University of Pennsylvania

Template:Infobox University2 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 university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a member of the Ivy League. Penn is considered to be a leader in the sciences, the humanities, law, medicine, education, engineering and business. Shanghai Jiao Tong University World Ranking (2004) (http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2004/top500(1-100).htm)

Contents

1 About Penn

2 History

3 Nobel prize winners

4 Penn Traditions

4.1 Toast Throwing
4.2 Befriending Ben
4.3 Goal Post Tossing
4.4 Econ Scream
4.5 Class Day and Hey Day
4.6 The Compass
4.7 Ivy Day

5 Noted alumni

6 Notable professors

7 Majors

8 Joint-Degree Programs

9 External links

About Penn

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. Admissions are noted among the most selective in the United States, The The Atlantic Monthly ranks it as the eighth most selective college in the United States (after MIT, Princeton, Caltech, Yale, Harvard, Stanford and Columbia), and the Princeton Review ranks it as the sixth most selective (after MIT, Princeton, Caltech, Yale, Harvard). Since 2001, Penn has been ranked among the top five universities by the annual US News & World Report Best College Survey. In the 2005 issue, Penn holds the number four spot, after Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.

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 Work. It also contains many well-known departments including English, History, Economics, Philosophy, Computer Science, Biology, Psychology and Anthropology. It is also noted for its Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

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 Management and Technology Program.

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.

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.

The University of Pennsylvania is often confused with the Pennsylvania State University (commonly referred to as "Penn State"), another research-oriented (but public) university with the main campus located in the geographic center of Pennsylvania in State College.

Penn's sports teams are called the Quakers. They participate in the Ivy League and the NCAA's Division I (Division I-AA for football). In recent decades they often have been league champions in football (12 times from 1982 to 2003) and basketball (21 times from 1970 to 2004). The Quakers are also part of the Philadelphia Big 5 traditional basketball rivalries.

Penn's home court, the Palestra, is an arena used for Big Five contests as well as high-school sporting events, and Franklin Field, where the Quakers play football, hosts the annual collegiate track and field event "the Penn Relays (http://www.thepennrelays.com/)," and once was the home field of the National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles. It was also the site of the early Army-Navy football games. Franklin Field was also the home to the first commercially-televised football game, and was also the first stadium to sport two tiers.

Penn has been noted for its strong student culture, particularly award-winning a cappella groups, which range from jazz (Penn 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 it's 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.

University of Pennsylvania borders Drexel University. Also nearby is the University City High School (http://www.u-city.com/).

History

In 1749, eager to create a college to educate future generations, Benjamin Franklin wrote and circulated a pamphlet titled "Proposals for the Education of Youth in Pensilvania." Unlike the other four American Colonial colleges that existed at the time -- Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, and Princeton -- Franklin's new school would not focus on education for the clergy. He advocated an innovative concept of higher education, one which would teach both the ornamental knowledge of the arts and the practical skills necessary for making a living and doing public service. The proposed program of study became the nation's first modern liberal arts curriculum.

Ben Franklin assembled a board of trustees from among the leading citizens of the city, the first such non-sectarian board in America, and looked about for the least costly way to build a campus.

In 1740, a group of working class Philadelphians had decided to erect a great preaching hall for the evangelist George Whitefield. It was the largest building in the city, and it was also planned to serve as a charity school for "the instruction of poor children." The fundraising, however, for both the building and the school had fallen short and the plans for both chapel and school were suspended. Franklin saw an opportunity to open his Academy quickly and inexpensively and in 1751 the Academy, using the great hall at 4th and Arch Streets, took in its first students. A charity school also was opened in accordance with the intentions of the original "New Building" donors.

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Thequad.jpg

The Quadrangle, one of Penn's undergraduate residence halls

The University cites the earlier date as its founding, which enables it to claim to be older than its athletic archrival Princeton. However it is the fifth-oldest college in the United States.

Penn has continued that innovative tradition with the founding of the first university teaching hospital in 1874; the creation of the Wharton School, the world's first collegiate school of business, in 1881; the construction of Houston Hall, the first American student union building, in 1896; and the building of ENIAC, the world's first electronic, large-scale, general-purpose digital computer in 1946.

Nobel prize winners

Alan MacDiarmid - 2000 Nobel prize in Chemistry
Raymond Davis - 2002 Nobel prize in Physics for "pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos."
Christian B. Anfinsen, Nobel prize winner in Chemistry
Michael S. Brown, Nobel prize winner in Chemistry
Lawrence Klein - 1980 Nobel prize in Economics "for the creation of economic models and their application to the analysis of economic fluctuations and economic policies."

