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March 20, 2025
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Five classes to lighten your fall 2025 schedule
Five Penn professors everyone should know
From biology to math, here’s how Penn STEM departments have changed their curriculum
Penn Global announces 2025-26 global seminars, adds eight new destinations
Penn Graduate School of Education set to pilot AI masters program in fall 2025
Top rated courses, according to Penn Course Review data
Top rated instructors, according to Penn Course Review data
Path@Penn launches new course planning feature
A look inside Penn’s student course review process and how it's used by faculty, departments
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Jews, Race, and Religion
(RELIGIOUS STUDIES 2070; JEWISH STUDIES 2070)
Dr. Mendel Kranz
Contemporary Jewish identity exists at an uneasy cross-section of race, religion and ethnicity. This course aims to expose students to the diversity of Jewish experience through the lenses of race and religion, examining the various ways these categories intersect and complicate each other. How can the study of race and religion help us to understand the present and future of Jewish life? How do Jews figure in the study of race and race relations in North America and Israel? Of what relevance are racial categorizations and religious concepts for understanding anti-Jewish hatred? This course aims to address these questions in light of a range of intellectual perspectives and disciplinary approaches. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:15–11:45 am.
Five classes to lighten your fall 2025 schedule
GEORGE CHANG Contributing Reporter
Ahead of advance course registration for fall 2025 opening on March 24, The Daily Pennsylvanian compiled a comprehensive list of recommended courses based on data from Penn Course Review, a course evaluation program for students created by Penn Labs. Each class comes with positive reviews and a difficulty rating of less than 2.1.
CIMS 1004: World Film History
World Film History — taught by either Meta Mazaj or Anat Dan — surveys cinematic trends and movements across time and place, from German Expressionism all the way to Korean New Wave. According to Path at Penn, the course also examines how the framing of world cinema "reveals [the] gendered,
racial, ethnic, economic and political nature of transnational processes."
World Film History has an average difficulty rating of 1.76 on Penn Course Review. The class meets on Tuesday and Thursday at either 10:15am or 5:15pm, and has a required recitation section on Fridays.
CRIM 1000: Criminology
As an introductory course to criminology, CRIM 1000 examines the science behind law-breaking and enforcing, as well as the institutions shaping these approaches to crime.
Meeting on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:45 to 3:15pm, CRIM 1000 has a difficulty rating of 1.81, and also counts for the Society sector requirement in the College. Penn is also set to
debut a master’s program in applied criminology and police leadership in fall 2025. CIS 1070: Visual Culture through the Computer's Eye
This Computer and Information Science class combines visual studies with machine learning, aiming to apply data science to the analysis of visual art. Enrolled students will develop their own datasets while exploring novel computer processes. The course has a difficulty ranking of 1.30, and is co-taught by Ian Verstegen and Konstantinos Daniilidis.
Students will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:45 to 3:15pm, and the class has a maximum enrollment of 25 students.
URBS 1060: Race & Ethnic Relations
Taught by Tukufu Zuberi, this course examines the cultural and socio-political forces of race and ethnicity in the United States, with a specific focus on immigration, residential segregation, and interracial relationships. With a difficulty rating of 1.88, Race & Ethnic Relations meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:45 to 2:44 p.m. The course counts for the College’s Cultural Diversity in the U.S. requirement and is cross-listed between the Sociology, African American Studies, Asian American Studies, and Latin American Studies departments.
PSYC 0405: Grit Lab
This Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia course — which has been described as an “overwhelming suc-
cess” by past sections — is designed to help students develop skills for goalsetting and achievement. In fall 2025, the class will be taught by Angela Duckworth, and structured around different experiments, including journalkeeping and passion projects. Enrollment in the course requires a submitted application by April 3.
Grit Lab is cross-listed with the Operations, Information and Decisions department, and most recently had a difficulty rating of 0.98. The course meets on Wednesdays from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Advance course registration ends April 7.
PHOTO BY CHENYAO LIU
Five Penn professors everyone should know
Penn employs talented professors who are experts in a variety of fields including psychology, business, and politics. Here are five of the most well-known Penn professors whose influence spans well beyond their classrooms.
