Point of interest - my daughter performed last night with City Step (a Penn volunteer group that works with inner city kids) before the 76ers game at the Wells Fargo Center. The announcer thanked “City Step of UPenn,” and this is in Philadelphia! We have it on video…
I have never dissed anyone in an interview report because they said UPenn. However, it is indeed Penn, if you go there, teach there, etc. I have never heard the words “I went to UPenn”.
The main problem was with internet addresses, someone decided that the “u” was necessary. www.penn.edu redirects to www.upenn.edu, I guess maybe some flakes think Penn was like a charter school or something?
The coat of arms has a Greek dolphin on it, yet people manage to figure out our team is the Quakers.
My diploma says: “Universitas Pennsylvaniensis”. Still it is Penn. Don’t recall anyone outside of graduation using the Latin name.
Most of the time it is parents who don’t get that their child went to and graduated from Penn, or who “looked at UPenn”.
As for what Philly folks call Penn, I don’t think that has a relationship to what Penn students and faculty call Penn.
I do think that part of our angst about “UPenn” is that the initial “U” followed by a state generally implies a state school. And Penn is not a state school. UMass, UConn, but Ohio is Ohio. Then again, when I looked up Ohio, apparently it’s not a university, it’s a transformative learning community. Hmmm.
I can’t believe people are still arguing about this.
To the people who think Penn affiliates are pretentious because we’re clarifying the name of our school: do you think your friend Bob is pretentious because he wants to be called Bob and not Robert?
Penn affiliates refer to the school at Penn, as does the university itself in 99% of cases. “UPenn” sounds weird to anybody from the community and we simply refer to the school as Penn. When talking to outsiders, however, Penn affiliates often use “UPenn” because it clearly identifies the school’s full name in an abbreviated form.
If you are applying to Penn, it would behoove you to refer to the school by this name, rather than “UPenn”. Likewise while discussing Penn topics on this forum.
Referring to it as “Penn” is a Penn thing, but not necessarily a Philly thing. 
But much more important than that, I’m glad that your daughter’s involved in City Step! And the 76ers actually WON last night (for once)! Hope she’s enjoying it. It’s also nice to see from your profile pic that she’s living in the Quad. Hope she’s enjoying that, also.
You can get an idea, just by looking at the school newspaper, how the school is referred to most of the time. If you choose to call it something else, that is your choice, but many people will be silently cringing.
It is the same when people always mispronounce my last name. While I don’t always correct them, I do cringe when I hear it that way.
If people try to let you in on what most people call the school, don’t take offense. It isn’t meant to be a personal attack, it is meant to help you so that you sound like you are also familiar with the school. I don’t really know how else to say it, and again, it doesn’t really matter. Take the tip or don’t.
@AnonPenn2016
Robert has every right to correct people with his name. But that’s a different scenario entirely. If you want to use your analogy, it would be comparable to James, a pretentious friend of Robert, claiming that everyone in the world has to refer to all Roberts as Robert and not Bob. Robert has the right to tell others what to call him, as does the University of Pennsylvania. If the schools founder made this claim, it would be fair. The school is essentially his baby, and he has the right to name it. However, one of the hundreds of thousands of alumni of this wonderful school does not have the right to name it.
James, if you end up attending Penn, I can guarantee that you will be calling it Penn within a week of arrival.
At some point in the future you may come across a talented high school applicant who calls it UPenn, and you may attempt to helpfully guide that student to use the name that Penn students use. When that happens, at least smile to yourself a little about the irony of the moment. 
P.S. The founder’s name was Benjamin Franklin. He also went by Ben Franklin, or sometimes Richard Saunders (Poor Richard’s Almanac).
Serious question: Why do you even care?
I mean, really—cringing?? That just seems like such an odd reaction to have.
@Much2learn
If I am somehow lucky enough to be admitted to Penn, I will make it a mission to conduct research on this Penn v UPenn dilemma, and I will report all of my findings back here.
The name “Penn” makes sense according to how the school is commonly known. It also makes sense with respect to branding efforts: the name is easier to toss around and it is more “Ivy-like” (especially beneficial to those with a state-school inferiority complex). But the fact is, the school operates as the “University of Pennsylvania” under a charter created in 1791. At one time, it was even called the “University of the State of Pennsylvania”. It was the first institution of higher learning in the U.S. to be deemed a “university”, collecting a number of schools under one title. I’m guessing that alumni that actually understand that probably don’t feel the need to teach others how to refer to it. They might even be proud when their alma mater is referred to as “U Penn”, knowing that that “U” is one of its most unique aspects and something that the founders fought for.
