University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania (commonly referred to as Penn or UPenn, although the former is the preferred and recognized nickname of the University) is a private, nonsectarian, research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The fifth oldest institution of higher education in the U.S., it is also a member of the Ivy League. Penn is considered to be a leader in the sciences, the humanities, law, medicine, education, engineering and business http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/natudoc/tier1/t1natudoc_brief.php.

Overview

A faculty of about 4,500 professors serves about 10,000 undergraduate and 9,000 graduate and professional students; the research community includes 1,000 faculty, 1,000 postdoctoral fellows, 3,000 graduate students, and 5,000 support staff, with a budget of $4.25 billion, annually, alongside a payroll of $2.183 billion. Penn has the largest budget within the Ivy League.

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Admitting 20.8 percent of applicants to the Class of 2009, Penn has the second highest undergraduate acceptance rate in the Ivy League, behind only Cornell University. This is largely due to the fact that Penn has four undergraduate schools with varying acceptance rates. Typically, the Wharton School of Business and the College of Arts and Sciences have lower acceptance rates (around 13% and 17%, respectively) than the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the School of Nursing. According to US News & World Report and the Carnegie Foundation, Penn has the eleventh lowest admission rate among all US doctoral institutions, behind Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Stanford, Brown, MIT, Dartmouth, Washington University in St. Louis, and Georgetown. In 2002, The Atlantic Monthly ranked it as the eighth most selective college in the United States (after MIT, Princeton, Caltech, Yale, Harvard, Stanford and Columbia). Since 2001, Penn has been ranked among the top five universities by the annual US News & World Report Best College Survey. In the 2005 and 2006 issues, Penn held the number four spot, after only Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. The undergraduate business program at Penn's Wharton School was rated No. 1.

Related Topics:
Cornell University - US News & World Report - Carnegie Foundation - Harvard - Yale - Columbia - Princeton - Stanford - Brown - MIT - Dartmouth - Washington University in St. Louis - Georgetown - The Atlantic Monthly - Caltech - Yale

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Penn also has a diverse student population. About 41.4% of students accepted for admission to the Class of 2008 are Black, Hispanic, Asian, or Native American. Women comprise 50.8 percent of all students currently enrolled. A total of 2,440 international students applied for admission to Penn?s undergraduate schools for the Class of 2008, and 489 (20%) were accepted. More than 13% of the first year class are international students. Of the international students accepted to the Class of 2008, 15.8% were from Africa and the Middle East, 48.1% from Asia, 0.4% from Australia and the Pacific, 11.7% from Canada and Mexico, 10% from Central/South America and the Caribbean, and 14.1% from Europe. Penn had 4,192 international students enrolled at all levels in Fall 2004.

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Some of Penn's more notable programs are its School of Veterinary Medicine, Wharton School of business, School of Medicine, School of Arts and Sciences, Law School, Nursing School, Annenberg School for Communication, School of Engineering and Applied Science, School of Education, and School of Social Policy and Practice. It also contains many well-known departments including English, History, Economics, Philosophy, Computer Science, Political Science, Biology, Psychology and Anthropology. It is also noted for its Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Undergraduate students at Penn may also take courses at area colleges participating in the Quaker consortium. The member colleges include Swarthmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr.

Related Topics:
Wharton School - School of Medicine - Law School - Annenberg School for Communication - Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

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Penn is an international leader in interdisciplinary programs. In addition to numerous cross-disciplinary majors and joint-degree programs, Penn is home to interdisciplinary institutions such as the Institute for Medicine and Engineering, the Joseph H. Lauder Institute for Management and International Studies, the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, the Executive Master's in Technology Management Program, the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, and the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology

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The first medical school in the United States was founded at Penn in 1765. In 1786 Penn was chartered by the state as the first "university" in America. Penn hosts the country's second college of veterinary medicine, and the only college to offer the degree 'VMD' instead of 'DVM' for its veterinary graduates. The world's first all-electronic computer, ENIAC was built at Penn's Moore School of Electrical Engineering.

Related Topics:
Medical school - 1765 - Computer - ENIAC - Moore School of Electrical Engineering

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Located in downtown Philadelphia for over a century, the campus was moved across the Schuylkill River to West Philadelphia in 1872, where it has remained. The present campus covers over 260 urban acres (1 km²). Recent improvements to the surrounding neighborhoods include the opening of several restaurants, a large grocery store, and a movie theater on the western edge of campus.

Related Topics:
Schuylkill River - West Philadelphia

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Penn has been noted for its strong student culture, particularly award-winning a cappella groups, which range from jazz (Counterparts), to traditional groups such as PennSix and Off the Beat to Penn Masala — the world's premier Hindi group, which has received global acclaim. Penn is also recognized for its premier, all-male a cappella group, the Chord on Blues. The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club is the oldest continually-performing collegiate performance group in the United States, having been founded in 1862. Penn Singers is the only collegiate group in the United States to have performed all but one of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. The Philomathean Society, Penn's student literary society, was founded in 1813 and is the oldest continuously-existing collegiate literary society in the United States. Mask and Wig, founded in 1889, is the oldest performing comedy group in the nation, and the Pennsylvania Punch Bowl is one of the nation's oldest humor magazines. The Daily Pennsylvanian, consistently ranked as one of the best student newspapers in the country, has been published since 1885. The University's Political Science Department is known for publishing a semesterly scholarly journal of undergraduate research called "Sound Politicks." The journal is student-run and is widely noted for the originality and quality of the articles it publishes. It accepts submissions from Penn students year round.

Related Topics:
Counterparts - PennSix - Off the Beat - Penn Masala - Chord on Blues - The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club - Penn Singers - Gilbert and Sullivan - Philomathean Society - United States - Mask and Wig - Pennsylvania Punch Bowl - Daily Pennsylvanian

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University of Pennsylvania borders Drexel University. Also nearby is the University City High School.

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