University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania Introduction

Penn was founded in 1749 as a Charity School intended to provide students with an education based on the ideas of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin’s philosophy held that a student’s education need not be wholly traditional, but practical as well; he was controversial in his proposal that teaching English was more important than teaching Latin. The resulting curriculum developed during Franklin’s forty-year tenure as a trustee included the sciences, mathematics, history, logic, and philosophy. It was later built upon by the creation of the nation’s first medical school, business school, and law classes. As America’s first university, Penn has remained dedicated to the philosophy under which it was founded, and continues to offer its students and faculty opportunities to achieve in academic, social, and professional worlds.

In 250 years, Penn’s student body has grown from a graduating class of seven to a student population of 20,000, half of which are undergraduates. This qualifies Penn as one of the larger schools in the Ivy League; however, the feeling on campus indicates the opposite. The Penn campus is mostly concentrated within a twelve-block area, centered upon Locust Walk, a tree-lined pedestrian walkway that bisects the entire campus in length and connects dormitories, academic facilities, libraries, and recreational spaces. Throughout the campus one can find visual records of Penn’s development in West Philadelphia, tracing from the late 1800s through the present, with buildings by former student Frank Furness, professor Louis Kahn, modernist Eero Saarinen, and Penn graduate Robert Venturi. This mix of old and new gives Penn the easily distinguishable impression that characterizes its campus and sets it off from the city surrounding it.

The campus and its urban setting are major parts of student attraction to Penn. While the campus stands in visual contrast from the rest of the city, Penn is neither detached from Philadelphia nor uninvolved in its community. Penn students regularly explore the city, and many participate in community service and tutoring projects in nearby neighborhoods. The city provides an excellent complement to Penn, offering more than one hundred museums and galleries, multiple performing arts venues, top-ranked restaurants and bars, historical sites, and a variety of other attractions for students to take advantage of. Students often spend nights and weekends in historic Old City, Center City (Philadelphia’s “downtown”), South Street, and other parts of town, but always return to campus to meet up with friends, do schoolwork, or relax at a campus establishment.

Given its setting and the opportunities offered, Penn practically guarantees that a student will find his or her niche. Penn students come from a variety of backgrounds, and are linked by their appreciation for hard work and academics—that is certainly how they earned their place at the university—but are marked by their ability to balance their education with social and extracurricular pursuits. Students come from fifty states and more than one hundred countries (ten percent of students at Penn are international). Registered student groups serving religion, politics, talents, hobbies, geographic origin, ethnicity, culture, sexuality, and other areas number almost 400, and student interests are so broad that this number continues to grow. This exciting mix of personalities fuels the academic and social environment at Penn, where students seem to take a genuine interest in learning on both sides of the classroom walls.

The admissions selection process is complex. The best way to know if Penn is right for you is to absorb as much information as possible. Talk to current students, faculty, and alumni, and if possible, make a campus visit, take a tour, and attend an information session. Go to Penn-hosted events in your hometown.

Penn is always changing, but by adding on and improving, not by replacing and forgetting past success. I invite you to explore what Penn has to offer, partially jealous that I won’t be able to experience all of the great new things added every year.

University of Pennsylvania Academics

For many students, the start of freshman year at Penn may be a wake-up call. Most students will come from high schools where they were top students, and where they definitely did not have to do much to prove it. Take roughly 2,400 of those students and pool them together with 7,500 sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and an incoming freshman is set for a humbling experience. The upside of this is how much you can learn from your classmates, many of whom may have studied in depth the material you have merely familiarized yourself with. They will have worked in places you’d never thought to work, visited countries you’ve never thought of visiting, and started clubs and activities unlike any that existed at the school you came from. As a student at Penn, you may learn just as much from your friends as you do in your classes.

Penn provides plenty of support for students and makes efforts to acclimate freshmen to their new environment. Students are assigned peer advisors, faculty advisors, and academic advisors from their undergraduate division. These people can help select courses, plan out future semesters, and ultimately guide the student throughout his or her academic career.

Course Selection

Course registration at Penn could not be any easier or more convenient. After out-phasing written and phone-in methods, students can now do their entire course search, request, and registration through PennInTouch, an on-line system that can also be used to manage tuition, transcripts, student voting, and many other student concerns. After establishing a schedule, students are given what is an equivalent to a “shopping period” known as add/drop, during which they may attend various classes to ultimately finalize their course selection by two weeks into the semester.

