Current Penn Employees FAQ

Yes, the University offers employees the opportunity to pursue knowledge and to advance their personal and professional development by providing tuition assistance for credit courses at the University of Pennsylvania. For full information on Penn tuition benefits, visit the Human Resources web site at www.hr.upenn.edu/benefits/tuition/.

Employees of the University of Pennsylvania Health System should check with their own Human Resources department at www.uphs.upenn.edu/hr/.

Penn employees who are interested in using their tuition benefit to take classes must first apply and be accepted into a non-degree or degree program. The College of Liberal and Professional Studies has many options available for undergraduate and graduate studies. Please follow this link for information about all of the programs offered by LPS: www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/programs.

Yes. Please note that for the 2009 Summer Sessions only, the application fee for employees has been waived.

No. Once you are accepted to an LPS program and enroll in a class, you must fill out the online tuition benefit form, available at www.hr.upenn.edu/benefits/tuition/.

Penn employees can apply to the Bachelor of Arts Program. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Students may enter the program in the Fall, Spring, or Summer terms. Ac-ceptance into the BA Program is not guaranteed. Please follow this link for admissions requirements: www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/undergraduate/ba/admissions

... be transferred if I am accepted into LPS?

Course credit evaluation can be completed once you have started your first semester. You complete the application for transfer credit online, supplying information about each course that you would like to have evaluated for credit.

You may apply to the Non-degree Studies Program. Accep-tance into the program is not guaranteed. You must fulfill the same admissions requirements as for the Bachelor of Arts program.

You can apply to the Post-Baccalaureate Undergraduate Program. If you are accepted, this program allows you to take classes within the School of Arts and Sciences up through course level 599. Follow this link for more information: www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/postbac

LPS offers the following graduate programs: Master of Liberal Arts, Master of Environmental Studies, Master of Science in Applied Geosciences, Master of Philosophy in Liberal Arts, Master of Applied Positive Psychology, and Master of Medical Physics. The Master of Liberal Arts and Master of Environmental Studies are the most popular programs within the Penn employee population. All programs have different admissions requirements and prerequisites. Please visit our website for more information on each individual program: www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/graduate

...for credit toward a Penn master’s degree?

In most cases, courses taken at other colleges or universities are not accepted for transfer credit toward one of the LPS Master’s degrees, but it is best to check directly with the department or program that houses the master’s degree.

You can take a graduate course through our Non-Traditional Graduate Studies Program. Classes are offered through grad-uate groups. Once you are accepted into the program you are eligible to register classes on the graduate level. www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/graduate/nontrad

Penn alumni who are employees simply need to complete the Alumni Registration form. Once you complete the form, you must submit it to the LPS office. After LPS receives the form, a confirmation will be sent to you via email and you will be able to register for undergraduate classes through course level 599. www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/alumni

You can audit a class through our Auditing Program. Courses within the School of Arts and Sciences listed at 599 and below are eligible for auditing. Auditors do not receive grades or academic credits for the courses they attend. You must submit the Auditor Registration form, which includes writ-ten permission from the instructor teaching the class. www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/system/files/Auditor_Registration_Form_0.pdf

LPS has a course guide available as a hard copy or online: www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/course_guides.

The registrar's page also lists classes within the School of Arts and Sciences:  www.upenn.edu/registrar/LPS

Students are eligible to take classes within the School of Arts and Sciences. LPS students are not allowed to register for any class offered outside the School of Arts and Sciences. For example, an LPS student would not be able to take a Wharton course because it does not fall within the School of Arts and Sciences. To view the departments that fall within the School of Arts & Sciences, follow this link: www.sas.upenn.edu/home/departments/depts.html

Once you are accepted into a program and submit an Intent to Enroll form, you will receive email which explains how to get your Penn Key and register for classes through Penn InTouch.

Obtain permission. If the Course Guide indicates that you need permission to take a course, contact the department offering the course for a Permit before attempting to register for the course, or the system will not accept your registration. A Permit reserves a seat in the course; an Authorization allows you to enroll if a seat is available.

The College of Liberal and Professional Studies requires that students hold an "active" status in order to enroll in classes. Any LPS student who allows four consecutive terms to pass without officially enrolling in a course is considered to be an “inactive” student. This policy includes spring, summer, and fall terms. After the course selection period of the fourth consecutive term has passed without enrolling in a course, your status will change to inactive and you will not longer be eligible to enroll in courses. Should you decide that you would like to take courses after becoming an inactive stu-dent, you must reapply to the program.

As part of the application process, if you have taken courses elsewhere in the period after you originally applied to LPS, you must submit transcripts. In addition, new essays, an up-dated résumé, and an application fee are required for the new application. You may also need to submit original transcripts.