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University of Pennsylvania’s got some East Coast street cred as an Ivy League and one of the nine original Colonial Colleges.
At least we assume that’s how reputation is measured in the land of pastel sweater sets, boat shoes and people named Skip. We know for certain though that notable alumni include Noam Chomsky, Ezra Pound, Donald Trump, Gloria Alred and most importantly, Mark Pincus, the founder of gaming company Zynga, who gave us Farmville.
Most impressive though is that Benjamin Franklin founded the place. Big Ben was a wicked smart inventor who also loved to drink beer and have sex. And this seems to be the legacy at Penn as well, a school that inarguably has a brilliant student body, but also has a rowdy-to-the-point of dangerous history of drinking in frats and sororities, and most recently was in the news for a child abuse scandal covered up in the name of college sports. (Not that I'm accusing Ben Franklin of being involved!)
Bronzed statues of Benji can be found at several idyllic spots on the Penn campus, which is also home to an original Claes Oldenburg sculpture, Split Button. If the artwork is, as some (me) have suggested, a subtle joke about Ben Franklin’s weight, Oldenburg messed up big time. Because while we know Franklin from his numerous portly portraits in later life, we are to apparently believe he was the picture of health in his more youthful years.
So much so that now there is a “Benjamin Franklin Diet Book,” which conveniently omits his struggle with the classic old white guy disease gout and the horrific sounding condition bladder stones. Both of which are made worse by rich diets and drinking alcohol.
Nevertheless, Penn has a beautiful and historic campus that should not be missed on a trip to Philadelphia. They have their own version of the idealistic '60s Robert Indiana sculpture LOVE....and maybe they have low-carb options now in the cafeteria.
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Here is what Wikipedia says about University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (commonly known as Penn or UPenn) is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is one of nine colonial colleges and was chartered prior to the U.S. Declaration of Independence when Benjamin Franklin, the university's founder and first president, advocated for an educational institution that trained leaders in academia, commerce, and public service. Penn identifies as the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, though this representation is challenged by other universities since Franklin first convened the board of trustees in 1749, arguably making it the fifth-oldest.
The university has four undergraduate schools and 12 graduate and professional schools. Schools enrolling undergraduates include the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Wharton School, and the School of Nursing. Among its graduate schools are its law school, whose first professor James Wilson participated in writing the first draft of the U.S. Constitution, its medical school, which was the first medical school established in North America, and the Wharton School, the nation's first collegiate business school.
Penn's endowment is $21 billion, making it the sixth-wealthiest private academic institution in the nation as of 2023. In 2021, it ranked fourth among U.S. universities in research expenditures, according to the National Science Foundation. The University of Pennsylvania's main campus is located in the University City neighborhood of West Philadelphia, and is centered around College Hall. Notable campus landmarks include Houston Hall, the first modern student union, and Franklin Field, the nation's first dual-level college football stadium and the nation's longest-standing NCAA Division I college football stadium in continuous operation. The university's athletics program, the Penn Quakers, fields varsity teams in 33 sports as a member of NCAA Division I's Ivy League conference.
Penn alumni, trustees, and faculty include eight Founding Fathers of the United States who signed the Declaration of Independence, seven who signed the United States Constitution, 24 members of the Continental Congress, three presidents of the United States, 38 Nobel laureates, nine foreign heads of state, three United States Supreme Court justices, at least four Supreme Court justices of foreign nations, 32 U.S. senators, 163 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 19 U.S. Cabinet Secretaries, 46 governors, 28 State Supreme Court justices, 36 living undergraduate billionaires (the largest number of any U.S. college or university), and five Medal of Honor recipients.
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