Penn's education system?

What makes Penn’s education different from the other Ivies? I’ve looked on their website and read about the desired traits and academics, but what is Penn’s educational system like going through it? For example, Princeton’s undergrad’s complete a senior thesis, and at Brown students can more or less choose their exact schedule/coursework. Is there anything specific to Penn, or can anyone tell me about what their education system/philosophy is like?

I was going to go on a college visit there, but they were full on the day we were there. We ended up still going to Philadelphia to walk around the campus, but I don’t know as much as I would like to about Penn since I never had the information session.

@TrapNumen I think some key aspects of the academic system at Penn are that there is a big focus on interdisciplinary education as well as the practical application of knowledge. The curriculum is quite flexible and undergrads can take classes in any school of the university, including graduate schools (law, med etc). Access to undergrad opportunities is easy and well organized. Also Penn has many professional undergraduate clubs that really complement what one learns in class and also give the opportunity to students to explore industries and fields not directly related to their major. Extracurriculars are a very big part of the Penn experience and the offerings are really diverse and meaningful.

To add to what @Penn95 said: UPenn - because of its large size and array of schools - offers a broad breadth of possible subjects of study. It’s why Penn and probably Cornell are a little differently situated than most of its peers. At UPenn, you could study nutritional science, accounting, marketing, etc. You can’t do this at Princeton or Columbia (or Chicago, or Brown, or Cal Tech…).

The only other top school that has as broad a breadth of subjects (albeit not all the same ones) is Cornell. Princeton, for instance, is still more or less a liberal arts college at the undergrad level. Penn and Cornell HAVE liberal arts colleges, but they are just components in much larger undergrad environments.

If you just want “classic” undergrad liberal arts majors - without the “noise” of more practical pursuits, Princeton is the better option. If you want a liberal arts college with a lot of other practical possibilities, Penn is the way to go.

(Add’l point - there are some who would turn their noses up at going to an elite school to study nutrition or marketing or, say, hotel management [a great school at Cornell]. There are probably some Princeton faculty who feel this way. If you’re one of these people, Penn may not be for you - because people go to Penn to study nutrition or marketing.)

@Penn95 and @Cue7
Thank you both for the informative answers! You both mentioned the immense opportunity at Penn, so could you tell me more about the interdisciplinary possibilities at Penn (are the interdisciplinary paths a variety of minors/certificates)? For the Penn application, it asks what program I’d like to apply to, and there are a myriad of options, so are these colleges that you would apply to or specific programs? For example, there’s HUNTSMAN and VIPER, as well as options that a specific field combined with management. How much discrepancy is there between admittance rates between colleges/programs? Once enrolled, how easy is it to take classes in other colleges or transfer colleges within the university?

How does Penn incorporate practical application of knowledge into its classes?

@TrapNumen Regarding interdisciplinary opportunities: there are many coordinated dual degree programs like Huntsman, M&T, LSM, VIPER as well as uncoordinated dual degree programs. Also you can double major very easily within the same school, do a minor or more, and take classes in any school across the entire university. Anyone can take classes across different colleges and even graduate schools. Also you can do research at a school that is different than your home school. Also in general it is easy to switch majors and also switch schools within Penn. Switching internally into Wharton is a bit tougher because there is more demand, but if you have a 3.5+GPA and a demonstrated interest in business then it is not that hard.

The acceptance difficulty for most of the dual degree programs is higher than the already high difficulty of getting into Penn in general. Just to give you a concrete comparator, many of these programs are as difficult as Harvard or Stanford to get in and many students who get accepted into these programs turn down even Harvard or Stanford because of the even greater opportunities they offer on top of the already amazing opportunities available to the general Penn student body.