Fun Facts About UPenn

UPenn at a glance

At first glance, UPenn has a lot of history that few people know about. For the same reason, there are a lot of fun facts about UPenn. The University of Pennsylvania is a non-public educational establishment established in 1740. Penn was established in 1740, making it the oldest University in the United States.

It has a rich history intertwined with the colonial city of Philadelphia. There was a proposal developed to construct a charity school in Philadelphia that would also function as a place of worship. The project was left unfinished for ten years because it was discovered that the costs would be significantly higher than the available resources after construction had already begun.

One of the fun facts about UPenn is that it was established by one of America’s founding fathers. Benjamin Franklin was a printer, inventor, and one of the future founding fathers of the United States. In 1749, he published his famous essay, “Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth,” circulated it among the prominent citizens of Philadelphia, and organized 24 trustees to form an institution of higher education based on his proposals.

The organization bought the building and, the following year, established the academy and charitable school in the Pennsylvania province. It welcomed students from the gentry and working classes when it opened its doors. Franklin was the institution’s president from 1750 until 1755, and he continued to serve on the board of trustees until the year 1790, the year he passed away.

The University of Pennsylvania provides its students with various services, such as nonremedial tutoring, a women’s center, placement services, daycare, health services, and health insurance. Additionally, the University of Pennsylvania provides several campus safety and security services, including 24-hour foot and vehicle patrols, late-night transport and escort services, 24-hour emergency telephones, lighted pathways and sidewalks, and controlled dormitory access (key, security card, etc.). At the University of Pennsylvania, students of legal drinking age are not restricted from doing so.

UPenn in numbers

Knowing the statistics of UPenn helps one understand the value of the University. The University of Pennsylvania operates on an academic calendar divided into semesters, and the total number of undergraduate students enrolled there is 9,962. One of the fun facts about UPenn is that the University currently holds the seventh spot on the list of the top 443 national universities. The performance of schools is evaluated using a set of widely recognized quality indicators, and the results are used to create rankings.

At the University of Pennsylvania, there are seven students for every teaching staff member, and 67.9 percent of the institution’s classes have fewer than twenty pupils. The retention rate for freshmen, which is an indicator of how satisfied students are, is 97% on average. At the University of Pennsylvania, the average need-based scholarship or grant award is $53,570, and 46% of full-time undergraduate students receive some form of financial aid based on their demonstrated financial need.

The admissions process at the University of Pennsylvania is among the most competitive, with only a 6% acceptance rate. Fifty percent of applicants must score between 1480 and 1570 on the SAT or between 33 and 35 on the ACT for admission to the University of Pennsylvania. However, one-quarter of applicants who were accepted had scores that were higher than these ranges, while one-quarter of applicants had scores that were lower than these ranges. The University of Pennsylvania’s application deadline is January 5th, and the application fee is seventy-five dollars.

To this day, Penn’s 299-acre West Philadelphia campus reflects its rich heritage, a heritage that is closely tied to the birth of the United States. Penn’s campus is home to more than 180 buildings and many notable landmarks, such as the first student union and the first double-decker college football stadium in the country, respectively.

Facts about UPenn

• At the end of each home football game, spectators throw toast onto the playing field. These kinds of fun facts about UPenn exist because of a school rule against alcohol. The line in a school fight song that says, “Here’s a toast to dear old Penn,” is the cue for students to start throwing bread at each other. It is said that the tradition of drinking a toast date back to the time of prohibition.
• When alcohol was prohibited at school, the pupils retaliated by taking the toast cue a little more literally. Tony Overend, a supervisor at Franklin Field, estimates that students will throw between 20,000 and 30,000 pieces of toast during each game during a successful season. A “toast Zamboni” picks up the accumulated debris.
• Another fact about UPenn is that it is a common urban legend that first-year students should never cross the compass built into the middle of Locust Walk because doing so will cause them to fail their first set of midterms. According to one urban legend, the urban legend was invented by a fraternity as a way to start a conversation with female freshmen.
• Sine Moribus Vanae was the motto of the University of Pennsylvania from 1756 until 1898. However, after people discovered that the motto could be translated as “Loose women without morals,” the University chose a new motto. The phrase “Leges sine moribus vanae” (laws without morals are meaningless) is currently used as the nation’s motto.
• From 1930 to 1966, there was a series of Rowbottom riots, a tradition in which students engaged in mischief, including window smashing and raiding panties from women’s dorms.
• The Quakers are the mascot and the nickname of the Penn football and basketball teams. This was named after the religion adopted by William Penn, who established Pennsylvania as a Quaker province.
• Fans of the Penn Quakers football team have a tradition of celebrating the team’s Ivy League championship victory by tearing down the goalposts and throwing them into the Schuylkill River.
• Though as fun as these kinds of fun facts about UPenn are, in their most recent attempt in 2003, they were unable to succeed because of the concrete footing. In 2009, students did not attempt it because Penn police officers made a blockade with their bicycles, which prevented them from doing so.
• After each Spring semester, 15,000 and 30,000 students converge on the college grounds to drink, dance, and otherwise have a fantastic time for a full 48 hours straight. The Spring Fling is a tradition at the University of Pennsylvania that dates back to 1972. It is rumored to be the largest college party on the East Coast and is organized and hosted by the Social Planning and Events Committee.
• What started these fun facts about UPenn in 1916 is that juniors don red shirts specially made for the occasion, and they stroll down Locust Walk while carrying walking canes and biting into flat-brimmed hats. At the time, it was known simply as “Hey Day.” Some people believe that the name of this tradition comes from the fact that moving up from juniors to seniors represents the most exciting time of one’s college career. However, this theory is not universally accepted.

Now that you have an idea about the University of Pennsylvania, your college admissions into that university should be next on your mind. To ensure that you get into UPenn, you can get help with AdmissionSight. With ten years of experience with college admission experts, Admissionsight can help you get into the University of Pennsylvania. You can talk to our experts today to get an initial consultation.