University of Pennsylvania

The Institution of Pennsylvania is a private university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that is a member of the Ivy League. The institution, originally known as the College of Philadelphia when it was founded in 1740, is one of nine colonial schools that were authorised prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Founder and first president Benjamin Franklin campaigned for an educational programme that prepared leaders in trade, government, and public service in a manner comparable to a contemporary liberal arts curriculum with a practical viewpoint, similar to that of today's liberal arts curriculum.

Penn University comprises four undergraduate colleges and twelve graduate and professional schools, all of which are located in Philadelphia. Students may enrol in the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and the School of Nursing, among other institutions. As part of Penn's "One University Policy," students are free to enrol in courses at any of the university's twelve colleges. Among its highly ranked graduate and professional schools are a law school whose first professor wrote the first draught of the United States Constitution, the first school of medicine in North America (the Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765), and the first collegiate business school (the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, founded in 1890). (Wharton School, 1881). Franklin Field, built in 1924 with a second deck, was the first double-decker college football stadium in North America, and the Morris Arboretum, which is the official arboretum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Penn also boasts the first "student union" building and organisation (Houston Hall, 1896), the first Catholic student club in North America (Newman Center, 1893), the first double-decker college football stadium (Franklin Field, built in 1924 with a second deck

As of June 30, 2021, the institution had an endowment of $20.5 billion and a research budget of $1.02 billion, both of which were record highs. As a member of the NCAA Division I Ivy League, the university's athletics programme, known as the Quakers, sponsors varsity teams in 33 different sports.

As of 2018, distinguished alumni and trustees include three Supreme Court justices of the United States, 32 senators from the United States, 46 governors from the United States, 163 members of the United States House of Representatives, eight signers of the Declaration of Independence and seven signers of the United States Constitution, 24 members of the Continental Congress, nine foreign leaders, and two presidents of the United States. As of October 2019, the university was associated with 36 Nobel prize winners, 80 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 64 living alumni billionaires (and, with 25 undergraduate alumni billionaires, has the most living undergraduate alumni billionaires of any university in the world), 21 Marshall Scholars, 33 Rhodes Scholars, 16 Pulitzer Prize winners, 43 Olympic medal winners (who won 81 medals, 26 of which were gold), and five United States Medal of Honor recipients.