Penn Traditions

Toast Throwing

As a sign of school pride, crowds of Quaker fans perform a unique ritual. After the third quarter of football games, spirited onlookers unite in the singing of "Drink a Highball." In years long past, students would literally make a toast to the success of Penn's athletic teams. During Prohibition, stubborn students insisted on keeping their tradition - since they could not use alcohol, they had no choice but to literally "toast" Penn. As the last line, "Here's a toast to dear old Penn," is sung, the fans send toast hurling through the air onto the sidelines. Also, in more recent years, some students have become more creative in their choice of projectiles, and it is not rare to see a hail of bagels or donuts, or even a loaf of French bread come flying down from the stands.

Befriending Ben

Penn students show love to the founder of their school, Benjamin Franklin, by paying special attention to the statues and monuments throughout campus. Students will often dress Ben up with hats and neckties. Students and tourists often take pictures sitting on Ben's lap or in other fun and friendly poses.

Goal Post Tossing

In past years, the Penn Quakers have won the Ivy League championship, sending the jubilant fans into a frenzy. In celebration, the fans ripped down the goal posts and tossed them into the Schuylkill River. This is one Penn tradition that the administration hopes is short-lived.

Econ Scream

At midnight on the eve of the first Economics 001 midterm, students ease their frustrations by participating in a campus-wide shout! Some brave students have even been known to streak through the Quad . . .

Class Day and Hey Day

In April, several class traditions are celebrated. Class Day, which began in 1865 to supplement the final graduation exercises, celebrates the progression of all classes and the departure of the seniors. In 1916, this day merged with Straw Hat Day and became the "day of two events." In 1931, Hey Day arose from these two celebrations. On this day, the juniors gather on Hill Field for a picnic, don straw "skimmers" and canes, and march triumphantly through campus. The procession tradition began in 1949. When the procession reaches College Hall, the students make an arch with their canes to greet the President of the University. The outgoing and incoming senior class presidents then give speeches, and the juniors are "officially" declared seniors. In recent years, the current senior class pelts the juniors with shaving cream, chocolate sauce, flour and other condiments.

The Compass

Showcasing their superstitious side, Penn students avoid stepping over the tiled compass on the scenic Locust Walk. Supposedly, the compass serves to guide freshmen through their first year; stepping over it will put a freshman in danger of failing his/her first midterms.

Ivy Day

One of the oldest Penn traditions is Ivy Day, when the graduating class plants ivy by a building, and an "Ivy Stone" is placed on the building to commemorate the occasion. In 1981, the day was officially moved to the Saturday before Commencement. Also on this day, the prestigious Spoon, Bowl, Cane, and Spade awards are given, honoring four senior men; and the Hottel, Harnwell, Goddard, and Brownlee awards are presented to honor four senior women. During the celebration, a noted individual who is chosen by the class gives an address. Recent Ivy Day addresses have been presented by Penn Parent Joan Rivers, former Philadelphia Mayor and current Governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell, and basketball player Julius Erving (Dr. J).

Noted alumni

Some noted University of Pennsylvania alumni:

