University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania (commonly known as “Penn”) is a leading private research university (note that nearly all US universities named after their state are public-supported—Penn is an exception to this rule).

The sixth-oldest institution of higher learning in the country, Penn was the brain child of American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, who also served as its first president. Franklin’s educational ideas were highly innovative for the time, inclining more towards the teaching of practical skills and preparation for the learned professions, in contrast to the traditional curriculum based on the Classical languages, literature, and history, which aimed primarily to produce ministers and “gentlemen.”

Accordingly, the first medical school in the 13 colonies (now known as the Perelman School of Medicine) was founded at Penn in 1765. Also, thanks in large part to Franklin’s guiding principles, the first business school in the country (the Wharton School) opened there in 1881.

Penn has had a major impact on American politics and history: nine signers of the Declaration of Independence were either graduates of the university or members of its Board of Trustees. Hundreds of Penn graduates have served in the two houses of Congress, at the cabinet level of the executive branch, and as ambassadors in their country’s diplomatic service. Nearly 50 have served as governors of many different states. Finally, Penn can boast three US Supreme Court Justices (James Wilson, Owen J. Roberts, and William J. Brennan) and two presidents (William Henry Harrison attended the Penn medical school, but did not graduate, and Donald Trump received his bachelor’s degree from the Wharton School).

Located in racially and economically diverse West Philadelphia, Penn today has a student body that is “majority minority,” comprising numerous African American, Hispanic, and Native American students, as well as many international students (just under 500 in all) hailing from East Asia, South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere.

Among notable alumni we may mention:

• Philosopher, Hilary Putnam
• Famed linguist, Noam Chomsky
• Investors, Warren Buffett & Eric Weinstein
• Entrepreneurs, Elon Musk, Steve Wynn, & Sundar Pichai
• Actors, Bruce Dern, Candice Bergen, Vanessa Bayer, & Elizabeth Banks
• Broadway producer, Harold Prince
• Stand-up comedian, Whitney Cummings
• TV personalities, Andrea Mitchell & Marc Lamont Hill
• Distinguished American poets, William Carlos Williams & Ezra Pound
• Renowned architect, I.M. Pei
• Blogger, Cenk Uygur
• Kaw professor and political activist, Lawrence Lessig
• African independence leader and first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah
• 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump

Altogether, some 28 Penn-connected persons have been recipients of the Nobel Prize, including:

• Christian Anfinsen —chemistry
• Stanley Prusiner and Gerald Edelman, —physiology or medicine
• Edmund Phelps, Lawrence Klein, and Simon Kuznets, —economics
• Martin Luther King, Jr., —peace