The University of Pennsylvania, also known as Penn, was founded in 1740. The private, Ivy League institution is located in West Philadelphia, and nearly half of its full-time students study at the undergraduate level. Around 19 percent of the total student body is international, with students from more than 100 countries. In a recent year, more than 40 percent of Penn's international undergraduates hailed from Asia, 20 percent were from Europe and nearly 15 percent were from Canada and Mexico. The university uses a semester-based academic calendar and the language of instruction is English. First-year undergraduates are required to live on campus and may continue to do so as upperclassmen, although housing is not guaranteed after the first year. Some on-campus housing is available for graduate students as well.

Penn comprises a dozen schools that focus on arts and sciences; business; communication; dental medicine; design; education; engineering and applied science; law; medicine; nursing; social policy and practice; and veterinary medicine. Four of the schools offer undergraduate degrees and all 12 have graduate offerings. The medical school is affiliated with the Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, which are highly ranked in several specialties. Penn’s research budget was more than $875 million in a recent year. The university’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships helps students find research projects that suit their interests, as well as funding resources. Among the university’s more than 130 research institutes and centers are the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and the Penn Institute for Urban Research.

University of Pennsylvania is ranked #16 in Best Global Universities. Schools are ranked according to their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence.