Benjamin Franklin Scholars Residential Community

The BFS community in Hill College House: a vibrant community of students who share a passion for broad intellectual exploration.
 
Hill College House is the home of the Benjamin Franklin Scholars (BFS) Program. The program brings students from the four undergraduate schools together in a caring, supportive community that serves as one important anchor for the plethora of activities spanning Penn’s campus and beyond. BFS promotes the intellectual vitality that accrues to crossing boundaries and integrating knowledge, balancing the increased pressures to specialize.

BFS is a campus-wide program, building bridges among all four Undergraduate schools – the College, Engineering, Nursing, and Wharton. The program brings scholars from their respective home schools together over a shared interest in the power of ideas to transform the world.

The flagship element of the BFS experience is its focus on intensive learning.  We encourage exploration beyond the major, and outside the Home school. BFS Seminars offer enriching opportunities to work on challenging topics, without requiring extensive prerequisites, both inside and outside a student’s major fields of study. Special BFS programs bring in world-renowned speakers, and provide opportunities for international internships. And Hill College House provides the campus community for scholars to engage in social, cultural, service, and life skills activities that provide the perfect complement to their Penn experience.
 
Each school implements the BFS vision in their own way so that the program enhances the existing home school requirements.  See details on the four programs here:
 

• College of Arts & Sciences
• School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
• School of Nursing  
• The Wharton School

Note: There are three requirements for membership in the BFS Residential Community in Hill.

1. You must separately apply for the Benjamin Franklin Scholars / Integrated Studies academic program through your school and be accepted. See more information here.
2. You must list the BFS program in Hill as your first choice when you apply for housing. (You should also list your second and third housing preferences carefully in the event that you are not accepted into BFS.)  Visit housing application instructions here.  
3. Students must have accepted their place in the incoming class in the College in Penn.

Students who have not completed all three parts of the application process will not be able to be considered for the BFS Residential Community. There will be no exceptions.