Four Undergraduate Schools

Most students applying to Penn will make their application to one of the four undergraduate schools. These include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Wharton School, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the School of Nursing. Joint degree programs offer students a combination of two of the schools, and students may apply to these highly selective programs as well. As few students are taken into these programs, applicants are given the opportunity to request admission to a single-degree program in one of the affiliated schools should they not be accepted for the joint degree program.

Majors

Undergraduates in the College officially select their majors by the end of their sophomore year. The time before this can be used fulfilling language or general requirements as well as coursework for their intended major. The College has a general requirement, consisting of ten classes taken from seven different academic sectors. In addition, all students must also be proficient in a language and fulfill a writing requirement. Graduates of the College are expected to take full advantage of the liberal arts and sciences.

There are more than fifty majors offered in the College. Special programs such as Biological Basis of Behavior (BBB) and Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) attract students for their multidisciplinary approach. The Annenberg School sponsors a major in Communications through the College, and the Graduate School of Fine Arts supports Fine Arts and Architecture majors. Students with specific interests that are not directly addressed by available majors are allowed to find an advisor and create an individualized major. It is not unusual for students in the College to double major or carry multiple minors.

Students in engineering can opt for a Bachelor of Science (BSE) or a Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) degree. Those selecting the BSE are usually on a preprofessional tract, which makes up the majority of students in the undergraduate program. The BAS offers a chance for students with an interest in technology who are less sure about their future career to add a liberal arts component to their education. All engineering students take seven courses in the College. The engineering curriculum culminates with a senior design project, which is either an original or continued research project based upon their undergraduate work.

The Wharton School was the first business school in the world, founded with the goal of providing an undergraduate business program that integrated humanities and social sciences. All students in the Wharton School receive a Bachelor of Science in Economics. Students are required to take a set of core requirements including finance, management, accounting, and marketing, and must pursue coursework outside of Wharton as well. Wharton students do not have majors, but concentrations, made up of four course units from one area of study. There are twenty concentrations offered, and just as in the College, students are permitted to individualize their concentration. Often students will pursue more than one concentration; the most popular is finance.

Nursing students all receive a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, qualifying them to directly enter the professional world or continue in a graduate or professional program. Penn’s Nursing program is consistently ranked one of the best in the country. Some nurses use their education as a strong premed preparation. With four hospitals in the neighborhood, nursing students are placed in their particular areas of interest for their clinical rotations.

Regardless of which undergraduate school a student chooses to matriculate into, Penn’s “One University System” offers the opportunity for students in one school to take classes in any of the other three. In some cases, it is possible to receive a minor or second major in another school. The flexibility of this system allows students to pursue interests outside of their home school, and often eases the concern of students with varied interests. It also enables students, with professor permission, to take graduate-level courses, which can in some cases lead to submatriculation (entry into one of Penn’s graduate programs).

Facilities

Students will find that all departments at the university are internationally respected, and that part of the benefit of studying at a large, competitive university is taking advantage of the facilities available. Penn offers sixteen libraries; the two largest and most popular are Van Pelt Library, with its twenty-four-hour study lounge, and the Fisher Fine Arts Library, which is so quiet and beautiful that you’ll feel you are disturbing the silence just by shifting your books. In addition to libraries, the university offers a Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, multiple art galleries, the Institute of Contemporary Art, television and radio stations, performance spaces, an arboretum, a planetarium, and constantly updated computer and science labs. The campus network allows students to have on-line access from everywhere on campus, including dorm rooms, libraries, classrooms, study lounges, the student union, coffee shops, and now with a wireless Ethernet system, certain zones of campus.

Study Abroad

Penn offers opportunities for international programs on six continents and in thirty-nine countries on a semester-long, full-year, or summer basis. In order to make study abroad a viable option for as many students as possible, Penn’s Office of International Programs provides much flexibility in arranging for travel. If you are interested in studying somewhere that Penn does not specifically offer a program, you can find a program through another school, get it approved, and arrange to have your credit from participation in that program transferred back to Penn. If a student is receiving financial aid, that package will be applicable to international programs as well. Most students go abroad at some point, usually in their junior year or at least during the summer. There are programs to suit everyone’s schedule and goals, and it is a great way to experience some of the things you have studied in the classroom.

I spent the summer between my sophomore and junior years studying in Tokyo. I participated in a language program at a Japanese university, and was able to use those credits toward one of my majors. During that summer, my language skills improved enough that I was able to skip an academic year of language instruction. More importantly, I gained confidence in my language skills and a proper understanding of the practical applications of Japanese. I also had the unique opportunity to travel and explore the culture and sights that I had previously known only in the classroom.

Penn Academic Firsts

Penn established the nation’s first collegiate business school, the first medical school, the first modern liberal arts curriculum, the first psychology clinic, the first botany department, the first university teaching hospital, the first journalism curriculum, the first chairs of chemistry and psychology, and the first course in the contemporary novel.

University of Pennsylvania Admissions

As the college admissions pool becomes increasingly large, acceptance to Penn is becoming more and more competitive. The hype of Early Decision has resulted in an enlarged ED applicant pool, and in past years Penn has taken up to half of their freshman class from this group. The median SAT falls around 1400, and most freshmen graduated in the top ten percent of their class. In order to remain competitive in this pool, it is necessary to pursue a rigorous high school curriculum.

While the academic program is very important to the application, admissions officers consider more than just letters and numbers. The Penn application gives students a chance to demonstrate personal talents and interests, specific strengths and goals, and any other elements that the applicant feels are important to communicate who they are and what would make them a unique addition to the university. Past essay questions have asked students what fictional character they would most like to meet, what has been one of the greatest challenges they’ve faced, and of course the one that is most provocative, to include page 217 of one’s 300-page autobiography. These questions are deliberately open-ended, allowing students to further demonstrate their personality through their interpretation of the answer.

Penn does not require specific coursework or minimum scores for application, but does look for a student who has maximized his or her high school experience, meaning that they should be taking the most challenging curriculum offered, and should be doing well. Standardized tests are required, and a student must submit either the SAT exam and three SAT Subject Tests orthe ACT exam. Students are welcome to submit both if they choose. Admissions Officers will consider the highest set of test scores. AP scores may be submitted, and exams may be used for placement or credit.

Note: Though there are no foreign language requirements for application, it is useful to have some background, as there are language proficiency requirements for graduation. This proficiency can be met with one of the more than one hundred languages taught at Penn.

In reviewing all of the required materials, as well as supplementary materials students might have supplied, admissions officers are looking to admit a diverse student body. This diversity applies to academic and extracurricular interests and accomplishments, life experiences, geographic location, cultural background, and any other number of circumstances that might make for a unique candidate. Admissions officers want students that are right for Penn, but also for whom Penn is a good match, and all applicants are asked to discuss why they feel Penn is best for them. The most important elements of the application are breadth and depth of involvement in academics and activities, personal statements, and teacher/school recommendations.

Admissions Process

Every year, The Daily Pennsylvanian runs an article announcing that Penn’s incoming freshmen are the result of its most selective admissions process yet. As a freshman, you read this and gain some confidence for the coming school year—you’re more qualified than all of the upper classmen. Then your sophomore year they have an article about the new freshmen, but the numbers are higher and the accomplishments greater.

University of Pennsylvania Financial Aid

Like all of the schools in the Ivy League, Penn’s admissions process is need-blind (for U.S. citizens, permanent residents, Mexicans, and Canadians), meaning that the admissions decision is made without regard to students’ ability to pay for their education. There are no athletic or merit-based awards. The financial aid package is entirely need-based, and the university is committed to fulfilling one hundred percent of “demonstrated need.” This figure is calculated using several financial forms, and is unique to each student’s situation. Almost sixty percent of undergraduate students receive some form of financial aid. Financial assistance packages may include a student loan, a work-study job, and a grant, in addition to funds that might be provided on the federal and state levels. Limited financial aid funds are available to international students from other countries.

University of Pennsylvania Students

Everyone says that college is a time to learn about oneself. A large part of this self-discovery is facilitated by the people you meet during these four years. Many of my first friends at Penn were people I met during a preorientation program (PennQuest) or were residents of my dorm floor. With time at Penn, one begins to meet more friends through classes, activities, or at parties and other social events. Freshmen will be happy to know that all first-year students are in the same situation as they are and are eager to make new friends.

Residential Life

Housing is arranged according to a system of eleven individual College Houses. It serves as an organizational system as well as a way of breaking students down into smaller groups. Support is found throughout the College House with advising, technical support, and even special residential programs that house people with shared interests. Members of the faculty and staff live within the College Houses as well, operating a host of special events including subsidized trips and activities, study breaks, and educational programs. Within the College Houses, students are divided into groups of about twenty students, each with their own Resident or Graduate Advisor—a current student living in the dorms who provides social support to students and is given a budget to operate small hall functions. The popularity of the College House system and the renovations have made on-campus living more desirable; students frequently retain the room they originally lived in, or stay in their original College House. Many students move off campus as upperclassmen, but can maintain affiliation with the College House they previously lived in.

