University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania  is a private, Ivy League, research university located in Philadelphia. Incorporated as The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn is one of 14 founding members of the Association of American Universities and one of the nine original Colonial Colleges. Penn is one of several universities that claims to be the first university in the United States of America.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 although Franklin's curriculum was never adopted. The university coat of arms features a dolphin on the red chief, adopted directly from the Franklin family's own coat of arms.Penn was one of the first academic institutions to follow a multidisciplinary model pioneered by several European universities, concentrating multiple faculties.g., theology, classics, medicine into one institution. 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 School of Business, 1881 and the first student union building and organization Houston Hall 1896were 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, business school, law school, engineering school, communications school, nursing school, veterinary school, its social sciences and humanities programs, as well as its biomedical teaching and research capabilities. Its undergraduate program is also among the most selective in the country, with an acceptance rate of 10 percent.One of Penn's most well known academic qualities is its emphasis on interdisciplinary education, which it promotes through numerous double 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 PolicyAll of Penn's schools exhibit very high research activity. Penn is consistently ranked among the top research universities in the world, for both quality and quantity of research. In fiscal year 2015, Penn's academic research budget was $851 million, involving more than 4,300 faculty, 1,100 postdoctoral fellows and 5,500 support staff/graduate assistants.As one of the most active and prolific research institutions, Penn is associated with several important innovations and discoveries in many fields of science and the humanities. Among them are the first general purpose electronic computer the rubella and hepatitis B vaccines, Retin-A, cognitive therapy, conjoint analysis and others.Penn's academic and research programs are led by a large and highly productive faculty.Twenty-eight Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Penn. Over its long history the university has also produced many distinguished alumni. These include 12 heads of state including one U.S. president three United States Supreme Court justices plus a number of state Supreme Court justices; founders of technology companies, international law firms, and global financial institutions; and university presidents. According to a 2014 study, the University of Pennsylvania has produced the most billionaires of any university at the undergraduate level.Penn's endowment, at $10.1 billion as of June 30, 2015 is the tenth largest university endowment in the United States and the thirtieth-largest on a per-student basis.

The University considers itself the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States as well as the first university in the United States with both undergraduate and graduate studies.This statue of Benjamin Franklin donated by Justus C. Straw bridge to the City of Philadelphia in 1899 now sits in front of College Hall.In 1740, a group of Philadelphia's joined together to erect a great preaching hall for the traveling evangelist George Whitefield, who toured the American colonies delivering open air sermons. The building was designed and built by Edmund Woolly and was the largest building in the city at the time, drawing thousands of people the first time it was preached in 26 It was initially planned to serve as a charity school as well; however, a lack of funds forced plans for the chapel and school to be suspended. According to Franklin's autobiography, it was in 1743 when he first had the idea to establish an academy, "thinking the Rev. Richard Peters a fit person to superintend such an institution.However, Peters declined a casual inquiry from Franklin and nothing further was done for another six years.:30 In the fall of 1749, now more eager to create a school to educate future generations, Benjamin Franklin circulated a pamphlet titled Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvanian,his vision for what he called a Public Academy of Philadelphia.Unlike the other Colonial colleges that existed in 1749Harvard, William and Mary, Yale and Princeton Franklin's new school would not focus merely 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 could have become the nation's first modern liberal arts curriculum, although it was never implemented because William Smith, an Anglican priest who was provost at the time, and other trustees preferred the traditional curriculum.