DARIA KNURENKO Staff Reporter
Amy
Amy Gutmann, the longest-serving University president, returned to Penn in 2024 as the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication.
Gutmann served as the University’s president from 2004 to 2022. Her 18-year presidency is widely considered one of the most transformative in Penn’s history. After her tenure, she became the first woman to serve as the United States Ambassador to Germany.
Gutmann’s scholarship focuses on democracy and education, as well as the processes of discussion, negotiation, and diplomacy. She is currently on leave but will resume teaching next academic year.
Kristen R. Ghodsee
Adam Grant
Ed Rendell
Duckworth
Gutmann is an author and editor of 17 books, including "Why deliberative democracy?", "The Spirit of Compromise," and "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die: Bioethics and the Transformation of Health Care in America." In 2018, she was named one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” by Fortune for her work promoting affordable education and healthcare, life-saving innovations, global collaboration, and public-private partnerships.
Kristen R. Ghodsee is a professor and chair of Russian and East European Studies at Penn. Her research focuses on the lived experiences of socialism and post-socialism and examines the gendered effects of the transition from communism to capitalism, post-communist nostalgia, and the human impact of the Soviet Union’s collapse. She is the author of 12 books, including "Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism," which has been translated into over 10 languages. Her recent book, "Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Bold Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life," explores historical and cultural examples of community-building, offering practical insights for creating more equitable societies.
At Penn, Ghodsee teaches a class called "Sex and Socialism" and hosts a podcast where she reads and discusses the works of Alexandra Kollontai, a Ukrainian-Finnish socialist women's activist.
Adam Grant, the Saul P. Steinberg Professor of Management and professor of Psychology, is the youngest and most highly rated professor at The Wharton School. As a leading expert in organizational psychology, his research focuses on motivation, meaning, generosity, and creativity. Grant’s books, including “Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things,” “Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know,” and “Give and Take,” are New York Times bestsellers. He hosts a TED original podcast WorkLife, and his TED talks have been viewed over 10 million times. Grant’s clients include Google, the NBA, and the Gates Foundation. He has been recognized as one of the world’s most influential management thinkers and named in Fortune’s 40 Under 40.
1965 College graduate and former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell taught "Who Gets Elected and Why? The Science of Politics” during the fall 2024 semester. He served as the mayor of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2000 and was he was praised for making significant improvements to the city’s services and budget management during his tenure. Rendell also chaired the Democratic National Committee during the 2000 presidential election. Rendell served as Pennsylvania's governor from 2003 to 2011, where his administration focused on education, infrastructure, and economic development. He remains active in political discourse and now shares his expertise with students as a lecturer at Penn.
Angela Duckworth is the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor and faculty co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative. As a 2013 MacArthur Fellow, she has advised the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs. Her 2016 novel, "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance," is a New York Times bestseller. At Penn, she teaches the popular SNF Paideia Designated course “PSYC 0405 Grit Lab: Fostering Passion and Perseverance in Ourselves and Others.” Duckworth is also a cofounder of Character Lab, a nonprofit that promotes scientific advances that help children thrive.
Angela
Gutmann
From biology to math, here’s how Penn STEM departments have changed their curriculum
Changes include the removal of biology major concentrations, new policies surrounding retroactive credit in the Department of Mathematics, and the sunsetting of the systems science and engineering major.
SAMEEKSHA PANDA Staff Reporter
Over the past two years, various STEM departments have seen changes to their undergraduate curriculum, affecting everything from course credits to majors offered.
Changes include the removal of biology major concentrations, new policies surrounding retroactive credit in the Department of Mathematics and the sunsetting of the systems science and engineering major. The Daily Pennsylvanian interviewed STEM departments from both the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science to
explore the reasons behind these changes, how they will be implemented, and what they will mean for future Penn students.
Removal of concentrations for the biology major
Penn’s Department of Biology removed all concentrations for the biology major over the summer for prospective biology majors, starting with the Class of 2027.
Scott Poethig, the department’s undergraduate chair, previously told the DP that this was done to create flexibility within the major and reduce student
stress.
“Sometimes, it’s helpful to appreciate that we try to do things for the best interests of our students,” Poethig said. “We’re not in this business to make life more complicated for [the students] by any means.”
