This article is about the private Philadelphia-based Ivy League university colloquially referred to as "Penn". For the public university located in State College, Pennsylvania, and colloquially known as "Penn State", see Pennsylvania State University.
University of Pennsylvania
Arms of the University of Pennsylvania
Arms of the University of Pennsylvania
Latin: Universitas Pennsylvaniensis
Motto Leges sine moribus vanae (Latin)
Motto in English Laws without morals are in vain
Established 1740[note 1]
Type Private
Endowment $7.7 billion (2013)[1]
Budget $6.007 billion[2]
President Amy Gutmann
Provost Vincent Price
Academic staff 4,246 faculty members[2]
Admin. staff 2,347[2]
Students 21,329[2]
Undergraduates 10,301[2]
Postgraduates 11,028[2]
Location Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Campus Urban, 992 acres (4.01 km2) total: 300 acres (1.2 km2), University City campus; 600 acres (2.4 km2), New Bolton Center; 92 acres (0.37 km2), Morris Arboretum
Colors Red
Blue[3][4]
Athletics NCAA Division I
Nickname Quakers
Affiliations Ivy League, AAU, COFHE
Website Upenn.edu
UPenn logo.svg
The University of Pennsylvania (commonly referred to as Penn or UPenn) is an American private research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is one of the Ivy League universities and one of the nine original Colonial Colleges. Incorporated as The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn is also one of 14 founding members of the Association of American Universities.
Benjamin Franklin, Penn's founder, advocated an educational program that focused as much on practical education for commerce and public service as on the classics and theology. Penn was one of the first academic institutions to follow a multidisciplinary model pioneered by several European universities, concentrating multiple "faculties" (e.g., theology, classics, medicine) into one institution.[5] It was also home to many other educational innovations. The first school of medicine in North America (Perelman School of Medicine, 1765), the first collegiate business school (Wharton, 1881) and the first student union (Houston Hall, 1896)[6] were all born at Penn.
Penn 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, school of business, law school, communications school, nursing school, veterinary school, its social sciences and humanities programs, as well as its biomedical teaching and research capabilities. Its undergraduate programs are also among the most selective in the country (12.1% acceptance rate).[7] One of Penn's most well known academic qualities is its emphasis on interdisciplinary education, which it promotes through numerous joint degree programs, research centers and professorships, a unified campus, and the ability for students to take classes from any of Penn's schools (the "One University Policy").[8]
All of Penn's schools exhibit very high research activity. Penn is consistently included among the top five research universities in the United States,[9] and among the top research universities in the world, for both quality and quantity of research.[10] In fiscal year 2011, Penn topped the Ivy League in academic research spending with an $814 million budget, involving some 4,000 faculty, 1,100
