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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 (Penn or UPenn) is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of founder and first president Benjamin Franklin, who had advocated for an educational institution that trained leaders in academia, commerce, and public service.
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, helped write the U.S. Constitution; and its medical school, the first in North America.
In 2023, Penn ranked third among U.S. universities in research expenditures, according to the National Science Foundation. As of 2025, its endowment was $24.8 billion, making it the sixth-wealthiest private academic institution in the nation. The University of Pennsylvania's main campus is in the University City neighborhood of West Philadelphia, and is centered around College Hall. 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 8 Founding Fathers of the United States who signed the Declaration of Independence, 7 who signed the U.S. Constitution, 24 members of the Continental Congress, 3 presidents of the United States, 38 Nobel laureates, 9 foreign heads of state, 3 United States Supreme Court justices, at least 4 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 5 Medal of Honor recipients.
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