Philadelphia, PA 19104, Top 100 Universities in USA 2014 – Rank – 8, University of Pennsylvania In Philadelphia

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States

The University of Pennsylvania (commonly referred to as Penn or UPenn) is an American private Ivy League research universitylocated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 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.

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. Penn was one of the first academic institutions to follow a multidisciplinary model pioneered by several European universities, concentrating multiple “faculties” (e.g., theology, classics, medicine) into one institution.^[6] 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, 1881) and the first student union (Houston Hall, 1896)^[7] were 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, school of business, law school, communications school, nursing school, veterinary school, its social sciences and humanities programs, as well as itsbiomedical teaching and research capabilities. Its undergraduate programs are also among the most selective in the country (approximately 10% acceptance rate).^[8] One of Penn’s most well known academic qualities is its emphasis on interdisciplinaryeducation, which it promotes through numerous joint 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 Policy”).^[9]

All 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.^[10] In fiscal year 2011, Penn topped the Ivy League in academic research spending with an $814 million budget, involving some 4,000 faculty, 1,100 postdoctoral fellows and 5,400 support staff/graduate assistants.^[2] 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 (ENIAC), the Rubella andHepatitis 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.^[11] Nine Penn faculty members or graduates have won a Nobel Prize in the last ten years. Over its long history the university has also produced many distinguished alumni. These include twelve heads of state (including one U.S. President), three United States Supreme Court justices, and supreme court justices of other states, founders of technology companies, international law firms and global financial institutions, university presidents, and eighteen living billionaires.

Rankings

According to U.S. News & World Report Penn is currently ranked 7th in the United States (tied with Duke and MIT), behind Princeton,Harvard, Yale, Columbia, The University of Chicago and Stanford.^[79] U.S. News also includes Penn in its Most Popular National Universities list,^[80] and so does The Princeton Review in its Dream Colleges list.^[81]General rankings

In their latest editions Penn was ranked 13th in the world by the QS World University Rankings,^[82] 14th by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University‘s Academic Ranking of World Universities,^[83] and 15th by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.^[84]According to the Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranking Penn is also the 8th and 9th best university in the world for economics/business and social sciences studies, respectively.^[85] University of Pennsylvania ranked 12th among 300 Best World Universities in 2012 compiled by Human Resources & Labor Review (HRLR) on Measurements of World’s Top 300 Universities Graduates’ Performance.^[86]

Research rankings

The Center for Measuring University Performance places Penn in the first tier of the United States’ top research universities (tied with Columbia, MIT and Stanford), based on research expenditures, faculty awards, PhD granted and other academic criteria.^[87] Penn was also ranked 9th by the National Science Foundation in terms of R&D expenditures topping all other Ivy League Schools.^[50] The High Impact Universities research performance index ranks Penn 8th in the world, whereas the 2010 Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities (published by the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan) ranks Penn 11th in the world for 2010, 2008 and 2007, and 9th for 2009.^{[citation needed]} The Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers measures universities’ research productivity, research impact, and research excellence based on the scientific papers published by their academic staff. The SCImago Institutions Rankings World Report 2012, which ranks world universities, national institutions and academies in terms of research output, ranks Penn 7th nationally among U.S. universities (and 2nd in the Ivy League behind Harvard) and 28th in the world overall (the first being France’sCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique).^[88]

Other rankings

The Mines ParisTech International Professional Ranking, which ranks universities on the basis of the number of alumni listed among CEOs in the 500 largest worldwide companies, ranks Penn 11th worldwide, and 2nd nationally behind Harvard.^[89] According to a US News article in 2010, Penn is tied for second (tied with Dartmouth College andTufts University) for the number of undergraduate alumni who are current Fortune 100 CEOs.^[90] The Washington Monthly ranked Penn 27th in National University Rankings (Social mobility: percentage of, and support for, Pell grant recipients; Research: total research spending; PhDs granted in science and engineering; and Community Service: the number of students in ROTC, Peace Corps, etc.).^[91] Forbes ranked Penn 17th, based on a variety of criteria.

Fine Arts Library                                 University Museum and Warden Garden