Charles Addams: Creator, The Addams Family; he is said to have modeled the Addams Family mansion on Penn's College Hall
Sadie Tanner Alexander: First African-American woman to receive a Ph.D in the United States; first African-American woman to graduate from Penn Law; first black woman to be admitted to Pennsylvania Bar; Civil Rights activist; appointed to the Civil Rights Commission by President Harry S. Truman.
Gloria Allred: Lawyer, Feminist
Christian B. Anfinsen: Nobel prize winner in Chemistry
Walter Annenberg: Philantropist, former U.S Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Nnamdi Azikiwe: First President of Nigeria
Ernesto P. Balladares: President of Panama, 1994-1999
Chuck Bednarik: Philadelphia Eagles Linebacker
Bert Bell: Former National Football League Commissioner from 1946-1959, who took the league to unprecedented heights
Candice Bergen: Actress, best known as TV's Murphy Brown
Nicholas Biddle: President of the Second Bank of the United States
Henry Bloch: Founder, H&R Block
Richard Bloch: Founder, H&R Block
Len Bosack: Co-founder, Cisco Systems (Internet routers company)
William J. Brennan: U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Michael S. Brown: Nobel prize winner in Chemistry
Ron Brown: NBC International Affairs correspondent
Warren Buffett: CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, investor, second richest man in the world (attended but did not graduate)
Britton Chance: Scientist and Olympic gold medallist who made great contributions to spectrometry and biochemistry/biophysics research
Noam Chomsky: Linguist and activist.
Gordon Clark: philosopher and Christian theologian.
Richard Clarke: Author and National Counter-Terrorism Director under the presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Bruce Dern: Actor
Donny Deutsch: Deustch Inc.
Ira Einhorn: 1960s Hippie leader and imprisoned murderer of Holly Maddux
Chaka Fattah: U.S. Congressman representing Philadelphia.
William Fawcett: Actor
Richard Fisher: Fisher Brothers Construction, New York
Harold E. Ford, Jr.: U.S. Representative from Tennessee, candidate for house minority leader, 2002
Benjamin Gilman: U.S Representative from New York, 1973-2003
Stephen Glass: Former reporter for The New Republic, author of The Fabulist
Leonard Goldberg: Former Chairman of 20th Century Fox/TV and Movie Producer
Oscar Goodman: Mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada and Attorney.
Hussam Hamadeh: Founder, Vault.com
William Henry Harrison (flunked out; class of 1791): 9th President of the United States
Charles Heimbold: U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, former CEO of Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation
John Heisman: The Heisman Trophy is named after him
Duncan Kenworthy: Producer, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Notting Hill
Charles P. Kindleberger: economist, economic historian.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1949-1950): The primary figure in the civil rights movement of the 1960s (took graduate courses, no degree).
Joe Klein: columnist and political analyst for Time Magazine.
C. Everett Koop: Surgeon General of the United States, 1981-1989
Alvin Kraenzlein: four-time Olympic champion
Andrea Kremer: ESPN sports correspondent
Leonard Lauder: Co-founder of Estée Lauder; billionaire investor
John Legend: (birth name John Stephens) R&B Singer/songwriter
Douglas Lenat: Founder of artificial intelligence company Cycorp
Gerald Levin (Penn Law): former CEO AOL Time Warner
Peter Lynch: Investor, vice-chairman of Fidelity Investments
James Mason (senator): Influential U.S. Senator from Virginia in the early 19th century.
Thomas McKean: Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress
Michael Milken: Trader/financier
Andrea Mitchell: NBC Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Gouverneur Morris: New York delegate to the Continental Congress, 1778-1779; U.S. Senator from New York, 1800-1803
Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg: Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 1789-1791, 1793-1795. Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1779-1780; Pennsylvania representative to the US Congress, 1789-1797
Kwame Nkrumah: First President of Ghana
Alassane D. Ouattara: Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire, 1990-1993
William S. Paley: Founder, CBS Corporation
Ronald Perelman: Billionaire investor
Ezra Pound: Famous Poet
Maury Povich: Talk-show host
Harold Prince: Famous Broadway Producer with works including West Side Story and Phantom of the Opera
Stanley Prusiner: 1997 Nobel Prize in Medicine
Hilary Putnam: Walter Beverly Pearson Professor of Modern Mathematics and Mathematical Logic at Harvard University
Alan Rachins: L.A. Law and Dharma and Greg actor
Ed Rendell: Pennsylvania Governor, former Philadelphia Mayor and former Democratic National Committee Chairman
Melissa Rivers (Birth name: Melissa Rosenberg), Actress and daughter of comedian Joan Rivers
Owen J. Roberts: U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Judith Rodin: First woman president of an Ivy League university
Martin Cruz Smith: Author of Gorky Park
Arlen Specter: U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, former Philadelphia District Attorney
John Taylor: First African-American to win an Olympic Gold Medal
Michael Tiemann: Co-founder of Cygnus Solutions (a GNU software company), now CTO of Red Hat
Laurence Tisch: Former CEO of CBS
Donald Trump: Billionaire investor/financier
Roy Vagelos: Former CEO of Merck Pharmaceuticals
Cesar Virata: Prime Minister of the Philippines, 1981-1986
John Edgar Wideman: Author, Rhodes Scholar
William Carlos Williams: Poet
Steve Wynn: Chairman and CEO Wynn Resorts, Limited. Former Chairman and CEO Mirage Resorts, Inc.
Chip Zien: Actor

There are numerous other past and present U.S. Ambassadors, members of congress, governors, and cabinet members, and corporate leaders.

