We collect and display research from online resources, our partner organizations, and affiliated individuals.
The research below helps shed light on the issues of wellness in the Penn Engineering community and demonstrates the need for our wellness-focused initiatives.
The Percentage Project
This organization collects data on computer science students to spotlight minority and underrepresented students’ experiences in the field. Take a look below at some of the wellness-related statistics found from the Penn WiCS annual census of our school’s computer science department.
University Depression Rankings Using Twitter Data
A 2014-2015 Penn CIS Senior Design Project conducted a study that analyzed top 25 academic universities’ social media data. They found that Penn had the highest depression ranking.
Top 50 Colleges with Most Depressed Student Bodies
This article states several important statistics on college students’ mental health in America. Most notably, this article finds that Penn has the most depressed student body in United States, topping a list of 50 other schools in the country.
WiCS Census 2019-2020
Each year, Penn’s Women in Computer Science sends the computer science department a survey asking a series of questions related to minority and underrepresented student identities. Last year, the survey had 386 respondents, including both undergraduate and graduate students.
85% of students
feel pressure at Penn to find internships, job opportunities, extracurricular activities
33% of students
have been/felt judged or micro-agressed for studying Computer Science based on their race, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation
35% of students
feel intimidated studying Computer Science/Engineering and related fields
24% of students
have had someone comment on their identity in a manner that has made them feel uncomfortable, angry, or insecure.