The University of Pennsylvania is an intellectually stimulating environment in which to study the serious problems that face our metropolitan areas today and the broad spectrum of responses to meet those challenges. Students enrolled in the City and Regional Planning Ph.D. program have easy access to a broad, multi-disciplinary faculty and all the resources of a first-rate urban research university. The Ph.D. program in City and Regional Planning (CPLN), governed by the Graduate Group in City and Regional Planning, is one of the oldest in the country, dating back to the 1950s. Penn's faculty has guided more than 300 students though their graduate studies to the completion of the degree and aided them in assuming positions of leadership in both academia and the profession throughout the United States and across the world. Penn's Ph.D. program in city and regional planning has a straightforward objective: to train thought-leaders and exceptional scholars. To this end, the Graduate Group aims to ensure acquisition of strong research and communication skills. It is also committed to cultivating enduring faculty/student mentoring relationships and collegial networking among a students' peers, including other Ph.D. students in urban-focused disciplines.