University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a private Ivy League research university located in the University Cityneighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is one of the nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence and the first institution of higher learning in the United States to refer to itself as a university.[9] Benjamin Franklin, Penn's founder and first president, advocated an educational program that trained leaders in commerce, government, and public service, similar to a modern liberal arts curriculum.[10] The university's coat of arms features a dolphin on its red chief, adopted from Benjamin Franklin's own coat of arms.[11]

• The university offers an unparalleled academic life to students from 100 countries and every U.S. state represented amongst the Ivy League's most varied student committees
• It has consistently been ranked among the top 10 universities in the U.S. and enrolls 10,000 undergraduate studentsand an additional 10,000 students are welcomed to world-renowned graduate and professional schools
• Penn's undergraduate financial aid budget has taken a sharp growth by 161 percent over the past 9 years. The university has maintained its growth even during one of the country's most difficult economic periods
• In the year 2015-16, the university received aid of $43,800 as average funding for students
• In 2011, the university started its Action Plan for Faculty Diversity and Excellence which led to a 35 percent rise in minority faculty and a 16 percent boost in female faculty
• It has a research budget of $1 billion and over 4,000 working faculty members