Instructional laboratory coordinator and adjunct assistant professor of biology Linda Robinson echoed Poethig.
She recalled a senior majoring in both biology and English who couldn’t graduate with a degree in biology because fulfilling the mechanisms of disease concentration requirements
left no room for core biology courses. The student ultimately was not able to graduate with a major in biology.
The new changes also allow students to include any BIOL courses 2000-level or higher and/or up to 3 CUs of approved departmental courses to count as upperlevel electives.
Changes to retroactive credit within the Department of Mathematics
The Department of Mathematics is also in the process of restructuring policies surrounding retroactive credit for the introductory
math sequence, which is required by numerous departments at Penn.
The sequence typically begins with one of five classes: MATH 1070, MATH 1300, MATH 1400, or MATH 1410. Many first years previously chose to opt out of these by utilizing a process known as retroactive credit. By taking a higher-level math course — typically the next course in the sequence — they can receive retroactive credit for the prior introductory courses.
According to Department of Mathematics
Undergraduate Chair Henry Towsner, this process has
PHOTO BY SANJANA JUVVADI
been standard for more than a decade. Towsner also noted that discussions surrounding phasing out these practices are also not new.
“The biggest issue is that it creates some bad incentives,” Towsner said. “If you’re coming in at the level where maybe [you need to decide if MATH] 1400 or [MATH] 1410 is the right course, for example, the retroactive credit incentivizes students who should have taken [MATH] 1400 to gamble on [MATH] 1410 in the hopes that they get a good enough grade to get retroactive credit, and then a lot of them don’t.”
“So, it created this awkward position where [the student] did badly in [MATH] 1410 and still needed to take [MATH] 1400. … It created a lot of administrative problems,”
Towsner added.
The Department of Mathematics began discouraging students from doing this in 2020. Students in the Class of 2024 and Class of 2025 could receive credit for MATH 1400 and either MATH 1410 or MATH 2400, upon completing MATH 2410 with a B or better. The Class of 2026 and Class of 2027 are limited to retroactive credit for only MATH 1400, while the Class of 2028 and beyond are not eligible for any retroactive credit.
Support for this policy, according to Towsner, was widespread within the department and across campus with departments associated with math, including the Engineering School and Wharton School.
Alongside phasing out retroactive credit, the de-
partment has also restricted credit available through AP exam scores.
Previously, a score of 5 on the AP Calculus BC exam would entitle students to receive credit for MATH 1400, but students in the Class of 2028 and beyond are only eligible to receive credit for MATH 1300 and a waiver for the MATH 1400 prerequisite in upper-level courses.
Meanwhile, placement exams, another opportunity for students to fast-track through the introductory sequences by placing out of them by passing a qualifying exam, are now limited to students in their first three semesters at Penn.
Replacing the systems engineering major with one in AI
The Engineering School launched The Raj and
Neera Singh Program in Artificial Intelligence, offering a bachelor’s degree in AI for students coming fall 2024, the first Ivy League school to do so.
Jointly coordinated by the Department of Computer and Information Science and the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, the program includes courses in machine learning, computing algorithms, cognitive science, and electrical and systems engineering, among others.
While this move was highly publicized, the AI major replaced the systems science and engineering major, also offered by the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering.
“This is a natural evolution of the tools and traditions of systems engineering to fit the AI-powered
needs of the 21st century. In recognition of this, the ESE department is sunsetting the Systems Science and Engineering undergraduate major,” the Systems Science and Engineering Major website stated.
“We will continue to support all exiting SSE undergraduate students to their completion of the SSE degree by offering courses and advising,” the website added. “The Systems Engineering masters’ degree continues for those who want to pursue ‘traditional’ systems engineering at Penn.”
Find out who will be crowned in print on April 3 And stop by our in-person fair on April 3
GIVEAWAYS, FREEBIES, AND FREE FOOD from 3 - 6 p.m. at Annenberg Plaza
Penn Global announces 2025-26 global seminars, adds eight new destinations
The new courses will take students across four continents and span a variety of disciplines, from reproductive health to engineering
PHOEBE ANAGNOS Staff Reporter
Penn Global announced 20 global seminar courses for the 2025-26 school year, featuring eight new destinations from Armenia to Taiwan.
