Veteran Applicants

Applying to Penn

Our team understands and appreciates the ways the military has shaped your experience and considers your unique context when evaluating your application materials. At Penn, the undergraduate admission process is the same for veterans as for full-time first-year or transfer students, including application deadlines. To support your application, we are glad to provide a fee-waiver for active-duty personnel and veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Penn’s application evaluation process is comprehensive, meaning all parts are considered and added together to gain a fuller understanding of you, your interests, your experiences, and your goals. Thus, all components of the application are required for the admissions process for those applying as first-years or transfers, regardless of veteran status.

For students applying Early Decision, please note that Penn cannot waive the required ED agreement form. If your school counselor is unable to complete the ED approval form or you do not have a counselor, another school official or teacher can complete the form.

Academics

All applicants must provide official transcripts as part of their application. Even if you have been out of an academic setting for multiple years, we need to see your transcripts in order to understand your academic preparation for Penn. Credits earned at a military school are evaluated through the same process as any other regionally accredited institution.

Additional Information

We understand that there may be particular contextual details that, while pertinent to our comprehensive review process, may not be completely captured in applicants' responses to our standard application questions. Thus, applicants may use the additional information sections of the Common App and Coalition Application to shed light on particular experiences and circumstances for the admission committee's consideration.  

Some examples of useful contextual information include: gaps that may have occurred in your education and cannot be explained elsewhere; or context or circumstances that are essential to your story or application and have not been included elsewhere. We encourage applicants to use discretion and only provide non-duplicative, essential information that is not captured in other sections of the application.

Applying as a First-Year vs. Transfer Student

In order to apply as a transfer student, you must have completed one full year of transferable academic course work (8 courses) prior to enrollment. College coursework taken while the applicant was still enrolled in high school or summer coursework taken in the summer immediately preceding enrollment at Penn will not count toward one of the 8 transferable courses.  

If you meet the criteria above, we recommend applying as a transfer student. Please note, transfer eligibility requirements vary depending on which school you are applying to.  

If you have completed less than one year of eligible coursework, you should apply as a first-year student.

Fee Waivers

Penn provides application fee waivers for active-duty personnel and veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces. The process differs depending on whether you are applying through the Common App or Coalition App, and whether you are applying as a first-year or transfer student.

First-year applicants applying through Common App should email info@admissions.upenn.edu to inquire about fee waiver options.  

Transfer applicants applying through Common App will see a question in the Penn-specific program materials section that asks, "Have you served, or are you currently serving in the US Armed Forces?" By answering yes to that question, your application fee will be waived.

 First-year and transfer applicants applying through the Coalition Application can use the Coalition Application's Armed Forces Fee Waiver to have their application fee waived.

Letters of Recommendation

Penn requires two letters of recommendation as part of the application. If you have been out of an academic setting for longer than five years, you may provide recommendations from supervisors, rather than a teacher and a counselor.

Recommenders should speak to the applicant’s intellectual ability and potential.  Please refer to our Letters of Recommendation webpage to learn more about this part of the application.  

Transfer Credit

Transfer credit is awarded for academically-based courses that are similar in content and instructional time to the courses on Penn’s campus, taken at a regionally accredited institution, and passed with a grade of C or better. Courses that counted toward high school or secondary school graduation are not eligible for transfer credit but may be used for placement. Credits earned at a military school are evaluated through the same process as any other regionally accredited institution.