Student life

Ethnic breakdown of enrollment

Ethnic enrollment, fall 2018	Number (percentage) of undergraduates
African American	715 (7.1%)
Native American	12 (0.1%)
Asian American and Pacific Islander	2,084 (20.7%)
Hispanic and Latino American	1,044 (10.4%)
White	4,278 (42.6%)
International	1,261 (12.6%)
Two or more races, non-Hispanic	460 (4.6%)
Unknown	179 (1.8%)
Total	10,033 (100%)

Demographicsedit

Of those accepted for admission to the undergraduate Class of 2018, 52 percent are Asian, Hispanic, African-American or Native American. In addition, 53% of current students are women.

Twelve percent of the undergraduate Class of 2018 were international students. The composition of international students accepted in the Class of 2018 is: 43% from Asia; 15% from Africa and the Middle East; 20% from Europe; 15% from Canada and Mexico; 5% from the Caribbean, Central America and South America; 3% from Australia and the Pacific Islands. The acceptance rate for international students applying for the class of 2018 was 429 out of 6,428 (6.7%).

In the last few decades, Jewish enrollment has been declining. Circa 1999 about 28% of the students were Jewish, a drop of some 40% over 15 years previous. In early 2020, 1,750 Penn undergraduate students were Jewish, which would be approximately 17% of the some 10,000 undergrads for 2019–20.

Penn Face and Behavioral Healthedit

The university's social pressure surrounding academic perfection, extreme competitiveness, and nonguaranteed readmission have created what is known as "Penn Face": students put on a façade of confidence and happiness while enduring mental turmoil. Stanford University calls this phenomenon "Duck Syndrome." In recent years, mental health has become an issue on campus with ten student suicides between the years of 2013 to 2016. The school responded by launching a task force. The most widely covered case of Penn Face has been Madison Holleran. In 2018, initiatives were enacted to ameliorate mental health problems, such as requiring sophomores to live on campus and the daily closing of Huntsman Hall at 2:00 a.m. The university's suicide rate was the catalyst for a 2018 state bill, introduced by Governor Tom Wolf, to raise Pennsylvania's standards for university suicide prevention. The university's efforts to address mental health on campus came into the national spotlight again in September 2019 when the director of the university's counseling services committed suicide nine months after starting the position.

Selected student organizationsedit

The Philomathean Society, founded in 1813, is one of the United States' oldest collegiate literary societies and continues to host lectures and intellectual events open to the public. The Mask and Wig Club, founded in 1889, is the oldest all-male musical comedy troupe in the country, and Bloomers Comedy, founded in 1978, is the oldest collegiate all-female musical comedy troupe in the country. The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club, founded in 1862, is one of the oldest continually operating collegiate choruses in the United States. Bruce Montgomery, its best-known and longest-serving director, led the club from 1956 until 2000. The International Affairs Association (IAA) was founded in 1963 as an organization to promote international affairs and diplomacy at Penn and beyond. With over 400 members, it is the largest student-funded organization on campus. The IAA serves as an umbrella organization for various conferences (UPMUNC, ILMUNC, and PIRC), as well as a host of other academic and social activities. The Student Committee on Undergraduate Education (SCUE), founded in 1965, is the education policy branch of the Penn student government, whose sole mission is to improve undergraduate education at Penn. The Penn Debate Society (PDS), founded in 1984 as the Penn Parliamentary Debate Society, is Penn's debate team, which competes regularly on the American Parliamentary Debate Association and the international British Parliamentary circuit. The PDS has a history of success, consistently fielding debaters ranked in the top 10 nationally and advancing teams to elimination rounds at the World University Debating Championships.

The University of Pennsylvania Band has been a part of student life since 1897. The Penn Band performs at football and basketball games as well as university functions (e.g. commencement and convocation) throughout the year and was the first college band to perform at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Membership fluctuates between 80 and 100 students.

The PennApps organization at the University of Pennsylvania was created in fall 2009 and hosted the United States' first student-run hackathon "PennApps" in 2008. As of fall 2019, they have hosted 20 iterations of this international hackathon.

Performing arts organizations

Penn is home to numerous organizations that promote the arts, from dance to spoken word, jazz to stand-up comedy, theatre, a cappella and more. The Performing Arts Council (PAC) oversees 45 student organizations in these areas. The PAC has four subcommittees: A Cappella Council; Dance Arts Council; Singer, Musicians, and Comedians (SMAC); and Theatre Arts Council (TAC-e).

The Dance Arts Council (DAC) comprises 13 organizations, including the African Rhythms, Pan-Asian Dance Troupe and the West Philly Swingers. The Arts House Dance Company is one of the council's most prominent groups. Founded in 1985, the Company is known for its strong technique, innovative student choreography and vivid stage presence.

The A Cappella Council (ACK) is composed of 14 a cappella groups. Penn's a cappella groups entertain audiences with repertoires including pop, rock, R&B, jazz, Hindi, and Chinese songs. ACK is also home to Off The Beat, which has received the most Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards of any collegiate group in the United States and the most features on the Best of College A Cappella albums.

Religious organizations

Dating back to 1857, The Christian Association (a.k.a. The CA) is the oldest religious organization at the university and is composed primarily of students from Mainline Protestant backgrounds. When the University moved to its current campus in the 1880s the CA was based in Houston Hall. After moving around several times it relocated to its new building at 36th and Locust Streets (now the ARCH Building), which it occupied from 1928 until 2000. During its most active period, it ran several foreign missions as well as a camp for socio-economically disadvantaged children in Philadelphia. At present the CA occupies part of the parsonage at Tabernacle United Church of Christ.

The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute's Sinai Scholars Society Academic Symposium is a prestigious event that brings together Jewish college students with noted Jewish academics for a day of in-depth discussion and debate at the university. The Penn branch of Hillel International or Hillel, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world, working with thousands of college students globally, reaches over 80% of the roughly 1,750 Jewish undergraduate students and the roughly 1,800 Jewish graduate and professional students on campus with an array of different Jewish opportunities in over 25 different groups utilizing space in the 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) 35,000 square foot Steinhardt Hall, ranging from social justice to Israel to Jewish culture offerings to Jewish religious expression (with services catering to all four of the mainstream branches of Judaism including a kosher dining hall).

The Penn Newman Catholic Center (the Newman Center) was founded in 1893 (and was the first Newman Center in the country) with the mission of supporting students, faculty, and staff in their religious endeavors. The organization brings prominent Christian figures to campus, including Rev. Thomas "Tom" J. Hagan, OSFS, who worked in the Newman Center and founded Haiti-based non-profit Hands Together; and James Martin in September 2015. During the 2015 World Meetings of Families, which included a visit from Pope Francis to Philadelphia, the Newman Center hosted over 900 Penn students and alumni.

The Daily Pennsylvanian

The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper, which has been published daily since it was founded in 1885. The newspaper went unpublished from May 1943 to November 1945 due to World War II. In 1984, the university lost all editorial and financial control of The Daily Pennsylvanian when the newspaper became its own corporation. The Daily Pennsylvanian has won the Pacemaker Award administered by the Associated Collegiate Press multiple times, most recently in 2019.