As a freshman I lived in Penn’s oldest dorm, the Quad. I lived in a three-room triple with two other students who were at the time only random names in a packet of housing information. Our freshman hall included students from around the world and of many different backgrounds. It has been interesting to see the different paths that we have explored. There always seems to be some sort of bond between students who have lived together during their first year at Penn.

Orientation

Over the past years, Penn’s New Student Orientation program has grown into a week-long event, allowing first-year students to get a feel for the campus before classes actu- ally start. Special events planned just for freshmen include tours of campus and the city, introductions to campus facilities, College House meetings, social events, convocation, and lots of free food. Many upperclassmen return to campus early to attend a few of the events, such as Freshman Performing Arts Night, which offers a sampling of the many performing arts groups on campus. It is a great way to meet new friends, get your questions about campus answered, and begin the year on a positive note.

Penn offers a few preorientation opportunities, including PENNquest (outdoor experience), PENNacle (leadership), and PENNcorp (community service). I participated in PENNquest, where one hundred students are broken into groups of ten for a four-day hike through the Pocono Mountains. Participation in these programs is limited, and there is an application process that is well worth the effort. The programs offer students a chance to meet other freshmen in a unique environment, and secure friendships that can last through the rest of college.

Student Activity Groups

Penn has been dubbed “the social Ivy,” a title that it likely deserves, though not for the fraternity-crazy, non-studying image that it seems to imply. Rather, what distinguishes Penn students is their ability to break from studying to explore personal interests, work on extracurriculars, or just catch up with friends. They approach their out-of-class activities with just as much passion as their academic pursuits.

Students at Penn have their choice of hundreds of student activity groups. Though there is certainly not time to get involved in everything, student groups regularly host events for fund-raising, building student interest or awareness, and showing the talents and culture of the students they represent. There is always something to do on campus, and activities of note are major speakers and performers drawn each year through Social Planning and Events Committee (SPEC)-funded events and many special events organized through the Office of Student Life and the Student Activities Committee. Penn students also get involved in community service, much of which is organized through Civic House, and includes tutoring and mentoring programs for West Philadelphia children as well as other issues ranging from community building to social action.

An easy way to make friends with similar interests is to participate in activities. It is okay to test the waters in several different areas. I participated in academic and service groups, planning committees, and varsity athletics. Though I did not stick with all of these activities (and likely if I had, I would not have had time to go to class and graduate), exploring different areas helped to clarify what I did and did not want to do, and also introduced me to other students who became my closest friends.

Since most groups at Penn are student run, there are opportunities to gain valuable leadership experience as the head of a student group. There are also chances to get involved in all aspects of student life, including student government, the Nominations and Elections Committee, and the Student Council on Undergraduate Education. Any students representing a common interest can organize and create their own group, and recruitment by various student groups happens throughout the year at orientation events and along Locust Walk.

Social Planning and Events Committee (SPEC)

The Social Planning and Events Committee (SPEC) is responsible for the organization of many of Penn’s largest events. Connaissance, a SPEC-run committee, funds major speakers in the fall and spring. In recent years a wide range of speakers including Benjamin Netanyahu, Ellen DeGeneres, Gloria Steinem, and shows like “Politically Incorrect” and MTV’s “Loveline” appeared. Another group, the Spring Fling Committee organizes a two-day, two-stage concert complete with carnival-like attractions, a craft fair, and a final concert by a major act on Saturday night.

Greek Life

About thirty percent of students at Penn are affiliated with the Greek system. Depending on your interests, Greek life includes members of fraternities, sororities, and coed honors and community service-based fraternities. The official rush for Penn’s twenty-nine national fraternities and eight national sororities is in the spring, and pledging begins later in the semester. Because many of the rush activities are fun and a good opportunity to meet people, many freshmen get involved in rush even if they are not interested in pledging, and some realize during the process that they would actually like to pledge. One way or the other, Greek life does not dominate campus, and neither does it determine one’s friends. Most fraternity and sorority events are open to all students, non-Greeks included. Given that it is such a relaxed system, membership in a Greek organization comes down solely to a matter of personal preference.

