or has any employer never heard of penn?
No. You shouldn’t be concerned about this from a job perspective. It may happen with regular people, but not from someone who is prepared to potentially hire you.
@WhartonPenn2017 do you think most employers would be equally impressed with a non wharton penn student? and do you think west coast employers are familiar with the school?
Do you think employers confuse Cal Berkeley with Cal State Dominguez Hills? How about UCLA vs. Cal State LA?
I think it’s safe to assume that employers can figure out that Penn is in the Ivy League.
This issue has popped up too many times. Do not apply to Penn if you have the concern. Any employee that can not tell difference between Penn and Penn State is not a worthy employee for Penn students.
I have never heard of this being an issue with employers at all.
@uofp2020 It depends on the job. A finance role may prefer Wharton students, and a tech role may prefer engineers, but the large majority (I’d say >90%) of jobs for recruiting at Penn will consider students from any of the undergraduate schools. Yes, employers on the west coast are familiar with the school.
The hiring officers will all know the difference between Penn and Penn State. If they don’t, I’m not sure that would be a company for whom I’d want to work. 
Your prospective colleagues may be a different story.
@skieurope do you personally think that employers on the west coast will be very familiar with school?
A Burger King manager might not know the difference. I bet in most professional climates an employer would know the difference.
Yes.
*think tanks
does the government
or thinks recruit here?
@uofp2020 yes everyone recruited at Penn. There are more firms coming to recruit at penn from a big variety of field than at most other (prob all) schools. Penn is a huge target school for forms. There has literally never been a time when employers do not know what Penn is or confuse it with Penn state. Both wharton ad non-wharton students are equally desirable there is no substantial distinction. Penn hs the highest salaries and best employment statistics in the ivy league along with Harvard. A brief look at Penn’s employment and salary statistics in the penn Career Services website will confirm all this and answer your questions. Also a big number of Penn students go to work in SF and LA after graduation.
The random person on the street, who is not affiliated with elite schools, and prob hasn’t gone to college themselves, might not know Penn. So saying to him you go to Penn will not get the same reaction as saying I go to Harvard, which pretty much everyone knows. But that won’t make any practical difference in your life or future career, it will just boost your ego, that is all.
“@WhartonPenn2017 do you think most employers would be equally impressed with a non wharton penn student?”
I think that what distinguishes one new Penn graduate from another is what they accomplished while they were there, not the school attended. Grades, rigor, major, minor, hard skills, ECs, internships, study abroad, clubs, executive positions, greek life, sports, research experience, special programs and other unique opportunities.
“and do you think west coast employers are familiar with the school?”
Yes, they are. You don’t need to worry about this. DD is a sophomore and is interning in San Francisco this summer. She had multiple offers. Most of her friends have internships too. Look at the salary information from career services.
@Much2learn I think your message was intended for @uofp2020. I’m a current student at Penn. This thread is honestly getting very long and unnecessary.
@WhartonPenn2017 Much2learn simply quoted the post in which you were mentioned.
And luckily, we don’t limit threads to 15 posts here. Comment away, OP – this is hardly long or unnecessary.
@bodangles Sorry about that. Misread it and thought she was quoting me, and I wasn’t the one who said that, so just wanted to clarify. As far as it being unnecessary, when OP first asks if West Coast employers know Penn and then follows up and asks “do you personally think that employers on the west coast…” that’s where I began to think it got silly. @uofp2020 if you have more questions about Penn, please feel free to ask, but as far as employment afterwards goes, all recruiters will know where you go to school, and with a Penn degree, you’ll be able to pursue a job in basically all industries, etc.
Yes, but I work at a high school. Not the typical hiring committee.
@rebeccar hmm, did they confuse it with penn state or had they just never heard of penn? and was it a really high up position in the school?