Penn Experience

The Opportunity

Penn is a remarkable place. Its academic rigor, vibrant Philadelphia campus, accomplished alumni, and exceptional faculty and staff create a distinctive environment for intellectual and personal growth. Students have access to vast academic and professional opportunities, and a community of intellectual, civic, and industry leaders that extends far beyond our campus. 

Still, navigating all that Penn has to offer isn’t always easy. Academic support, student services, and co-curricular experiences are distributed across schools and centers. We have the opportunity to help students more easily discover and benefit from resources across institutional boundaries. More broadly, how student life is organized—who encounters whom, and in what settings—shapes how fully students engage with Penn. Strengthening pathways for students to connect across schools, engage with Philadelphia, and build lasting relationships with alumni can further enrich their Penn experience.

Vision

Penn Experience pursues a more intentional, cohesive model of student engagement, one that reorients how students navigate Penn and connect with its people, programs, and opportunities. We currently envision three complementary elements: 

• A more connected and integrated student experience. Aligning academic, residential, and co-curricular structures to create enriched pathways through Penn. 
• Stronger communities and sense of belonging. Designing experiences that bring students together across schools, backgrounds, and stages of study. 
• Preparation for life beyond Penn. Ensuring that all students develop the competencies, relationships, and experiences needed to thrive after graduation.

Emerging Design

Penn is exploring a set of specific initiatives aligned to the vision—some underway, others under consideration—to improve how students experience Penn. These span undergraduate, graduate, and professional education, while reinforcing shared priorities around connection, access, and preparation.

Undergraduate experience:

A more connected and integrated student experience

• Introduce shared first-year experiences and cross-school cohorts to create common academic and co-curricular touchpoints, enable cross-school exploration, and foster durable learning communities across disciplines. 
• Greatly expand the cross-school curricular experiences of students at all levels, particularly in introductory STEM courses.
• Enhance submatriculation opportunities into Penn graduate programs.

Stronger communities and sense of belonging

• Redesign housing, residential, and dining experiences to bring students together across schools, class years, and backgrounds. 
• Enhance orientation and reimagine student gathering spaces (e.g., Houston Hall) to create a more structured, sustained introduction to Penn and better support connection, shared norms, and campus life.

Preparation for life beyond Penn

• Expand access to internships, research, and mentorship, creating more open pathways into experiential learning and alumni engagement. 
• Build personal and professional competencies through sequenced experiences that integrate coursework, reflection, and applied learning over time.

Graduate and professional students:

A more connected and integrated student experience

• Design structured onboarding and shared experiences that build a graduate identity across disciplines and strengthen cross-school engagement to enable students to experience Penn as a university, not just a program.

Preparation for life beyond Penn

• Modernize graduate curricula to expand cross-school access, reduce redundancy, and better align academic programs with career outcomes, embedding development of professional competencies for a broader range of careers. 
• Establish a stronger culture of mentorship through a shared framework across the Penn community founded on clear expectations, structured support, and mutual collaboration using evidence-based approaches. A more connected and integrated student experience

Existing Foundation

Penn has a strong foundation to build on:

• Academic excellence and breadth: Penn’s 12 schools, including four undergraduate schools, already create academic breadth on a single campus, and students have established pathways for cross-school engagement through interdisciplinary minors and coordinated dual-degree programs (Huntsman, M&T, and VIPER). Penn has also already tested successful models to create smaller communities within larger programs, including Wharton’s first-year cohorts and MBA cluster/cohort/learning-team model.  
• Residential and campus life: Every undergraduate lives for at least two years in one of 13 College Houses with faculty, house directors, and resident advisors. First-year students can choose among First-Year Houses, four-year options, and more than 25 Program Communities. Penn has also built meaningful sophomore infrastructure through the Second Year Experience, which includes the Thrive at Penn module, living fairs, room-selection events, receptions, and mentoring.  
• Co-curricular and experiential learning: Penn already has broad participation infrastructure through Penn Clubs, with more than 800 student organizations across its undergraduate, graduate, and professional communities. That scale is complemented by distinctive hubs such as Platt House for student performing arts, Civic House for civic engagement, the six Cultural Resource Centers, Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships (CURF), the Graduate Student Center, Career Services for internships and job search support, Penn Abroad and Perry World House for global experiences, Venture Lab in Tangen Hall, and the broader Pennovation Works innovation ecosystem. 
• Student services and support: Penn’s support ecosystem is substantial and already includes the Weingarten Center for academic support and disability services, Student Health and Counseling for primary and mental health care, Penn First Plus and PennCAP for undergraduate first-generation and lower-income student support, the Pre-First Year Program—which helps approximately 180 incoming students acclimate to the Penn Community before the year starts, and Career Services for same-day advising, individual appointments, career fairs, resume reviews, and access to job and internship opportunities through Handshake. 

Leads

• Russell Composto, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
• Kelly Jordan-Sciutto, Vice Provost for Graduate Education
• Michael Scales, Vice President of Business Services