University of Pennsylvania Athletics

Penn is Division One and in the Ivy League. Three tiers of athletic involvement offer students the choice of varsity, club, or intramural levels. With these choices, students hoping to continue with sports on a level of high participation and competition can join varsity teams, and those looking for a more relaxed involvement can join club teams (which compete with other colleges) or an intramural team. This allows high school athletes to keep up with their sport, but cut down on time commitment, and also gives novices an opportunity to explore new sports, and take their interests to whatever level they desire.

Athletic facilities include three gyms, a tennis pavilion, two pools, squash courts, indoor/outdoor tennis courts, playing fields, an indoor ice rink, rowing tanks, weight rooms, saunas, an all new fitness center, the nation’s first two-tier football stadium, and a boathouse on Philadelphia’s historic Boathouse Row. Athletic facilities are open for use by students with IDs when not reserved by an athletic team.

Facts

• The Heisman Trophy is named after Penn Coach John Heisman.
• The Penn Relays held on Penn’s Franklin Field every April is the world’s largest annual track meet.
• The first black American to win an Olympic gold medal (1908) was a Penn grad.
• Penn’s football team was the first in the United States to use numbers on its jerseys.

University of Pennsylvania Local Community

Students at Penn have the benefit of living in one of the country’s largest cities. Situated in the middle of the DC-to-Boston megalopolis, the City of Philadelphia offers a full range of amenities, including wonderful bars and restaurants, rich cultural resources, historic landmarks, and an exciting nightlife. Going to school in the nation’s fifth-largest city means that there are always many choices for what to do when you are not in class or doing homework. Attractions such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Franklin Institute, and the Mutter Museum are definitely worth exploring. The city attracts many great performers, and has a lively theater and performing arts scene. Every year the Fringe Festival attracts artists and performers to show off their talents in a week of special events. Also of note is First Friday, during which the galleries in Old City stay open late to show off their holdings. There are many great restaurants and bars in the area as well, and Penn runs shuttles down to the festivities to encourage students to explore.

For students concerned with adjusting to urban life, Penn is very proactive. Students are briefed on safety issues when they first come to Penn, and are familiarized with the various levels of security and assistance made available to them. All students are given a photo identification card, which is used to gain access to dormitories, libraries, and other campus buildings. Free walking and driven escorts are available to take students back to their destination. There are a number of proactive measures taken to make sure students feel safe on campus.

University of Pennsylvania Alumni

On-campus recruiting starts in the fall of senior year, and many students have accepted job offers by the winter holidays. In recent years, as many as fourteen percent of graduates have gone directly to a graduate program, and statistics show that eighty percent of Penn graduates have received a second degree within ten years of graduation.

After finals and before graduation, senior students have a week of activities known as Senior Week. Most noteworthy is probably the Walnut Walk, a pub-crawl starting in Old City and heading west to Penn’s campus, making stops along the way at twenty-one preselected bars. Students take this time to catch up with friends before heading out in the many directions they will take just weeks later.

Graduates of Penn will find that they have received training in more than just their area of study, and many will go on to work in fields very different from their undergraduate studies. If the size of Homecoming and graduation events is any indication of the graduate’s appreciation for their alma mater, then applicants should expect great things.

Prominent Grads

• Sadie Alexander, First African-American Woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D.
• Harold Prince, Broadway Producer
• Ron Perelman, Financier
• Ed Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania, Former Mayor of Philadelphia
• Donald Trump, Entrepreneur
• Maury Povich, Talk Show Host
• Andrea Mitchell, News Correspondent
• Harold E. Ford, Jr., U.S. Congressman

University of Pennsylvania Faculty

Almost all courses at Penn are taught by full professors, with the exception of some writing and foreign language classes. Though the average class size is small, larger classes break down into recitation sections led either by professors or grad/Ph.D. students. One way or another, professors stay in close contact with their students—they are not at Penn solely to perform private research and teach graduate students—and most professors are extremely accessible and eager to get to know their students. At the first meeting of a class, professors discuss the materials to be covered and dispense syllabi delineating required materials, exams, and assignments, and most important, any contact information. This may include office location and hours, e-mail, phone number, and additional contacts. All professors are required to keep office hours during which students are invited to stop by with any questions or concerns.

Carnegie Foundation Classification

Research Universities (very high research activity)

General Characteristics

Highest offering	Doctoral degree
Calendar System	Semester
Years of college work required	N/A
Variable Tuition

Special Learning Opportunities

Distance Learning
ROTC — Army / Navy / Airforce	— / /
Study Abroad
Weekend College
Teacher Certification