Penn Global Seminars are semester-long courses that combine classroom learning on campus with short-term international travel experiences, typically during a break or at the end of the semester. The new courses will take students across four continents and span a variety of disciplines, from nursing to engineering.
The eight new courses include “Energy Security and Geopolitics,” “Compassionate Leadership: ‘The Power of Love, Service and
Inner Work’: Experiencing the Life of Mahatma Gandhi and other Compassionbased leaders,” “The Biochemical Engineering of Wine,” “The Functions of Art,” “In the Shadow of Empires: Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan,” “Lactation and Birth Care Advocacy in the Dominican Republic,” and “Pacific Worlds: Vietnam.”
The new course “The Biochemical Engineering of Wine” is taught by Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering professors Talid Sinno and Bomyi Lim and was previously offered without the travel component. Students in the class have the opportunity to learn about the biochemistry and
biochemical unit operations of modern wine production.
Over spring break 2026, the cohort will travel to Argentina where they will be exposed to winemaking methodologies and practices while also examining how the region's producers are adapting to environmental challenges posed by climate change.
Another new course, “The Functions of Art,” will travel to Italy. Taught by Philosophy professor Errol Lord, students will explore the social, religious, and aesthetic functions of famous art pieces. Students will view art pieces up close during a spring break trip to Florence, Padua, and Ven-
ice to study how the works’ functions interact with their physical settings.
Three returning courses will fulfill the writing seminar requirement, with priority given to first-year students. “Writing Health and Healing in Botswana,” taught by lecturers Sara Byala and Rebecca TenneySoeiro, will travel over spring break. Two additional writing seminars will travel in May 2026: “Communicating Change in Mongolia,” taught by lecturer Aurora MacRae-Crerar and “Tourism, Sustainability and Local Impact in Indonesia,” led by lecturer Helen Jeoung.
In addition to the new
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programs, the global seminars for the 2025-26 school year will travel to destinations including China, the Galápagos, Greece, Iceland, and more. Returning classes from previous years include “American Race: A Philadelphia Story,” “Paris under the German Occupation and Its Places in [Non-] Memory," and “Case Studies in Environmental Sustainability.”
Financial aid may be applied to the flat $950 program fee, and applications for the fall 2025 PGS will be open during advance registration from March 24, 2025 through April 7.
PHOTO
CHENYAO LIU
Penn Graduate School of Education set to pilot AI masters program in fall 2025
The curriculum is designed to explore a variety of topics from the power and potential of machine learning to the ethical implications of AI in education.
GABRIEL STEINBERG Staff Reporter
Penn’s Graduate School of Education will welcome its inaugural cohort for an AIfocused education degree in fall 2025, the first of its kind in the Ivy League.
The Learning Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Master of Science in Education program — which was announced in November 2024 — is an online program targeted for professionals who have an interest in how AI and learning science can be integrated into education globally. The curriculum is designed to explore a variety of topics from the power and potential of machine learning to the ethical implications of AI in education.
The program “teaches [students] the latest AI techniques, learning analytics algorithms and tools, as well as how to engineer data streams to turn raw data into features that are interpretable to humans and large language models (LLMs),” according to its program website. The program grounds AI in the history of educational thought and aims to address challenges to improve educational outcomes.
Ryan Baker, a Penn GSE professor and program faculty member explained how the program will utilize a fully online community.
“The program involves a combination of traditional virtual classroom discussion with the use of intelligent tutoring systems for assignments, video discussion chats with a virtual instructor, and working on discussion forums with instructors, TAs, and a gen-
erative AI assistant named JeepyTA,” Baker said.
“The Masters of Learning Analytics and Artificial Intelligence is designed to prepare graduates to work in the use of artificial intelligence in education, including both emerginggeneration generative AI and previous-generation machine learning methods such as predictive analytics and knowledge modeling,” Baker added.
Haiying Li, the who will serve as the Program Manager, emphasized the importance and significance
of offering this degree at Penn.
“It’s exciting to see how big data, powered by advanced AI, is transforming our lives — and education is no exception. Our programs provide students with a unique platform to integrate cutting-edge techniques in learning analytics and AI, driving innovation in education,” Li said.
