Why does everyone say nasty things about U. Penn?

[BigChiefHoho]

I've been browsing around here and xoxohth.com for a bit, and it seems like U. Penn takes an awful lot of flak.  Any kind soul care to explain why to poor clueless me?

[$Bill]

XOXO is an awful site, wiki them for laughs.  This site can be overly optimistic at times, but at least some useful information is disseminated.  Penn is clearly an excellent school, apparently they dont fill the champagne flutes high enough to satisfy xoxoers

[officeguy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoAdmit
Why no one should ever take anything on xoxo seriously...

[nike6075]

XOXO is an awful site, wiki them for laughs.  This site can be overly optimistic at times, but at least some useful information is disseminated.  Penn is clearly an excellent school, apparently they dont fill the champagne flutes high enough to satisfy xoxoers

Penn is a fine school, but gets lots of ridicule for bullshitting its way up the rankings (and admitting to it).

The people on XO are often much more clever, witty, and knowledgeable than what you find around here.  Also, sorry about your tiny pink LSAT score, bro.

[$Bill]

XOXO is an awful site, wiki them for laughs.  This site can be overly optimistic at times, but at least some useful information is disseminated.  Penn is clearly an excellent school, apparently they dont fill the champagne flutes high enough to satisfy xoxoers

Penn is a fine school, but gets lots of ridicule for bullshitting its way up the rankings (and admitting to it).

The people on XO are often much more clever, witty, and knowledgeable than what you find around here.  Also, sorry about your tiny pink LSAT score, bro.

Ha.  Now all you have to do is call me a poor and ask me if you hth.  Hizzla?  WGWAG?  Your a flame, Tulane is a festering shithole, etc etc.  Good example of XOXO right here

[nike6075]

Teacher's post about Penn hate being due to the wish to protect UChicago is completely incorrect.  Penn definitely got hate even prior to the tie with Chicago in the rankings.  The reason why Penn gets so much flack is that they pay much more attention than their peer schools do to whether or not applicants seem genuinely interested in attending their school.  This is, to be fair, a perfectly legitimate way of building a particular community.  But it comes off to a large extent as them trying to game the rankings system by increasing their yield.  People who would have gotten in if it were just about numbers frequently get waitlisted because their applications didn't show much interest in attending Penn.  Hence the hate.

No.

It's because of *&^% like this:

Reed Shuldiner, when he was an associate dean in the law school at penn, claimed that if penn law received a $20,000 alumni gift, that penn's central university administration "taxed" away $2,000 & "returned" $18,000 to penn law, then penn law recorded that entire transaction as penn law receiving $38,000. He went on to claim that such "creative accounting" was justified because there is no analogue to GAAP for making reports to U.S. News & World Reports & that penn's peers also do this. It would be worth investigating whether penn law did (& still does?) engage in such fraudulent & unethical reporting, especially in light of it being a law school which teaches professional ethics to law students & the recent wave of U.S. corporate accounting scandals.

http://agoraphilia.blogspot.com/2005/05/puzzle-of-penn-law-schools-ranking.html

[nike6075]

Anonymous sources often remain anonymous for a reason.

And, if you read the rest of the website (the analysis and conclusions of the blogger), you'll find evidence that substantiates the idea that Penn uses creative accounting/spending methods to game the rankings far above and beyond the efforts of peer schools.

[nike6075]

I really don't see anything in your explanation that can't coexist with anything in my explanation, nike.

Only pussies complain about Penn because of YP.  The general reason is that it is ranked much higher than it should be, which has far more to do with accounting than the Why Penn essay (or yield).

[TimMitchell]

XOXO is an awful site, wiki them for laughs.  This site can be overly optimistic at times, but at least some useful information is disseminated.  Penn is clearly an excellent school, apparently they dont fill the champagne flutes high enough to satisfy xoxoers

Penn is a fine school, but gets lots of ridicule for bullshitting its way up the rankings (and admitting to it).

The people on XO are often much more clever, witty, and knowledgeable than what you find around here.  Also, sorry about your tiny pink LSAT score, bro.

Dude, you've got almost 1k posts! If another board is much more clever, witty and knowledgeable than why do you post so much here? Do you have about 10K posts on XO? How sad is your life? I feel like a bit of a loser for the amount of time I spend on here giving/receiving LSAT and application advice, but, I feel that this board is the best I've been to on the internet... and if I felt another board was better I wouldn't come here anymore.

 

Don't bother replying to this, I won't post back. I'm not getting involved in a internet forum flame battle about a dude bashing a board that he posts on obsesively. You post on this board 3 times a day over the past year!

[RokoMotion]

I'm going to Penn next year, and I'm ecstatic.  Everything I've seen and heard since I made the decision last Fall has only reinforced my desire to go there.  Don't let what people say here get to you.