babysitter. Other people, inlcuding dreadnought, will probably help you alot.

[volguus zildrohar]

Don't believe all the negative press.

The subway in Philly is like the subway in any other city - use your brain and you'll be fine.

It's not a war zone at night. You'd do well to stay in the first car where the train operator is and wait only in the middle of the platform near the token booth. Even at night, you'll be all right. The shady characters aren't riding SEPTA at night - they're on the streets doing their business.

[debbus]

Sounds interesting...I'll be visiting on May 3 to tour the campus and do some transfer stuff, hopefully I like the campus and everything. I really think Philly is a quintessential American city and I can't wait to have it as my playground

[moth]

You may seriously want to consider living in center city or university city and making the 10 minute commute to Temple. Temple is improving quite a bit but there is a lot more action going on downtown with virtually no crime. Temple is a little too close to the badlands for my liking.

Philly is a great city for live music, you can find a live performance every single night of the week. Its also become the trendy place for suburbanites to spend their weekends dining at the great Philly restaurants and partying at the nightclubs.

If you are into arts and culture, its one of the top 3 cities in the country. A Few more museums are in the works which will make it that much better.

If you like outdoors,biking,fishing, jogging, hiking etc. you're in paradise. Fairmount Park, Kelly Drive, and the new Schuylkill River Park will absolutely blow you away.

[Killadelphia]

^Amen.

[debbus]

I've heard about University City...what is rent like in that area? I realise its probably safer, but cost is definately a factor. I might consider it for next year when I am not garunteed housing at TU anymore.

Live music is always a plus and kind of creates a "spontaneous" feel to things..definately enjoy it here in Charlotte and I'm sure it'll be just as good in Philadelphia. Is the live music more of an acoustic/coffee house feel or just random, diverse performances?

[moth]

Radio station 88.5 WXPN just built a state of the art concert venue/restaurant/bar/recording studios/radio station in university city called World Cafe Live. They have live range of diverse music every day- more cutting edge and folksy stuff(Keane-North Missi All Stars-Mindy Smith etc.). Every friday at noon they have a free concert, last friday the Old Crow Medicine Show did a free show that was incredible. At night the shows usually range from $10 to $20 bucks.

Heres a stream link to wxpn if you want to listen while you're on the net. Great great station. The website also lists most of the concerts it is affiliated with.

http://www.xpn.org/listen.php



Then there are numerous clubs and concert halls that play a little more to the bigger shows. Electric Factory,TLA,Trocadero, Tower. Theres also a bunch of clubs that have live jazz, blues, and folk. I believe I read where ther are close to 300 restaurants and bars in center city alone, thats only 3% of the total area of the city Philadelphia and like .003 % of the metro area.

[*Sweetkisses*]

wow.....

[debbus]

wow...this World Cafe Live place sounds like exactly the kind of thing i'm into WPXN seems to be a good radio station too, despite it playing oldies when I tuned in--good oldies, though!

I think i'll definately be checking into University City for maybe Spring semester 2006 or Fall 2006. Right now, I've got on-campus housing and since I'm not familiar with the Temple campus or area, I think it might help me get acquainted with the area (for better or worse). This is definately an (alluring) option though..

[moth]

Yeah, University City is about 2 miles SW of Temple's campus. UC is made up of Penn,Drexel, Phila Univ of Sciences and Penn's humungous health care infrastructure. U. Penn has invested 1 billion in the past decade and has plans for another $1 billion this decade in UC.. That part of the city is rolling.

For a young outsider, U.C. would be my suggestion. UC is about 2 sq. miles, has a residential population of about 50,000. All either students or young professionals.


As far as Wxpn they mix things up on the weekends. Friday night Funk- Saturday night BLues- Sunday night -Folk. I would recommend listening to the blues and folk shows , they are excellent.

Here's a playlist of wxpn last thursday.

http://www.xpn.org/playlists_2005_0316.php

[Killadelphia]

Yeah, University City is the shiznit.

[debbus]

Oooo...and University City is home to that cool cereal place, isn't it? Read about it when I was home for Christmas, looks intriguing. Can't say I really *need* to have lucky charms, assorted candies, and chocolate milk each morning but then again, I don't really *need* Starbucks either and I find myself pulled in on each passing by :P

I assume WPXN is not a college station, right? If so, are there any good college rock stations there? When I'm at home i usually listen to WQSU by Susquehanna University for some good indie/alternative/local stuff...Does Penn or Drexel have a station similar (Temple's station seems to be exclusively NPR and their new student station is supposedly extremely underfunded)?

[blorkishdork]

He debbus!

I'm originally from the burbs of philly and am also a college freshman at UNC-Asheville, not far from you, and also desire to transfer to Temple. I'll be on campus my first year at least (cheaper). The southern area of Temple is getting better quicker than all the other areas around the school. My understanding is that Temple's campus is actually safer than penn's or drexel's and temple's police force patrols two blocks away from the school or whatever. My girlfriend goes to temple's art school, tyler, which is in elkins park (the burbs) and will eventually move to main campus, creating more people around at night etc. etc. The campus is really nice, when you enter it it's so surprising because it was bombed out rowhomes then suddenly clean temple.

As for radio stations, there is Princeton's and ccp's (the community college) are both decent, i actually don't know if penn, drexel, lasalle, or st. joes has radio stations, i know villanova does and it's some sort of catholic radio station, no real music.

[debbus]

sounds interesting...i'll be visiting the campus on May 3 for a "Transfer Tuesday"...i would prefer to do it sooner, but I have class and exams until April 30, and i have to allot a day for packing and driving back to the keystone state

As for radio, hopefully I'll find something...I would imagine a city like philly has a wide variety of radio stations/genres anyway, but nothing beats a no-commercial college radio station We lack one here in Charlotte, but it is for the most part a moot point as we have 2 alternative rock stations.

Its interesting, I looked at UNC Asheville during my college search but I wanted more of a big city feel...I applied to UNC Charlotte and got in, but since I was out of state I got no financial aid (about $300 a semester). Last minute, i applied to Belmont Abbey and I have to say...it was one of the worst decisions ever. The school is easier than my high school, smaller than my high school, and its falling apart. Not where I wanna be.

[Killadelphia]

I donno about the radio thing... I'm not a HUGE radio lsitener but we lack in the rock area. We have some stations and all but seriously Philly has ALOT of rap/hip-hop/r&b stations. ALOT.

[blorkishdork]

Are you taking interest in any other schools or no? and have you received an acceptance letter yet?

Well, if ya wanna chat about stuff, my screen name for aim is blorkishdork, same as it is for here.