This program differs from a Masters of AI in Engineering in that it is focused on applications of these technologies specifically to education, and integrates
technical methods relevant to the use of AI in realworld educational settings.
Students are required to take ten courses with eight required courses and two elective courses over 1-2 years, depending on part-time or full-time enrollment, culminating in a capstone project.
Required courses include “Big Data, Education, and Society” and “Core Methods in Educational Data Mining” among many others. Electives include 5000 level or above EDUC courses focussing on language
models, deep learning, and transformer models.
“Applicants are expected to have some background in quantitative methods along with some past demonstrated interest in education, and must learn Python prior to beginning the program,” Baker said.
The program is accepting applications on a rolling basis, but applicants are encouraged to submit an application on or before the priority deadline of February 1 for enrollment in the Fall 2025 class.
PHOTO BY ABHIRAM JUVVADI
Top Rated Courses
Here are some of the highest rated courses being offered during the fall 2025 semester with no prerequisite requirements, according to Penn Course Review.
1. 2. PSCI 3170: Comparative Politics of the Welfare State in Rich Democracies
4.0
Course
Instructor
4.0 4.0 3.9 2.8 2.8 2.6 3.0
This seminar provides an overview of the structure and functions of welfare states in the rich, industrialized democracies, and covers key arguments and debates about the emergence and contemporary fate of these welfare states. The approach is broadly comparative, but throughout the course discussions will often emphasize drawing ideas
from the experiences of other countries to inform policy solutions to problems we confront in the US. The course covers the varieties and tasks of modern welfare states; classic theories about the relationship between markets, classes, and social protection; competing explanations for why modern welfare states emerge and why they differ from one another; how welfare states are shaped by social forces such as organized labor and the self-employed, political institutions, and societal views of appropriate gender relationships; challenges to the welfare state that emerge from changing labor market, demographic, and social conditions in the highly industrialized nations; and the political dynamics of reforms to the welfare state. Students will participate actively in seminar discussions and complete a major research paper. Graduate students will complete additional readings as noted and will write an article-length paper.
VLST 2140: Art as Intercultural Dialogue
Course
Instructor Difficulty Difficulty Work Work
Art, dialogue theory and cultural differences come together in this experiential course. Students will explore and learn about all three of these components. They will experience true dialogue and learn about it. They will engage in interpersonal encounters with art, the key driver of cultural content for this course. Art will provide a neutral
platform for perceiving cultural differences through careful exploration, verbal description, and an exchange of insights into ways artists express concerns, biases, and world views. Students will engage in dialogues to inquire into these and other personal and cultural differences, thereby participating in intercultural communication. Altogether the course will offer a safe space for students to exchange cultural and personal points of view as expressed in many forms of art and to then participate in dialogues that delve into these rich and complex forms of expression. True dialogue is not a discussion or argumentation aimed to unveil a single truth. True dialogue is a co-creation, a creative process, a source of newness, a discovery journey, and a portal to a new reality. This course is for students who want to be disrupted by a new understanding of art and to embrace new cultural realities as they stretch their perceptions, ideas and experiences. “Art opens a window into a culture’s dreams, drives, and priorities” revealing “aspects of a culture’s soul.” It is frequently ambiguous and asks to be questioned. Individual perceptions and insights are worthy and do not fall into right or wrong categories. Because art is a dynamic and flexible tool to build personal equity, meaning a sense of fairness, students will enlarge their capacity to connect to the world’s diversity through its multiple expressions. The ensuing dialogues will open thought rather than close it down and encourage openness to other ways of seeing the world. Because students will engage in true dialogue with one another and with art that arises from diverse backgrounds and ways of interpreting the world, they will emerge with increased confidence to interpret complex issues and manage diverse relationships. The course is experiential and hands-on. It requires personal commitment, an open mind and a desire to grow using new, non-traditional and effective ways of connecting art and intercultural dialogue. It does not require prior knowledge of or experience with art. As part of the experiential learning, some of the course activities will take place in museums and art galleries in Philadelphia.
