The University of Pennsylvania (commonly referred to as Penn) is an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1749 by a group of wealthy philanthropists including Benjamin Franklin (though the University itself prefers the founding date of 1740, from a pre-existing charity school). It is the fifth oldest college and the oldest university in the United States. (Note: Harvard did not become a chartered university until 1790.)

Penn is also the name of a village in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom, which is the ancestral home of the Penn family, after whom Pennsylvania is named.

Penn's most notable programs are its Wharton School of Business, School of Medicine, College of Arts and Science, Law School, Nursing School, Annenberg School of Communications, School of Engineering and Applied Science, School of Education, School of Social Work, and its English, history, economics, and anthropology departments. It is also noted for its Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

The first medical school in the United States was founded at Penn in 1765. In 1786 Penn was chartered by the state as the first "university" in America. Penn also established the first graduate school in the United States.

Located in downtown Philadelphia for over a century, the campus was moved across the Schuylkill River to West Philadelphia in 1872, where it has remained. The present campus covers over 200 urban acres.

The University of Pennsylvania should not be confused with the Pennsylvania State University (commonly referred to as "Penn State"), another research-oriented (but state-owned) university with the main campus located in the geographic center of Pennsylvania.

Penn's sports teams are called the Quakers. They participate in the Ivy League conference and the NCAA's Division I (Division I-AA for football).

Some famous University of Pennsylvania alumni:

• Charles Addams: Creator, The Addams Family; he is said to have modeled the Addams Family mansion on Penn's College Hall
• Nnamdi Azikiwe: First President of Nigeria
• Ernesto P. Balladares: President of Panama, 1994-1999
• Chuck Bednarik: Philadelphia Eagles Linebacker
• Bert Bell: Former National Football League Commissioner from 1946-1959, who took the league to unprecedented heights
• Candice Bergen: Actress, best known as TV's Murphy Brown
• Nicholas Biddle: President of the Second Bank of the United States
• Henry Block: Founder, H&R Block
• Richard Block: Founder, H&R Block
• William J. Brennan Jr.: U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• Ron Brown: NBC International Affairs correspondent
• Warren Buffet (he left Penn after two years): CEO Berkshire-Hathaway, investor, second richest man in the world
• Britton Chance: Scientist and Olympic gold medallist who made great contributions to spectrometry and biochemistry/biophysics research
• Noam Chomsky: Linguist and activist.
• Ira Einhorn: 1960s Hippie leader and fugitive murderer of Holly Maddux
• Chaka Fattah: U.S. Congressman representing Pennsylvania
• William Fawcett: Actor
• Richard Fisher: Fisher Brother Construction, New York
• Harold E. Ford, Jr.: U.S. Representative from Tennessee, candidate for house minority leader, 2002
• Leonard Goldberg: Former Chairman of 20th Century Fox/TV and Movie Producer
• William Henry Harrison (flunked out): 9th U.S. President
• Charles Heimbold: U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, former CEO of Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation
• C. Everett Koop: Surgeon General of the United States, 1981-1989
• Andrea Kremer: ESPN sports correspondent
• Jack Lehman III: Founder, Shearson Lehman Brothers
• Gerald Levin (Penn Law): former CEO AOL Time Warner
• James Mason (senator): Influential U.S. Senator from Virginia in the early 19th century.
• Thomas McKean: Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress
• Andrea Mitchell: NBC Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent
• Gouverneur Morris: New York delegate to the Continental Congress, 1778-1779; U.S. Senator from New York, 1800-1803
• Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg: Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789-1791, 1793-1795. Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1779-1780; Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1789-1797
• Kwame Nkrumah: First President of Ghana
• Alassane D. Ouattara: Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire, 1990-1993
• William S. Paley: Founder, CBS Corporation
• Harold Prince: Famous Broadway Producer with works including West Side Story and Phantom of the Opera
• Ed Rendell: Pennsylvania Governor, former Philadelphia Mayor and former Democratic National Committee Chairman
• Owen J. Roberts: U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• Arlen Specter: U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, former Philadelphia District Attorney
• Donald Trump: Billionaire investor/financier
• Cesar Virata: Prime Minister of the Philippines, 1981-1986
• James Wilson: Signer of the Declaration of Independence; Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1775-1776, 1783, 1785-1786; major framer of the United States Constitution, 1787

There are numerous other past and present U.S. Ambassadors, members of congress, governors, and cabinet members, and corporate leaders.

The University of Pennsylvania borders Drexel University.

• www.upenn.edu - University of Pennsylvania's website