@jamesjunkers Good luck, James. I really hope the admission Gods smile down on you.
If so, perhaps you should write an investigating article for The DP on this topic. That would be great!
To be fair, the school president does refer to it as Penn! I don’t think the James/Robert analogy holds because Robert is a person who has agency whereas a school is a nonliving entity so cannot speak for itself.
My 2 cents-- before I came to Penn, I did say UPenn a lot. I wanted to distinguish it from Penn State and I just assumed that it was interchangeable with Penn. Now that I’m a student here, I never say UPenn. I could try to think of specific examples of clubs or buildings or organizations that use Penn instead of UPenn, but that’s really not the point. The bigger picture is that students and faculty consistently refer to the school as Penn. Is anyone going to laugh at you if you say UPenn? No. Will you be rejected for it? No. However, if you want to come across as being familiar with the school culture, it’s Penn. If you’re not a student, you really can’t say with certainty that “it doesn’t matter, people use both, here’s an example of someone saying UPenn…” I guarantee you if you spent two weeks on campus, you’d realize why people are correcting you.
It’s not really a big deal. When I went to Binghamton, we said “Bartle” when we wanted to refer to the Glenn G. Bartle Library. If a prospective student said the longer name, or mentioned wanting to go study at “Bartle Library,” they wouldn’t be wrong. It’d just sound like they weren’t familiar with the language that people there use. If they were here for a week, they’d catch on and say Bartle.
@45 Percenter she loves everything - the quad, her classes, her 2 volunteer groups, Penn Hype (hip hop) and Quadramics (theater.) Honestly I don’t know how she manages it all!
Oh, and she works 10 hours a week at Kelly Writers House!
@picktails that’s fantastic! I’m very familiar with Quadramics and KWH.
It’s amazing how much energy these kids have, and usually on relatively little sleep. Those were the days, huh? 
OK I am really sorry I started this mess
Not too frequently I interview a kid that refers to Penn as UPenn although I am sitting across from them with a tee or a sweatshirt that says Penn on it. I have a pencil with Penn on it. My notebook says Penn on it. When I called the applicant to make the appointment I refer to the school as Penn.
So yes if the applicant calls the school UPenn here is my thinking:
- perhaps they are a bit careless and have not noticed I am calling the school something different than they are. .
- they are oblivious to the materials I have brought from Admissions that say Penn Engineering, Penn CAS, etc.
3, maybe they are nervous and that makes them unobservant
4, maybe they are confused from the domain name or whatever - if so no biggie
- maybe they are not too alert
- why didn't they ask is it Penn or UPenn
But it is a bit of a red flag - are they not very careful, curious, or accurate. I am supposed to get to know the applicant. That is important info - that maybe they are oblivious, unobservant, inaccurate, or careless. Just maybe…
So I try to determine what is what during the interview…
I ask you, if an applicant had an email with your name on it and a phone call in which you gave your name and they call you an entirely different name, what would you do??? Believe me it happens. And I have a very simple last name.
Sure I am influenced by my experience - I was a researcher at MIT and Harvard. Careful and alertness is important in research. Careful is important in every job.
I am considered an easy interviewer. I like almost every applicant. But the bottom line is that not everyone is going to get accepted. So I posted this subject to help all of you not fall into a stupid and negative (tho a very very small what I perceive as an error). .
Call Penn what you like. I cannot even lead my own life let alone yours!
I always felt that people refer to it as UPenn because they are trying to distinguish from Penn State. Particularly the high school students who want everyone to know they are speaking about an IVY League school. As a Penn alum, I would never refer to the school as UPenn because it was never called that; I’m not interested in renaming my college. And I couldn’t care less if I tell people I went to Penn, and they think that means Penn State. The people important to me know where I attended college. I don’t need to “impress” strangers. But I feel the term “UPenn” is so prevalent among students who don’t attend Penn, and those people are so used to hearing it that I wouldn’t penalize someone for saying “UPenn.”
@amanivy I thought it was helpful of you to start the thread. I reminded my D to call it Penn & not UPenn during her interview. So thank you!
Yes, call it Penn, for propriety’s sake! You wouldn’t want your Ivy League dreams crushed by an alumnus’s hobgoblin.
What I can’t believe is that there were 77 posts on this thread.
I would make some snarky comment about needing to find something better to do with your time, but then again, I just spent the last 5 minutes reading all of the posts, so I really can’t 