ANTH 1670: Population and Public Health in Eastern Europe
Course
Instructor
Also offered as: REES 1670, SOCI 2950
Course
Since the collapse of communism in 1989 in Eastern Europe (and 1991 in the Soviet Union), many of the countries in the region have experienced public health crises and demographic catastrophe. Below replacement fertility rates and massive out migration have decimated the populations of these countries even as populations age and place
unsustainable strains on pension systems and medical services. The demographic collapse has also been accompanied by falling male life expectancy and the rise of alcoholism, depression, domestic violence, and suicide. The economic exigencies of the transition from communism to capitalism dismantled welfare states at the exact moment when health services were most needed, leaving charities and nongovernmental organization to try to fill in the gaps. Through a combination of readings from the fields of epidemiology, demography, and medical anthropology, this course examines the public health implications of poverty and social dislocation in postcommunist states. All readings and assignments are in English.
ENGL 2604: American Books/Books in
Also offered as: HIST 2104
3.9 3.8 3.8 3.9 3.8 3.7 1.7 1.2 1.5 2.1 1.2 1.9
America
How did Benjamin Franklin strike it rich in the printing business? Did Common Sense really start the American Revolution? What does it mean to read Uncle Tom’s Cabin on a deck of playing cards? This course will investigate book histories, and the worlds of readers, writers, printers, publishers, and libraries in the Americas. It focuses
on the colonial period through the nineteenth century, with a concluding look at the modern era. Each week we will look at books, newspapers, pamphlets, pictures, broadsides, or manuscripts—big and small, famous and forgotten. We will think about how books work, not just as texts but as cultural artifacts, and we learn to decode their languages, from title pages to typography to bindings. Our area of study is sometimes referred to as “book history,” and we will try to define this field together. We will examine sources now considered to be “literature” and those that tend to be more studied in “history,” and we won’t be particularly finicky about the differences. Our strategy is to introduce, each week, a range of topics and questions, including: * Colonization, missionization, and printing * Writing and revolution, printing and politics * Black and Indigenous print cultures * Gender, reading, and book history * Technology and change * Bookselling and marketing. The seminar will be held at the Kislak Center in Van Pelt Library and feature its rare book and manuscript collections. A number of seminar meetings will also be held at the Library Company of Philadelphia (1314 Locust Street), an extraordinary research library founded by Franklin in 1731. Assignments include weekly seminar discussion and posts; brief primary source exercises; and a final research project based upon special collections.
HSOC 3210: Health in Philly, Past and Present
Course
Instructor Instructor Difficulty Difficulty Difficulty Work Work Work
How have different neighborhood organizations, activist groups, and private and public institutions in Philadelphia tried to understand and address shared health problems? How have Philadelphia organizations, groups, and institutions promoted wellbeing? In this course with a field work component, students will read about neighborhood-
and community-based interventions into health in Philadelphia since the turn of the 20th century. We will start the term reading some of the foundational research of W.E.B. DuBois, who investigated health in South Philly and was the first American sociologist to identify structural racism as a cause of illness. We will then investigate the histories of various health-focused organizations in Philadelphia, which may include: Lutheran Settlement House (1900s-present), the International Institute of Philadelphia/Nationalities Service Center (1920s-present), public FQHCs (1960s-present), Yellow Seeds & the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Cooperation (1960s/1970s-present), the Black Women’s Health Alliance (1980s-present), Philadelphia Community Health Alternatives/the Mazzoni Center (1980s-present), JUNTOS/Puentes de Salud (2000s-present), Philly Thrive (2010s-present), and the Black Doctors COVID Consortium (2020s). When studying the origins of Philadelphia-based health organizations and interventions, students will ask and answer: How was “health” defined at the time and by whom? What were some important health concerns – and for whom -- that this group addressed, and how? What are some of the activities of this organization today? Students will practice historical and ethnographic research methods. Assignments will require students to 1) locate, analyze, and share primary sources that shed light on the history of these different organizations and 2) participate in a collaborative research project designed to answer a question relevant to health in Philadelphia today. Training in ethnographic interviewing methods will be provided.
Top Rated Instructors
Here are some of the highest rated instructors according to Penn Course Review, teaching courses during the fall 2025 semester.
