The University of Pennsylvania (also known as
UPenn or just Penn) is an
ivy league university located in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. It was founded by
Ben Franklin in 1740, and is the oldest university in the
United States*. Its 262-
acre campus (huge for a city campus!) has 12
graduate schools including the famous
Wharton school of Business. Penn has approximately 10,000
undergraduates and another 10,000 or so
graduate students, making it the second largest ivy behind
Cornell. In addition to its academic pursuits, Penn runs 5
hospitals, and is the home of the famous Penn relays. The annual Penn relays are run on Franklin field, and consist of college, high school, and professional
track events. It is held every April and draws track lovers from all along the East Coast as well as teams from
Africa,
Asia, and
Jamaica.
Bill Cosby is a perennial fixture at the relays, as is Penn's
mascot, the
Quaker.
Other Fun Info
- Upenn is NOT Penn State. Penn State is located in Unversity Park, Pennsylvania and is the one that is good at football. I repeat, UPenn is NOT Penn State!!
- Charles Addams, creator of the Addams Family is an alumnus. He apparently based the design of the mansion on Penn's College Hall. Now he has a Fine Arts building named after him.
- Penn is the largest private employer in the city of Philadelphia and the fourth-largest in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
- Harold Prince, Broadway producer of more than 40 years (Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Damn Yankees, New Girl in Town, West Side Story, Phantom of the Opera, Kiss of the Spider Woman) attended UPenn, and now there's a theater there named after him.
- Penn Masala is the nation's only Hindi a capella group.
- With its operating budget of $3.05 billion, Penn could buy approximately two stealth bombers (some students feel Penn should bomb the other ivies and get into the #1 spot)
- The Wistar Institute (oldest independant research facility in the U.S.) was once charged with effectively spreading the AIDS virus to the United States, but has subsequently been cleared of that charge.
- The film Unbreakable starring Bruce Willis was filmed in part on Penn's Franklin Field. (The scenes with the "Franklin State" Warriors)
- Penn's Motto is Leges Sine Moribus Vanae (" Laws without morals are useless")
*As v3rgez points out, other schools such as Harvard and Yale were founded before UPenn. However, it is correct that Penn is the first university - at the time, Harvard and Yale were colleges. Penn was the first institution in the United States to have multiple schools (e.g. a med school, engineering, etc), making it the first American university.