My decision on where to go to school last year was exactly what you are asking: Hopkins or Penn. It wasn't an easy decision but I had a gut feeling the whole time. I liked Penn because I was comfortable with the city (Philly is a cool place...nice park to run in, some nice areas to live that are convenient to downtown...closer to snowboarding than Hopkins, family is closer), the students seemed like really fun and cool people, I am interested in becoming some kind of pediatric-related specialist maybe, and their curric seemed pretty cool to me...they have only pass-fail in the beginning, right? (good for some people and not necessarily for others) And Gaye just gave me that warm and fuzzy feeling inside...made me feel very comfortable with the school.
And then there was Hopkins. I originally didn't know whether I was going to apply to Penn because I wanted to see something else besides a city 10 minutes from where I grew up. When I visited Balitmore at first I'll have to admit I wasn't too impressed. But after coming back and exploring the city...I really liked it. There are tons of awesome ethnic restaurants, really cool bars and clubs, theater and symphony stuff going on, sports teams, and being close to DC is nice when you wanna go out all night. And when it came down to it, I loved the school. I'll admit it, I was kind of infatuated with the school from the beginning, and when I visited I just felt so comfortable with the students and was so impressed by the med school and the public health school that deep down I knew I would be happy here. I REALLY liked how the curriculum was set up. They start you off first year pretty lightly and then they increase the work load from there...so you really get a chance to get acclimated to med school (which believe me is really nice 🙂 It's just not too crazy at first, it's cool...and it actually isn't that bad now either. But anyway, I just had a gut feeling about the school. And then when it came down to financial aid, Hopkins blew Penn out of the water.
So I chose to go to Hopkins, and I'm sooo glad I did. I seriously love it here. Our education so far has been outstanding, and I feel like I am learning an insane amount of stuff every week. It's pretty awesome. But in any case, if you have the same luck with Penn, you may have a tough decision....but it's a good decision. If you are really torn between the schools still, you really can't go wrong either way. But congrats on getting in, that's awesome. 🙂
(In the argument over the issues of "cultural activities" that never seems to end....if you want more more more more more more, then go to new york city. For MOST.....note the case......people, splitting hairs over cultural activities between B'more and Philly is effing pointless. They both have cultural activities. If you absolute must have your weekly fill of various different "cultural" activities then I think Philadelphia may have several more places to go. But I've done a ton of stuff in Balimore and I really like it. I know people who are happy with Balimore and Philly because of what they offer, and I know some who hate the cities for what the do and don't offer. It's all based on what frame of reference you have and what your expectations are, which are different for all of us.)