Alan J. Filreis
English Department
Theatre Arts
Gabriel Martinez
Photography
Angela Trovato
Mahboob
Path@Penn launches new course planning feature
Students can access the Path Plans tool by selecting the “Primary Plan” button on the Path@Penn webpage.
NAIJA AGARWAL Staff Reporter
This semester, Path@ Penn released a new function that allows students to organize potential courses across future semesters. Students can access the Path Plans tool by selecting the “Primary Plan” button on the Path@Penn webpage. Distinct from the existing Degree Audit function, Path Plans is a “course planning tool, not an academic or degree planning tool," according to the College of Arts and Sciences website. It is also distinct from Penn Course Planner, a tool developed and maintained outside of Penn
administration.
Path Plans allows students to create potential class schedules and validate them against their primary degree requirements. The function can also be used to create snapshots of degree plans.
Members of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education welcomed the new function, emphasizing the importance of Path@ Penn in the student experience.
“Path@Penn is a really huge part of kind of student life at Penn. It’s how we do a lot of things that are really
core to being a student, like course planning, course registration, course searching, and exploring classes,”
SCUE Chair External and former Daily Pennsylvanian staffer Max Annunziata said.
Annunziata and SCUE One University Project Chair Talia Smith noted that the group has regularly discussed concerns about students’ degree planning experiences and feedback, highlighting past studies conducted by SCUE after the implementation of Path@Penn in 2022.
“We do often hear that
students could benefit from more support throughout the degree planning process,” Smith said. “[Path Plans] could be useful for that and work in addition to the advising process.”
They also said that these concerns were expressed in SCUE’s 2025 White Paper. The White Paper included students' feelings of “frustration” and “difficulty” with Penn’s course planning project. It also cited a Fall 2023 survey in which 69% of student respondents expressed that they felt inhibited by course requirements.
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Annunziata said that the new investment in Path@ Penn features is a welcomed step to improving student feelings on course planning. He added that SCUE has planned upcoming meetings with the Office of the University Registrar where the new technology and additional course planning measures will be discussed.
“We’re super excited about the way there’s been continual investment in the software, ” Annunziata said. “We’re really looking forward to meeting with [the registrar] and hearing the work they’re doing.”
PHOTO
CHENYAO LIU
A look inside Penn’s student course review process and how it's used by faculty, departments
The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with Penn faculty members about student course evaluations, with many noting significant room for improvement to the process.
AIDAN SHAUGHNESSY Staff Reporter
The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with Penn faculty members about student course evaluations, with many noting significant room for improvement to the process.
Undergraduate course reviews take place during the last week of each semester and are conducted by the Provost’s office. The anonymous assessments are submitted through Path@Penn and must be completed to access final grades. Once these are processed, instructors are able to see their evaluations a few days after final grades are released. Students are then able to view a course or professor’s evaluation through the Penn Course Review website.
English Department
Undergraduate Chair Nancy Bentley wrote in a statement to the DP that course reviews do not lead to “big changes through departmental policies or teaching assignments.” Rather, Bentley said individual instructors “absorb and respond to student feedback.” She also said that course reviews used for mentoring incoming faculty members to get “a feel of the Penn student body and refine their pedagogy.”
Math Department Undergraduate Chair Henry Towsner said that his department primarily focuses on course evaluations for the introductory calculus courses, citing MATH 1400 and 1410—which are often rated as some of the least popular courses in the University.
Towsner also said that,
while his department takes notice if a course evaluation is “way out of line” with departmental expectations, these evaluations alone rarely led to significant changes.
“I can’t think of a time where course evaluations were the main driver of anything,” Towsner said.
“I’ve never seen anything as direct as ‘Well, this person is getting a 1.5, we can’t let them teach.'”
Senior lecturer of Mathematics Andrew Cooper recalled that his course evaluation numbers — which he admitted were “on the low side” — were cited during his last contract renewal. However, he said that they did not play a major role in
his department’s decision making.
“It’s one data point, but it’s not the end all be all,” Cooper said.
Towsner said that he believed Penn's course evaluation process could be more effective if it focused on specific questions rather than general attitudes, pointing to questions like “How do you feel about the course?”
“We know a lot about how to design a good survey and have just chosen not to implement that in any way with course evaluations,” Townser said. “You ask people specific questions at first, like whether the professor was available, if stuff was graded, and returned in
a reasonable way.”
