Here’s where your professors went to school before teaching at Penn

Penn and Harvard University are by far the most-attended undergraduate institutions by University professors teaching at the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Nursing, the Wharton School, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Using publicly available data, The Daily Pennsylvanian analyzed the educational backgrounds of 1,131 Penn professors, including their alma maters and the type of institution. The DP’s analysis accounted for approximately 97% of the University’s undergraduate professors — excluding lecturers, emeritus faculty, and administrators without professorial positions.

Penn professors attended a total of 440 known undergraduate institutions. In both the College and Wharton, Harvard University was the most-attended institution, while at the Nursing School, Penn secured the top spot. Professors in the Engineering School most commonly attended Cornell University and the India Institute of Technology System.

The University of California at Berkeley was attended by 34 Penn professors, making it the most frequently attended public university. The University of Michigan and Pennsylvania State University were the next most-attended public institutions.

Oberlin College was the most-attended liberal arts college, coming in at 15th overall. Almost all Penn professors who studied at Oberlin received Bachelor of Arts degrees.

The DP found that 375 professors attended schools outside the United States — roughly one for every three professors who completed their undergraduate education in America.

The IIT System was the international network with the largest population of Penn professors as graduates. The system — which placed eighth overall — includes campuses in 23 different cities across India.

Peking University and Tsinghua University — both located in Beijing — were also well represented by current Penn professors. 

Of the top 10 most-attended schools, eight were private institutions. The Ivy League made up just over a fifth of all undergraduate institutions, and more professors attended Ivy League schools than public universities in the U.S.

Of the 1,131 professors included in the data collection, only 1,122 had their type of degree publicly available. Over half of the bachelor’s degrees conferred were B.A. degrees. The Bachelor of Science ranked second among degree types, trailing behind the B.A. by nearly half.

At the College and Wharton, the most common degree type was a B.A. In the Engineering School, the most common degree was a B.S. All Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees included in the DP’s analysis were received by current nursing professors at Penn.

Reporters Srishti Bansal, Skylar Fan, Arti Jain, and Ananya Karthik contributed reporting.

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