Diverse community students

Diverse Community

To prepare today’s students for their lives after graduation, Penn admits and fosters a community vibrant with a breadth of experience across cultural identity, academic interest, religious belief, sexual orientation, extracurricular interest, regional affiliation, national origin, and more.

Diversity and Excellence Go Together

In an increasingly interconnected world, the most effective solutions are likely to come from leaders capable of understanding multiple perspectives. Penn students contribute and hone their points of view, lending their voices to campus-wide conversations, expanding one another’s spheres of knowledge every day.

Through insightful dialogue in and out of the classroom – as well as through daily life in college houses, at rehearsal, in the locker room, and in the dining hall – the relationships that students build here will inform a lifetime of impact after graduation. These young adults hailing from all 50 U.S. states and over 100 countries around the world will emerge as more resourceful, sophisticated thinkers and doers ready to adapt, innovate, and shape a better future. They will also establish deep and long-lasting friendships along the way.

Cultural Exploration and Celebration

At Penn, students explore and celebrate cultural identity through an exciting range of academic coursework, extracurricular activities, and campus centers. All of these paths offer valuable opportunities for students to learn, grow, and share through intellectual pursuit, political action, the performing arts, peer mentorship, awareness weeks, and pure fun.

Central to connecting these paths is our network of six cultural resource centers, cultivating support systems for students year-round. Each center provides a welcoming forum – and a home away from home – for students of all backgrounds who are interested in enriching their knowledge, finding encouragement, testing ideas, asking questions, and initiating change.