From Stanford to Syracuse, new professors flocked from across the country to teach at Penn this year.
But no matter where they come from, the people who get up and lecture to undergraduates each semester have gone through a rigorous selection process and training to meet the University's high standards.
College Dean Dennis Deturck explained the School of Arts and Sciences matches each new faculty member with a senior professor who teaches them "the culture of the department."
These "mentors" take new faculty under their wings and show them the ropes of the school, like finding money for grants or getting help with problems, DeTurck added.
New Physics and Astronomy professor James Aguirre wrote in an e-mail that Penn also provides "a great resource in teaching" for new professors with its Center for Teaching and Learning.
Even with help from the existing faculty, new Penn professors are met with many challenges.
The process of initiation into faculty life differs from department to department, said Deturck. In the Math department, for example, each new professor is required to teach one class in one of the regular department courses.
This method ensures that every staff member meets the new professor, while at the same time it "puts a little pressure on [the new member] to make sure they get their act together," said Deturck.
The pressure is on - many new professors say learning how to teach well is the biggest challenge they face.
New Political Science professor Jessica Stanton - who finished her Ph.D. at Columbia University just last year - explained that she talked to many older professors and her graduate school advisors to get tips on teaching.
"It was a lot of soliciting advice from people who are wiser than myself," she said.
Aguirre wrote that much of his summer was spent "thinking through what I want the students to learn and what are the really big important ideas" of the material.
"Typically, I would say the hardest problem facing grad students in their first semesters teaching is the problem of balance," Paul Cobb, a professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, wrote in an e-mail.
"It is a real juggling act, 24/7, and I don't think the broader public really appreciates just how stressful it is to be a new professor," added Cobb, who taught at Smith College, University of Notre Dame and Wake Forest University before coming to Penn this August.
And that's after they survive the hiring process.
According to Deturck, before graduate students within the sciences can even apply for a job at Penn, they must finish their Ph.D., hold one or more postdoctoral positions and work in a senior professor's lab until they establish their own research and begin to obtain funding.
Within other fields, such as English, Classics or Religious Studies, it is typical for someone who just finished graduate school to become a faculty member right away, he said.
Even so, Deturck explained that no matter what the field, Penn requires that applicants "have some kind of teaching experience" and that the department usually asks hopeful staff members to come in and give a number of seminar lectures before being accepted.
"Having a portfolio of successful classes ready to go shows you to be a 'low-risk' candidate, that you can hit the ground running, compared to others who may need . on-the-job training," wrote Cobb.
The quality of a student's research, Deturck added, is essential to the portfolio. Penn seeks people who are "actively involved" in the latest developments in their field.
Finally, Penn prides itself on having well-rounded and multi-talented faculty members who show "the inclination to reach out beyond the confines of what they do," Deturck said.
"We don't want anybody who can only do one thing," he added. "Really creative and interesting things happen when people get together and look at things from different perspectives."
Deturck said that although some Penn undergraduates become professors at the University after a few years of research or teaching elsewhere, Penn is more likely to hire people who obtained their degrees at different universities.
In spite of the obstacles, Cobb said people looking to become college professors shouldn't be daunted by the stringent hiring process.
"Having made it through grad school and then the hiring process, you are by definition a better authority on just about anything than your students would get anywhere else," wrote Cobb. "So get teaching."