Notable professors

Dr. Christian B. Anfinsen: Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry
Dr. Baruch Blumberg: Nobel Prize winner in Medicine
Dr. Raymond Davis, Jr.: Nobel Prize winner in Physics
Dr. Gerald Edelman: Nobel Prize winner in Medicine
Dr. Ragnar Granit: Nobel Prize winner in Medicine
Dr. Haldan K. Hartline: Nobel Prize winner in Medicine
Dr. Robert Hofstadter: Nobel Prize winner in Physics
Dr. Lawrence Klein: Nobel Prize winner in Economics
Dr. Simon Kuznets: Nobel Prize winner in Economics
Dr. J. Robert Schrieffer: Nobel Prize winner in Physics
Dr. Steven Hahn - Pullitzer Prize winner, Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of History
Matt Blaze - Associate Professor - Computer Science Department
Robert F. Boruch - University Trustee Chair Professor, Graduate School of Education
John Bowker (adjunct professor)
Eugenio Calabi - Thomas A. Scott Professor of Mathematics Emeritus - Mathematics Department
Arthur Caplan
Britton Chance
Thomas Childers - Department of History
Peter Conn - Andrea Mitchell Term Professor of English
Francis X. Diebold - W.P. Carey Term Professor in Economics - Economics Department
John DiIulio - Department of Political Science
Michael Eric Dyson
Peter J. Freyd - Professor of Mathematics - Mathematics Department
Stephen Gale - Terrorism expert-Dept. of Political Science.
David Harbater - E. Otis Kendall Professor of Mathematics - Mathematics Department
Kathleen Hall Jamieson - University of Pennsylvania author and media analyst.
Aravind Joshi - Henry Salvatori Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science - Computer Science Department
Richard Kadison - Gustave C. Kuemmerle Professor of Mathematics - Mathematics Department
Donald F. Kettl - Stanley I. Sheerr Endowed Term Professor in the Social Sciences, Professor of Political Science & Director of the Fels Institute of Government
Bruce Kuklick - Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History - History Department
William Labov - Professor of linguistics
Mitch Marcus - RCA Professor of Artificial Intelligence - Computer Science Department
Walter McDougall - Department of History
Jeremy McInerney (Associate Professor) - Classical Studies Department
Fernando Pereira - Andrew and Debra Rachleff Professor of Computer Science - Computer Science Department
Jeremy Siegel - Department of Finance
Rogers Smith - Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science - Political Science Department
Peter Stallybrass - Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Humanities - English Department
Tufuku Zuberi

Majors

Penn offers almost 90 majors across its four undergraduate schools:

College of Arts and Sciences:

African Studies
Afro-American Studies
Anthropology
Architecture
Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Biochemistry
Biological Basis of Behavior
Biology
Biophysics
Chemistry
Cinema Studies
Classical Studies
Cognitive Science
Communication
Comparative Literature
East Asian Studies
Earth and Environmental Science
Economics
Elementary Education
English
Environmental Studies
Fine Arts
French
Geology
Germanic Languages and Literatures
Governmental Administration (Fels Institute of Government)
Health and Societies
Hispanic Studies
History
History and Sociology of Science
History of Art
International Relations
International Studies and Business (Huntsman Program)
Italian Studies
Jewish Studies
Latin American and Latino Studies
Linguistics
Logic, Information and Computation
Mathematics
Music
Philosophy
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
Physics and Astronomy
Political Science
Psychology
Religious Studies
Romance Languages
Slavic Languages and Literatures
Sociology
South Asia Studies
Theater Arts
Urban Studies
Vagelos Scholars Program in the Molecular Life Sciences
Visual Studies
Women's Studies

School of Engineering and Applied Science:

Bioengineering
Chemical engineering
Civil Engineering Systems
Computer and Telecommunications Engineering
Computer Science
Computer Science and Engineering
Electrical engineering
Materials Science and Engineering
Mechanical engineering and Applied Mechanics
Systems science and Engineering
Biomedical science
Cognitive science
Computational biology
Digital Media Design
Environmental Systems

Wharton School of Business:

Accounting
Actuarial Science
Business and Public Policy
Entrepreneurship (second concentration only)
Environmental Policy and Management
Finance
Global Analysis (second concentration only)
Healthcare Management and Policy
Insurance and Risk Management
Legal Studies (second concentration only)
Management
Managing Electronic Commerce (second concentration only)
Marketing
Marketing and Communication (dual concentration)
Operations and Information Management
Real Estate
Statistics
Transportation

Nursing School:

Nursing and Health Care Management
Nursing and Technology

Joint-Degree Programs

Penn offers specialized joint-degree programs, which award candidates degrees from multiple schools at the University upon completion of graduation criteria of both schools: