Overhyped Ivy Leagues?

I have been accepted into Penn and I've have heard myths that Ivies are much harder to get into then they are to graduate in. I have heard that the work at Ivy league schools are very easy in general. I want to know if this myth holds weight( If you have experience with Penn please provide in answer)

Overhyped Ivy Leagues?
I have no personal experience with the Ivies myself, but a classmate of mine at the College of William and Mary had gone to Harvard. He was originally from Williamsburg and transfered to W%26amp;M when his father had a major heart attack and felt the need to be at home to help out. He said that getting into Harvard was the hardest thing he ever did in his life. Everything he did since 7th grade was done with the idea of getting into Harvard. But he always said the classes at William and Mary were much more difficult. He only had a couple of classes from actual professors at Harvard, the rest were all from graduate students, many with no previous teaching experience. He claimed his GPA took a nose dive when he transfered. I asked about this from a temporary summer employee I had a couple years later who was a Harvard student, and she pretty much agreed.





Of course college, like many things, depends on what you put into it. If you keep up with your work and don't blow it all off, you'll generally do ok.
Reply:It is not that the work is easy, its still hard. But there is some grade inflation. However this is mainly Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. The others don't have the same grade inflation.





Are you going to arts %26amp; sciences or Wharton?





Because wharton has a rep for being very difficult, fairly quantitative and financial based.
Reply:Generally you are graded on a curve. The material, then, is geared to the average, which at an Ivy League is very high. Therefore, the material is hard.





However, there is grade inflation at the Ivy Leagues, which means the average grade is probably a B or B- instead of a C+ or C.
Reply:Easier than the work you have to put into getting accepted in the first place would suggest? Sometimes, yes. But developing the discipline to get the grades and the SAT scores and still have time for the extracurriculars you need to get to that level makes you far, far better prepared for the challenge no matter where you are. College only seems easier because you've been working at a college level for so long, only now you don't have to do every single subject every single day, plus homework every night.





It also depends to an extent on what you're studying. Wharton students don't have it easy. Neither do premeds, as my alumni friends tell me.
Reply:This is a pretty well-known fact. The hardest part is getting in; from then on, the workload isn't THAT tough (especially compared to Ivy equivalents like Williams and Amherst) and there is intense grade inflation. I have a lot of friends who go to Ivies and a lot who go to "little Ivies," and the kids who go to Ivies really don't have to work as hard to get good grades.

Taxes