Ivy Cultures: UPenn - Work Hard Play Hard
The University of Pennsylvania, commonly known as UPenn or Penn, is a world-renowned private research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It is one of the twelve founding members of the Association of American Universities, along with globally prestigious Ivy League members such as Harvard and Yale.
UPenn was established in 1740 by Benjamin Franklin, a renowned American scientist, politician, one of the founding fathers of the United States, and a co-drafter of the Declaration of Independence. Known for inventing the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, and bifocal glasses, Franklin’s university design is relatively free-spirited compared to the uniformity of Harvard and Yale. UPenn is home to the first medical school in North America, and notably, the world's most famous business school - Wharton.
While preserving its Gothic ancient architecture, UPenn also embraces many innovative post-modern buildings. With over 200 unique structures on campus, such as Penn libraries, which comprise over ten large and small libraries. The largest is the Van Pelt Library, a seven-story building on Locust Walk.
Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, UPenn benefits from complete transportation infrastructure. A major Philadelphia train station is nearby, with many buses to New York. A three-hour ride makes it very convenient and easy for UPenn students to work or intern in New York.
UPenn is famously a party school. Its students abide by the philosophy of "studying hard and partying hard." They can study all night and party till dawn. The university has top-notch educational resources and a wide range of extracurricular activities.
There are two significant annual events on the UPenn campus: Spring Fling and Hey Day. The former is a three-day weekend party, while the latter is an event for juniors to announce and celebrate their transition to seniors by wearing foam hats and walking along the campus path, Locust Walk. Similar to Cornell University, UPenn highly values sports, with a strong football culture, often engaging in fierce football matches against its "arch-rival" Columbia University. Other strong sports at UPenn include basketball, hockey, and fencing. Every spring, the school hosts a relay race.
UPenn's undergraduate admission rate for the fall of 2022 was 5.9%. Among the admitted students, the College of Arts and Sciences had the most enrollees, while the prestigious Wharton School admitted just over 1700 students. So, what kind of students does UPenn prefer to admit?
Admission Preference
Based on official data from UPenn, 94% of the undergraduate students admitted for the fall of 2022 were from the top 10% of their high school class. Their SAT Reading + Writing scores ranged between 730 and 780, with a median of 760, and their math scores were between 770 and 800, with a median of 790. According to Common Dataset survey, the average admitted student's GPA was around 3.9. As such, UPenn highly favors students with excellent academic achievements.
UPenn emphasizes practicality, as reflected by its founder Franklin's saying. In addition to academic excellence, the interview is also an important criterion for evaluating applicants' qualifications, as listed in UPenn's official report.
According to Whitney Soule, UPenn's deputy provost and admissions dean, nearly one-third of the admitted students for the class of 2026 conducted academic research, 40% had work experience, and 80 % had participated in community service activities. The educational core of UPenn is to teach students to translate knowledge into social consciousness. Therefore, UPenn highly values applicants' social awareness and sense of responsibility. The preferred students are not only academically accomplished but also committed to contributing to society.
The University of Pennsylvania ranked 6th in the 2019 Forbes American University Rankings, 8th in the 2022 U.S. News Best American University Rankings, 13th in the 2022 U.S. News World University Rankings, and 13th in the 2022 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. According to academic indicators such as research funding and faculty-student quality, the University Evaluation Center rated UPenn as a top-tier research university in 2014.