The University of Pennsylvania (also called UPenn and Penn) has been teaching engineering since the mid-1800s. The Philadelphia-based Ivy League offers an impressive list of engineering majors through its School of Engineering & Applied Science. While Penn provides a couple of specialized cross-school programs (including VIPER and Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology), the vast majority of hopeful UPenn engineers apply directly to the Engineering school. UPenn doesn’t release separate acceptance rates for its four undergraduate schools. However, Engineering is likely on the harder side of the spectrum given the popularity of its majors. Last year, UPenn’s overall acceptance rate was 5.4%. This is a very competitive rate. If you hope to become a Quaker, you need to be a top student. If you don’t know where to start, don’t worry, we have a couple of steps you need to take.
Get the Grades
To get into Penn, you need an amazing transcript, which includes having a 4.0 unweighted or very close to it. Last year, 59% of accepted students had an unweighted 4.0. If you don’t have perfect or near-perfect grades, Penn is likely too far a reach for you. However, just having good grades isn’t enough on its own. You also need to be challenging yourself. You want to take the hardest courses available to you; this means taking honors, IB, accelerated, AP, or dual enrollment classes and doing well in them. Ideally, your transcript should be loaded with these types of classes more generally; however, for engineers, you need to be especially challenging yourself in STEM-based courses. Taking the hardest math and science you can is the bare minimum for Penn Engineering.
For the 2025-2026 application cycle, Penn is no longer test-optional. That means you will also have to submit great test scores on top of your excellent transcript. Last year, only about 67% of applicants submitted test scores, so take these numbers with a grain of salt, but the 50th percentile for the SAT was 1550, and for the ACT, it was 35. You should be trying for similar scores (or better). For SAT Math and the overall ACT, the 75th percentile was a perfect score. Yes, over 25% of Penn applicants who submitted scores had perfect ones in Math. This is an important note for engineering hopefuls. You need excellent math scores to even be considered—time to start studying.
Build a Niche
When applying to Penn's engineering school, it isn’t enough to say, “I want to be an engineer.” You must prove it by having a clear and defined history of academic curiosity and engagement in engineering-related activities. You also need to be more specific. There are many types of engineering: a Biomedical engineering major is very different from one in Computer Science. It should be clear from your application what your specific engineering interests are and how you have explored them. This is your “academic niche,” and there are a couple of steps that you should take to build an impressive one.
Courses and Reading
To find your niche, you will need to learn everything you can about your academic interests. Start with what interests you the most and pursue it. We highly recommend that this pursuit initially includes reading books. Can we be honest, even if it makes us sound like boomers for a minute? A lot of young people simply do not read books… and an even smaller number of high school students read outside of class. Reading books makes you a better writer, and reading books connected to your academic niche will make you better at talking about your interests. Make yourself a reading list. Once you have done that, you can supplement it with podcasts, science journals, tech news, etc., but books need to be at its heart.
Once you have started reading, don’t be afraid to sign up for a class. Many colleges and universities offer pre-tapped (often free) courses through resources like Coursera. Take a class or two that relates to your niche. We love to see students who take the initiative to learn outside of regular school and explore their academic curiosity. You can also look for classes at university summer programs or community colleges if you are looking for more opportunities to learn about engineering.
in-School Extracurriculars
A great academic niche has an established history of involvement. One of the first steps you need to take to establish this history is to join related clubs at your school. Depending on your exact engineering niche, you should look for robotics teams, science olympiads, mathletes, STEM tutoring clubs, solar car teams, computer science societies, etc. If your school doesn’t offer clubs connected to STEM, speak with your administration about starting your own.
Just signing up for activities isn’t enough for Penn. You need to spend time and effort on the activities that matter to you. Ideally, you should take on leadership roles and responsibilities in your school clubs by around junior year. So run for that board. Trust us: treasurer sounds a lot better than member.
Out of School Extracurriculars
While we love to see a student who interns in the fall or volunteers in a repair cafe all year round, you will especially need out-of-school activities to maximize your summers. A strategic summer should connect to your academic niche: likely, this means an academic summer program, an internship, and/or research. There are many other great out-of-school activities, but the majority of Penn applicants will have at least one of the three of these during their summers (and top candidates will have all three on their resume).
We often work with students as early as freshman year to make sure they are maximizing their summers. Trust us: it is that important. Early on in your high school career, your summers should show that you are exploring academics outside of school. Later summers should showcase how you have become an expert and navigate the field.
Build Something Cool
From soldering to computer programming, engineers need hard skills. You can show off what you know by building something impressive. In the past, we have worked with students who have built drones, computers, solar panels, apps, you name it. Choose something that shows off what you already know. Even better, challenge yourself by choosing something that forces you to learn more skills.
Apply Early
Earlier in this blog, we said Penn had around a 5% acceptance rate last year. That isn’t the whole story. That is Penn’s overall acceptance rate; however, its Early Decision acceptance rate was more than 14%. For qualified applicants, the ED round is your best chance at getting into Penn. If you are serious about Penn, we highly recommend applying early. It is important to make a strategic plan for the application season. It is never too early to start thinking about college, but rising seniors, we are especially looking at you. Start those applications and make sure you have a great plan!
Penn is a great school looking for standout candidates. Whether you are a rising senior or a rising freshman, we can help you with all things college. It takes commitment and planning to get into Penn.
If you are worried about starting, we can help! Reach out today!