Colleges University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania www.upenn.edu

The University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania founded by Benjamin Franklin. Much of its architecture combines the Gothic styles of Cambridge and Oxford with the local landscape to establish the Collegiate Gothic style. The present core campus covers nearly 300 acres in a contiguous area of West Philadelphia’s University City section, whereas the older heart of the campus comprises the Campus Historic District. All of Penn’s schools and most of its research institutes are located on this campus.  The University is also commonly known as Penn, or UPenn. It offers housing in more than 10 College Houses, but many students live in the numerous off-campus apartments and houses available. More than 2,500 students participate in international study programs offered in more than 50 countries around the world. Opportunities for global engagement include Penn Abroad, through which more than 600 Penn undergraduates spend a semester or longer abroad each year, more than any other Ivy League school.

Academics

UPenn has four undergraduate schools which provide 100 undergraduate majors in the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, business, and engineering, as well twelve graduate and professional schools. It also provides the option to pursue specialized dual degree programs. The University offers a broad range of academic departments, an extensive research enterprise and a number of community outreach and public service programs. It is particularly well known for its medical school, dental school, design school, business school, law school, engineering school, communications school, nursing school, veterinary school, its social sciences and humanities programs, as well as its biomedical teaching and research capabilities. Students may take classes from any of Penn’s schools (the “One University Policy”). The student-faculty ratio at UPenn is 8:1, and the school has 59% of its classes with fewer than 20 students. Popular majors include Business, Management, Marketing, and Biological Sciences.

Special Highlights

College of Liberal & Professional Studies. Wherever you are in life, or in the world, the College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS) offers ambitious students—from veterans and international scholars to high school students and working professionals—an opportunity to take full advantage of the Ivy League. Our renowned professors, global alumni network and state-of-the-art facilities guarantee an academic experience that can jumpstart your career, prepare you for post-graduate studies or help you achieve your goals. At LPS, the power of Penn is yours to create.

Fisher Fine Arts Library. The Fisher Fine Arts Library supports study, teaching and research in contemporary and historical aspects of art, architecture, city and regional planning, historic preservation, landscape architecture, studio art, and urban design. Text and image collections, in analog and digital form, have a global reach and concentrate on the arts of the western experience, Islam, South Asia and East Asia, from prehistory to the present.

School Mission & Unique Qualities

The University of Pennsylvania is one of the nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence and the first institution of higher learning in the United States to refer to itself as a university. Penn has a proud tradition of translating knowledge into social-minded action that dates back to our founder, Benjamin Franklin. This tradition of active pragmatism, articulated in Franklin’s maxim “well-done is better than well-said,” lives today through inclusive policies, innovative work, and impactful engagement of our community.

Student Reviews…

“Academics are challenging, and you will be required to invest a good amount of time to them. Personally, I spent most of my time focused on this but did not find myself feeling overwhelmed for the most part. The university provides excellent study environments.”