Exchange at Penn

The University of Pennsylvania partners with institutions around the globe and collaborates with Penn’s four undergraduate schools to offer incoming exchange student opportunities across academic disciplines and programs. Make Penn a part of your undergraduate experience.

This is the opportunity for you to embrace and adapt to new challenges, collaborate with people from different backgrounds and gain experience that you will carry with you in your career and throughout your life. Penn Abroad’s Exchange Student program allows you to spend a semester or year in one of Penn’s four undergraduate schools. While at Penn, exchange students:

  • Take classes at one of the most competitive universities in the United States and have access to internationally renowned undergraduate-level teaching and research programs.

  • Live on a cosmopolitan university campus in the birthplace of the United States - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

  • Interact with a vibrant and diverse student body of approximately 25,000 undergraduate and graduate students.  

  • Build cross-campus and cross-cultural networks by participating in student clubs and organizations and attending a wide variety of campus events.

Explore Exchange at Penn
Life at Penn

Founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1740, the University of Pennsylvania is a member of the Ivy League, and internationally renowned for undergraduate-level teaching, research programs, as well as its graduate and professional schools. Through organized events, excursions, activities on campus, and dorm living, you have many opportunities to meet and mingle with degree-seeking peers at Penn and make lasting connections.

Philadelphia, the birthplace of the United States, is a major cultural center and the heart of a metropolitan region with a population of more than five million people.The region also has one of the highest concentrations of colleges and universities in the country, making it a vibrant place to spend a semester or year as an exchange student.

Program & Application Information

Exchange agreements with Penn’s partner institutions are linked to one or more of the four Penn undergraduate schools. You are expected to take the majority of your courses in the school of your exchange. Exchange students must enroll in a minimum of four credit units (four courses) per semester in order to maintain full-time status at Penn.

Advising

You will receive personal and academic support for the duration of your stay:

Exchange Partners

The University of Pennsylvania maintains international student exchange partnerships with more than 50 institutions across the world. Each year, we welcome more than 200 exchange students to our campus to study in our prestigious undergraduate programs, engage in cross-cultural learning, and explore Philadelphia.

Our current partners are encouraged to review our updated fact sheet and nominate their prospective exchange students by the relevant deadlines.

If you are an interested student and your home institution is not a current partner with the University of Pennsylvania, it is recommended that you contact your institution’s study abroad office to learn about your options. You may also be able to study at Penn through the International Guest Student Program.

Exchange Students in Front of Van Pelt Library
Posing on "The Button" in Front of Van Pelt Library