Similarly, Bentley highlighted that students need to "[take] the time to provide specific comments" in constructive reviews for course evaluations to be an effective tool and provide "more concrete information to help [faculty] revise their courses."
Other faculty members noted that there are often inconsistencies in student evaluations. Cooper, for example, noted that his ratings often display “both high and low peaks” making it difficult to evaluate the quality of his courses.
Senior lecturer of Computer and Information Science Harry Smith similarly said that he found
the “significant differences” in instructor ratings for co-taught courses "a little confusing or dispiriting.” He also expressed concern that instructor quality ratings can be influenced by biases towards factors like race and gender.
Cooper said that certain comments left on evaluations can be “fairly nasty."
“It’s always hard to read negative things about yourself, but there’s a difference when saying things like, ‘You’re the worst person in the history of the world,’ ‘You should die,’” Cooper said. “Which is not an exaggeration. People do write that.”
PHOTO BY UMA MUKHOPADHYAY
Opinion | Everyone should take advantage of Wharton
U.S. News & World Report recently published their long-awaited college rankings list. These rankings have caused a lot of dissatisfaction within the Penn community. Penn fell four spots to its lowest ranking since 1997. Although the university fell in rankings, one thing did not change, the Wharton School was, once again, undisputedly ranked the best undergraduate business school in the nation.
On campus, many nonWharton students like to downplay the significance of our business school. Many claim that its academics are easier and that there’s a divide between Wharton and non-Wharton students. However, Penn students should not bash on Wharton; instead, they should learn to embrace it and benefit from attending the university that is home to the best business school in the world.
Part of the college experi-
ence is taking advantage of many things a university offers. That could be clubs, classes, research funding, programs, or anything of interest to you. One of the best things Penn has to offer is a business education.
Wharton classes are open to all students, which makes them easy to pursue. No matter what school you are in, you are allowed to take four classes from another Penn school and it will count towards your graduation requirement. That means that exposing yourself to new classes will not necessarily prevent you from getting the credits you need to graduate.
Penn offers many inter-school minors (Legal Studies and History, Nursing and Health Services Management, American Public Policy, etc.), meaning the minor is made up of classes from two or more of the undergraduate schools. Thanks to this, you can mix a business education
with another topic of interest. Also, this means that there are many Wharton classes that can cover a wide range of students' interests. Wharton houses the Legal Studies, Statistics, and Healthcare Management departments. These programs are often popular among non-business majors. Dual minors can be appealing to anyone interested in the law, healthcare, or math, to name a few options.
As a history major and an aspiring law student, minoring in Legal Studies and History was a no-brainer. These Legal Studies classes mix law and add a business perspective which has given me tremendous help in learning about the legal field. Many Legal Studies professors have law degrees and real-world business experiences. This mix allows for a legal education that replicates law classes and adds a business perspective to it.
Despite many not wanting to completely major in business, there are many benefits that come from it that should be taken advantage of. Progressing in many fields can be easier with a business education. By learning about finance and marketing, it helps with decision-making skills as a whole. Presentation skills that are garnered in business classes also help make students better presenters, collaborators, and speaking skills. Also, learning financial acumen is essential to knowing about economic issues in their personal lives. Knowing about the financial world applies to political theories and helps people be more aware citizens. No matter what, diversifying the amount of knowledge in our portfolio will make us more well-rounded.
A business education is important and can open many job opportunities. At Penn, consulting and finance are popular
industries for graduates. Over half of all Penn graduates go into consulting or finance. In fact, 47.5% of all College of Arts and Sciences students go into these industries. This means that College students can benefit from taking Wharton classes to help prepare them for these jobs. Although it may not be your main interest, learning about the business world and finance is essential to life. Learning more about economic principles and how money works can help in many fields of study and in people's personal lives. Maximize your education while here and learn because it is not every day that you will have the Wharton School a few minutes away.
ERIC NAJERA is a College junior studying history from Rolling Meadows, IL. His email is najerae@sas.upenn.edu.
PHOTO BY CHENYAO LIU
Columnist Eric Najera argues that Penn students should embrace Wharton.
