How to Penn: A Resource Compilation

A resource compilation and bits of advice for Penn students!

Updated November 9, 2025

By the Advocacy Committee

Scheduling

Penn Course Review: https://penncoursereview.com/

Penn Course Review is a website that provides ratings for different Penn courses and professors. Think of Rate My Professor, but specific to Penn! Penn Course Review ranks a bunch of factors like course quality, difficulty, and instructor quality out of 5 to give you an idea of what to expect. It also provides information about course credits and section availability. (Created by PennLabs)

Tips from a MSE sophomore:

• Penn course review is awesome and generally accurate as far as ratings go, but beware that everyone will have a unique experience in a class. 

• People may give high difficulty ratings for any of the following reasons:

  • The content is challenging to understand conceptually

  • The class is graded in such a way that it is difficult to obtain an A/A-

  • The class requires a lot of work (although there is a separate rating for work, oftentimes this will bleed into people’s perception of the class)

• Talk to upperclassmen about their experience in a course, and try to scope out factors that make a course difficult, rather than just relying on a difficulty rating.

Penn Course Plan: https://penncourseplan.com/ 

Penn Course Plan is a website that allows you to plan out a sample schedule of courses without actually adding them to your cart. It’s integrated with Penn Course Review, so you can view a course’s stats as you’re adding it to your schedule

Penn Course Alert: https://penncoursealert.com/

Penn Course Alert notifies you when a class opens up if you register for an alert. Highly recommended for competitive recitation sections or seminar classes!

Undergraduate forms (grade mode change, declare/update major): https://srfs.upenn.edu/registrar/studentforms  

Each department has its own course catalog (Materials Science and Engineering), simply google “[department] course catalog”

Research

Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF): https://curf.upenn.edu/ 

Tons and tons of resources, including fellowships, funding opportunities, and scholars programs.

• Research Peer Advisor: https://curf.upenn.edu/undergraduate-research/research-peer-advisors

Global Research and Internship Program (GRIP): https://global.upenn.edu/pennabroad/grip/ Research opportunities abroad!

Check out Chantal’s article: https://www.pennswe.com/post/finding-research-penn

Life at Penn

Penn Mobile App: https://pennlabs.org/products/penn-mobile 

Penn Mobile is the official student app that streamlines campus life, from booking study rooms and checking laundry status to browsing dining options and campus resources - all in one place.

Penn Mobile Order: https://dining.business-services.upenn.edu/locations-hours-menus/mobile-ordering 

Penn Eats is the official mobile ordering app for Penn Dining, letting students order ahead, pay in advance, and reserve meals, including dining hall and kosher options.

PennTransitMobile: https://transportation.upenn.edu/penntransit-mobile 

Penn Transit Mobile lets Penn community members track Penn shuttles and buses in real time, plan routes, and schedule rides. Penn Transit also offers on-demand drop offs in the evenings and includes ADA-accessible ride options.

University Life Calendar: https://ulife.vpul.upenn.edu/calendar/ 

Calendar of events hosted by University Life and other campus partners that offer the opportunity to engage, connect and celebrate campus life. This includes information on student performances, intercultural programs, game schedules and so much more.

P.S. - look out for tags like #freefood

Dining Hall - Residential (Swipes) vs Retail (Dining Dollars): https://dining.business-services.upenn.edu/locations-hours-menus/locations 

Penn Clubs: https://pennclubs.com/ 

Penn Clubs is the centralized hub for Penn’s 600+ student organizations, making it easy to discover, join, and manage clubs while streamlining communication between students, leaders, and administrators.

Penn Labs: https://pennlabs.org/ Penn Labs builds tools that makes students lives easier

Campus Map: https://facilities.upenn.edu/maps 

Miscellaneous

Free Printing

• Fish bowl* - Towne Building first floor computer labs

• Cora Ingrum Center

• LGBTQ center (bring your own paper) 

• Kelly Writers House

• ARCH houses: Makuu, PAACH, etc. 

• GIC 

• Houston Hall Basement

There are GroupMes for free food, buy/sell, etc.

Keep an eye out for your college house newsletter; they often host fun events!

NSO Preceptorials: https://nso.upenn.edu/ 

During NSO, many clubs will host preceptorials-kind of introductions to their clubs.

Penn vocab sheet: https://www.thedp.com/article/2024/08/penn-28-phrases-to-know-incoming-students-class 

A guide from The Daily Pennsylvania breaks down Penn’s unique campus slang - helping new students decode the lingo that defines everyday life here.

Graduate Students Specific

Graduate Student Center: https://gsc.upenn.edu/ The Grad Center is a hub for information, programming, resources, and support for graduate and professional students at Penn. It includes studying/meeting spaces, a small game room and free coffee (BYOM).

Graduate Resource Guide: https://gsc.upenn.edu/resources Central list of funding, wellness and academic resources.

Graduate Event’s calendar : https://upenn-gsc.libcal.com/calendar/other-events?cid=14882&t=g&d=0000-00-00&cal=14882&inc=0

https://gsc.upenn.edu/ 

Graduate Student Center’s events calendar brings together workshops, socials, and campus happenings all in one place.