Austin @ 3 years for ~ 5/8 the $$$ of 1 year at Penn.

No question

Plus there is a lot more going on in growing, exuberant Austin as opposed to dying, decaying Philly with it's horrendous crime rate.

The $100,000 question: will $400 monthly loan payments close the doors that the UPenn education/degree would open?  ~_~

dispite this thread being old i thought i would add my 2 cents.

i applied to a wide range of schools: UPenn, UW, Colorado-Denver, and CPP. I received early admittance into Penn and am going to accept without waiting for other responses. my reasoning is that the doors that Penn will open up are stupid, their resources are vast and reach is unmeasurable. yes the financial burden is rough but you gotta think about the long term advantages of having acclaimed landscape architects vouching for you (Weller, Olin, Mathur, John Dixie Hunt, etc). just saying. 

Do you want to do star-powered international work? I'd go to U-Penn. Do you want to do really nice second homes/ranches around Texas? I'd go to Austin. 

Funny enough the U-Penn dean was dean at Austin prior ha. 

The power of ivy league credentials in the USA shouldn't be underestimated.  The willingness of employers and clients to hand opportunities to ivy grads has been a real surprise to me over the years.