University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · Founded 1740
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SAT / ACT required
Penn requires an SAT or ACT score from every applicant - first-year, transfer, domestic, international, homeschooled and QuestBridge alike. There is a real exception: an applicant who faces hardship (no test center within reach, financial hardship, a natural disaster or civil unrest) can request a waiver when applying and it is granted automatically. But if you have taken the test you must report it - a score you already hold overrides the waiver. There is no minimum score. Source: admissions.upenn.edu (verified September 2026).
About
A private Ivy League research university built around four undergraduate schools on one West Philadelphia campus: Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Nursing and the Wharton School. Benjamin Franklin's idea was to train people for business and public life rather than the ministry, and the professional bent has stayed.
History
Penn dates its founding to 1740. Benjamin Franklin's 1749 proposal led to a school that opened in 1751 and received a collegiate charter in 1755. It opened the first medical school in the American colonies in 1765, became the first U.S. institution to call itself a university in 1779, and moved to West Philadelphia in 1872.
What stands out
- You apply to one of four undergraduate schools, not to the university at large, and that school grants your degree
- The Wharton School is the undergraduate business school and one of the largest parts of the college
- Students can take classes across all four schools, and coordinated dual-degree programs combine two of them
- A walkable campus in West Philadelphia where all four schools sit within minutes of each other
Popular majors
Campus life
Which of the four schools you join shapes your week more than at most universities, but the campus itself is shared and compact. First-year students live in the Quadrangle or other college houses, Locust Walk runs through the middle of everything, and Center City Philadelphia starts a short walk east.