When many people think of Penn, they frequently associate the University with its most high-profile alumnus — 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump.
Now over a year into his second term, The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke to multiple students studying at universities in countries around the world, including Ireland, Australia, India, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. For many, actions taken by the president have changed their perception of Penn — and even discouraged them from studying in the United States at all.
2025 Trinity College Dublin graduate Charlie Hastings said that Penn seems like “a very upper echelon type of school” where many “smart kids” attend.
According to Hastings, while Penn does not frequently come up in his conversations, the University became a topic of discussion when he and his friends “were all abuzz about where we were going to study abroad.”
Hastings explained that he had “a lot of Irish friends who just wanted to go to America, and one of the most coveted placements in America is UPenn.”
Under the Trump administration, he added that there is “a sense of foreboding” among students considering studying abroad in the U.S. “At the moment, there’s definitely a huge suspicion and, honestly, fear in Ireland about going to America.”
He explained that he knows “a lot of students” who have “either rescinded their applications for exchange to American universities or have just decided not to apply to American universities at all.”
“I know that’s deterred a lot of people, so I can’t imagine a world where Penn has not personally felt the brunt of that issue,” he continued. “I highly doubt that Trinity is the only university that’s experiencing that type of trend at the moment.”
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Hastings also described how the University’s affiliation with Trump — who “famously went to Wharton” — affected his perception of Penn.
“Penn probably had a very small part to play, if any part at all, in how Trump is currently running the country,” he said. “I just think it perhaps enabled someone who wasn’t a very good person to learn how to be evil and make a couple of bucks.”
“Trump graduated in the 60s, and so I understand there’s a completely different campus culture and a completely different administration that was overseeing his time at the University,” Hastings added. “But at the same time … to be a good businessman, you have to care about your employees; and if he was a good businessman and the employees were the American people, I don’t think that would translate very well because I don’t think he does care about the American people.”
He added, “It’s not very good business practice when American people can’t afford groceries or gas or diapers or childcare or other essential things, and the President of the United States is just getting richer and richer.”
Second-year graduate student at the University of Melbourne Junae Won echoed Hastings’ sentiment about Penn’s reputation.
“Penn is one of those schools that you just know of if you’re interested in attending a prestigious school in the States,” Won explained, adding that because she associates Penn with alumni such as Trump or 1997 College and Wharton graduate Elon Musk.
“I approach it with the knowledge that obviously not everyone must be like Trump or Musk, but it does definitely leave a big impression that these are the two most famous people in modern society to have graduated from Penn right now,” Won said. “People who are a bit more tapped into the internet and have read Wikipedia pages of U.S. politicians can see this pattern of ‘This is either a really good school or a really good school that chooses very specific people who make very interesting political decisions.’”
The person that University of Birmingham third-year student Tamara Greatrix first thinks of when Penn is mentioned is also Musk, but she clarified that her perspective on the University is not clouded by her personal opinion on him.
“He went there, but it wouldn’t be like we don’t like the uni because of that,” she said. “It’s just that we don’t like him as a person.”
Like Hastings, Won also noted her hesitancy to study abroad in the U.S.
“It’s just like constant disappointment,” Won said. “Study abroad seems impossible, not because I don’t want to, but because I can’t. I feel like I physically can’t because I fear for my safety.”
Aibhe Devilly, a first-year student at Dublin City University, described how her involvement with student journalism might affect her decision to study in, or later move to, the U.S.
“With current media now, obviously it’s a bit ropey to be going over,” she described. “People will be more inclined to stay in Ireland.”
But she added that “America’s had such an impact in media” and from a “journalism point of view” people may be interested in working or living in the U.S. because “the whole world would read about American politics or what’s in the media there, whereas over in Ireland, not many countries really know what is going on over here.”
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay fourth-year student Shivam Agarwal said that his opinion on American universities had “improved” after some — particularly Harvard University — chose to combat the President’s higher education reform efforts.
The Trump administration, he argued, has “blown it so far out of proportion” and is “actively curbing academic and freedom of expression at these universities.”
“That sort of resilience has improved my opinion,” he explained.
Agarwal added that he knows “there are universities that also made certain agreements for Trump.”
Last July, Penn complied with federal government demands to settle a Title IX investigation and restore $175 million in federal funding.
Seoul National University senior Lee Yeryoung also referenced Trump’s education policies, which she said made people “more keenly aware of what other universities are doing.”
Yeryoung added, however, that she believed “Over the long term, it didn't really influence what people thought.”
For the most part, she described Penn as “liberal” and “very chill” compared to other Ivy League universities — which she said seemed more “formal” and “uptight” — and “quite similar” to SNU because both are “prestigious.”
When asked if Trump’s affiliation with Penn affected his perspective on the University, Agarwal said, “I’d be lying if I say does not at all.”
He added, “There is a bit of bias, but I’m not sure if that opinion would ever stop me from making a decision for or against them.”
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Senior reporter Amy Liao covers clubs and societies and can be reached at liao@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies philosophy, politics, and economics. Follow her on X @amyliiao.
