Education about Higher Education
 

Okay, once more, I draw upon the knowledge of the Philadelphia elders. I'm doing the college hunt now, and Fastweb found me these ones in Philly:

Temple
St. Joseph's
LaSalle
Drexel


Anyone have a yay or nay? Feel free to make another recommendation, as I'm in a moment of amazing impressionability right now.

~mike

It depends on what you're looking for, though, dunnit? Do you want the big dangerous city experience, or maybe the big city experience with a little less city and a little less danger?

Does it have to be a big place?

Out of that bunch I would pick Drexel, because it's engineering-based so there are going to be plenty of nerds, and because it shares the University City area with Penn so there would be plenty of really stuck-up women to get inferiority complexes about. But that's just me.

I'm also biased against St. Joe, because I went there briefly at night, pursuing an MBA. Don't worry tw, I didn't finish. I decided that bending over for idiot professors just wasn't something I could stand any longer. There was one good prof out of four, a terrible ratio.

You also have Villanova, Penn, Swarthmore, Arcadia, Neumann, Holy Family, and a few others I can't remember.

I didn't go to school here, and I don't know a whole lot about the schools, so my scope is a bit limited.

The four you mentioned are good schools, as are Penn and Villanova. The smaller ones are good as well. What are you thinking about going into? Not to mention, a couple of the schools (LaSalle, Temple) are in sketchy neighborhoods; Penn, Drexel, and St. Joe's aren't too far from shady areas, the rest are in the burbs (except Holy Family, which is practically in the burbs).

Umm hmm Haverford also... used to work there... seemed like a nice place to go to school.

As a grad student at Penn my perspective was that undergraduates were not treated well, but I've been told by Penn alums they liked it just great, so don't take me too seriously.

Eastern University (formerly College) seems like a nice place. The local amateur astronomy club had a meeting there once. They have an observatory with two computer-controlled 16" Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain scopes that was built almost entirely by fundraising on the part of an astronomy professor. It was very impressive!

My best advice is to look at what programs you want and follow that to the schools that have good (not necessarily big) programs in that area. And most of all, don't get yourself too tied up with one particular school. Once you reach a certain level, the admissions process becomes a crap shoot, and you can't let yourself become convinced that your life is ruined if you don't get your first choice. When I worked at Haverford, I twice met people (one mother of a student, and then an actual student) who had been turned down and were so bitter about it it was shocking.. you'd have thought the kids had been run over by a truck instead of denied admission to a college. The student, in fact, was complaining to me (yeah, like over in the computer center we had a whole lot to do with the admissions process... "Hey Joe, this girl has an OK GPA... send her papers over and see if the network engineer thinks we ought to take her" :rolleyes: ) while she was a computer science major at Wake Forest!! I told her I was sorry she did not get in since she wanted it so badly, but that she was at a fine school and she should let go of Haverford and concentrate on getting a good education at Wake Forest. She was mortally offended that I wasn't broken up by the injustice of it all.

I'm looking at schools that have major programs in journalism and/or political science and/or computer science. Further, I want the big city experience with mid- to full-level danger.

My desire is to get into a place back home in NYC. There, I'm looking at Columbia and St. John's. I ask about Philly because, as kb pointed out, I don't want to put all my hopes in one or two places. Though it might be fun to re-enact "Orange County", especially if I get to hang out with Jack Black, but I digress.

I want a big, notable city, Eastern US. Philly has a mountain range between it and Pittsburgh, which is a plus. The general plan is to start the college search in NYC and radiate out until I hit Pittsburgh. University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University are the final fallbacks.

~mike

Awesome combination.

I would still go with Drexel. It's bordered on the west with West Philly, and the frat houses mix into a city residential neigborhood. Center city is only 15 blocks east. The train station is right there so you can get anywhere fast - Septa, Amtrak, or the airport line to the world. It's diverse and interesting and just safe enough to walk around at night.

I second UT's recommendation about University City, tho Temple may have a better journalism program... I have no clue. I sometimes regret not living in University City when I was young & unencumbered by kids, but at the time, we were able to rent a nice 2BR place in the burbs 1/2 block from a train line for less than we could have gotten a 1BR on or near the Penn campus.

Well Mike, if you're looking for full-blown danger, Temple it is. :)

Seriously though, from my experience, a lot of good schools have been in shady or semi-shady areas. In most cases, these schools have excellent security, such as Temple and St. Louis University. Or, as long as you stay on or near campus, you'll be alright (Penn, Drexel, Univ. of Illinois-Chicago).

I agree with UT--Drexel definitely kicks ass, so long as you stay south of Lancaster Ave., and east of 38th St. :)

Mike,
May I suggest the University of Maryland, I'm currently here as an undegrad working on a major in Government and Politics. Maryland has exceptional programs in both Journalism and Computer Science. In addtion you get all the perks of a school in the city(metro runs to our campus) And it has quite a bit of "danger" look at the Maryland Basketball Riots... might be worth taking a look at...

Agreed...good school. Rho and I used to live near the campus, and College Park is a great place. Plus, you're only 10-15 minutes from all the rough stuff that PG County and DC have to offer. :) Oh, and about a 20-minute Metro ride to downtown.

Temple is cool, but definitely in the dangerzone. A guy I know was shot in the back as a freshman while bringing home a pizza. He survived, got his degree (Tyler- art/design) and last I heard he was doing fine but from a wheelchair.

If you do go to Maryland, and by some mischance you ever get hurt, do NOT let them take you to Leland Memorial Hospital. Everyone who goes there dies.

--MTR, UMCP BS Computer Science Class of 1992

It closed in '93. I believe it's a nursing home now.

there aren't many great hospitals in the area, but I guess that adds to the "danger" right?

Hospitals themselves add to a sense of danger. I inheirited the traditional old-country Irish fear of all things Western medicine. My grandfather refused to set foot into a hospital, convinced that once you did, you'd never leave alive.

I thank you all for the assistance rendered. Now I need to see who in their right mind will accept the madness I usher forth.

~mike