The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a prestigious private Ivy League institution located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded by Benjamin Franklin, founding father of the United States, Penn is one of the nine colonial colleges and was established before the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
Penn is home to four undergraduate schools and 12 graduate and professional schools, offering a wide range of programs across diverse fields. Among its distinguished schools are the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Wharton School, and the School of Nursing. Its graduate schools include the Law School, with a rich history tied to the U.S. Constitution, and the Wharton School, the first collegiate business school in the nation.
In the 2025 QS World University Rankings, Penn is ranked 11th with a score of 90.3, while in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, it holds the 14th position with a score of 90.9.
The university’s excellence is reflected in its illustrious alumni, including high-profile figures like Donald Trump, the 45th U.S. President, and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc. and Google among many others. These globally renowned personalities exemplify the diverse success stories Penn has fostered across different walks of life. Take a look at the educational qualifications of the notable alumni of the University of Pennsylvania.
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump, born on June 14, 1946, won the 2024 election as the Republican nominee and is set to be inaugurated as the 47th president in January 2025. A businessman and media figure, Trump served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021. He attended the Kew-Forest School and later the New York Military Academy, where he excelled in a structured environment. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1968. Taking charge of his family’s real estate business in 1971, Trump focussed on luxury properties. Despite facing financial difficulties in the 1990s, he expanded his brand through licensing and became a reality TV star with The Apprentice from 2004 to 2015.
Sundar Pichai
Sundar Pichai, born on June 10, 1972, is an Indian-born American business executive, currently serving as the CEO of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google.
Pichai began his career as a materials engineer before transitioning to management consulting at McKinsey & Co. In 2004, he joined Google, where he led product management for key products such as Google Chrome, ChromeOS, Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Maps. He played a major role in the open-sourcing of the VP8 video codec and the introduction of WebM in 2010. Pichai also oversaw the launch of the Chromebook in 2012 and took on responsibility for Android in 2013.
Pichai completed his schooling at Jawahar Vidyalaya Senior Secondary School and Vana Vani School in Chennai. He earned his degree in metallurgical engineering from IIT Kharagpur, followed by an M.S. in materials science from Stanford University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk, born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa, is a renowned entrepreneur and the driving force behind global companies like SpaceX and Tesla, Inc. He is also involved in various ventures, including X Corp. (which operates the social media platform X, formerly Twitter), the Boring Company, xAI, Neuralink, and OpenAI. As of December 2024, Forbes estimates his net worth at $344 billion, making him the wealthiest individual globally. Musk has significantly influenced politics, media, and industry, earning him the title of an oligarch. Musk briefly attended the University of Pretoria before moving to Canada at 18, where he obtained citizenship through his mother. He began his higher education at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in economics and physics. Musk moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University but left shortly after to co-found Zip2, an online city guide software company, with his brother Kimbal.
Anil Ambani
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, born on June 4, 1959, is an Indian businessman and the chairman and managing director of Reliance Group, which was formed in 2006 after a demerger from Reliance Industries Limited. He has played a pivotal role in leading several publicly listed companies, including Reliance Capital, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Power, and Reliance Communications. Ambani’s career has seen him manage a diverse range of sectors, contributing significantly to the growth of the Reliance Group. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Kishinchand Chellaram College and earned a Master of Business Administration from the prestigious Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1983.
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky, born on December 7, 1928, is a renowned American linguist, philosopher, and political activist. A major figure in modern linguistics, Chomsky also contributed significantly to cognitive science and analytic philosophy. He began his academic journey at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945 at age 16, exploring philosophy, logic, and languages. While initially frustrated with his studies, his intellectual curiosity was reignited through conversations with linguist Zellig Harris, who introduced him to theoretical linguistics. Chomsky earned his BA in 1949 with a thesis on Modern Hebrew morphophonemics, which he later expanded into his MA thesis in 1951. His academic work at Penn laid the foundation for his groundbreaking theories in linguistics. He later became a laureate professor at the University of Arizona and an emeritus professor at MIT. Throughout his career, Chomsky remained an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy, capitalism, and corporate influence on media and politics.
Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan, born on September 7, 1962, is a celebrated American novelist and short-story writer, best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad (2011), which also earned the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.
She attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in English literature. After graduating, Egan spent two years at St. John’s College, Cambridge, supported by a Thouron Award, earning an M.A. She then moved to New York in 1987, working various jobs, including catering at the World Trade Center, while honing her writing skills.
Michael S. Brown
Michael S. Brown is a distinguished molecular geneticist who, alongside his colleague Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein, was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor. This groundbreaking work led to the development of statins. Brown also received the 1985 Albert D. Lasker Prize for Basic Medical Research and the 1988 U.S. National Medal of Science. Currently, he is the Paul J. Thomas Professor of Molecular Genetics and Director of the Jonsson Center for Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern. Brown earned a B.A. in Chemistry in 1962 and an M.D. in 1966 from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health before joining UT Southwestern in 1971, where he became a professor in 1976.
