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Dreaming Of The Big Leagues

Dreaming of the Big Leagues: My Dream School University of Pennsylvania

College has been a dream of mine before I even knew what it was. As my understanding of the general idea of college grew, where I dreamed of attending became a bigger issue. Although my dream has changed over the years, I narrowed my choices down to the University of Pennsylvania. The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn) is a private university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Penn is America's first university and is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Penn is also a member of the Ivy League, and is one of the Colonial Colleges. Benjamin Franklin, Penn's founder, advocated an educational program that focused as much on practical education for commerce and public service as on the classics and theology. Penn was one of the first academic institutions to follow a multidisciplinary model pioneered by several European universities, concentrating several "faculties" (e.g., theology, classics, medicine) into one institution.
Penn is a leader in the arts and humanities, the social sciences, the natural sciences, architecture, communications and education. Penn is particularly noted for its schools of business, law and medicine, each of which was the first in North America. About 4,500 professors serve nearly 10,000 full-time undergraduate and 10,000 graduate and professional students. Penn's educational innovations include: the nation's first medical school in 1765; the first university teaching hospital in 1874; the Wharton School, the world's first collegiate school of business, in 1881; the first American student union building, Houston Hall, in 1896; the country's second school of veterinary medicine; and the home of ENIAC, the world's first electronic, large-scale, general-purpose digital computer in 1946. Penn is also home to the oldest Psychology department in North America and where the American Medical Association was founded.
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