City & Regional Planning: Smart Cities

The Master of City Planning core curriculum encompasses the basic skills and knowledge required of all planners regardless of their specialization, and is a hallmark of our cutting-edge and practical approach to educating city planners. Students who complete the core will understand the legal and historical basis of city planning; they will know how to use a wide variety of population and economic data to understand local communities; and they will understand the form and arrangement of cities and metropolitan areas around the world. Most important, they will understand which planning approaches work best in which contexts and circumstances.

Today's combination of portable-yet-powerful computing and communication devices and Internet-accessible "big data" are democratizing all aspects of urban planning and decision-making. In the process, these factors are transforming planners from central information gatekeepers into bottom-up enablers who are helping city dwellers take better advantage of the opportunities and richness of urban life. By giving constituents quick access to usable information, these new technologies are connecting planners, residents, businesses, and non-profits to make them smarter and more productive. The purpose of this concentration is to give MCP students the skills and abilities they will need to develop planning applications that seamlessly combine user-friendly data retrieval and modeling procedures with individual and collaborative urban planning and design tools. 

Offline Recommendation

Penn strongly prefers that recommenders submit letters of recommendation online through the admissions system. If, however, your recommender is unable to submit an online recommendation, please follow these instructions:

1) Select the “Recommendation Form PDF Download” and download the form.
2) Complete the first section. Be sure to include the address of the appropriate admissions office — refer to the "Contact Graduate Admissions" list below. 
3) Print out the form and provide it to your recommender.

Please note:

• If you are applying to a program in Nursing, print out and provide your recommender with these special instructions for completing your letter of recommendation.
• If you are applying to a program in the School of Social Policy & Practice, print out and provide your recommender with these special instructions for completing your letter of recommendation.

4) Your recommender should send the form directly to the admissions office you designate, along with the letter of recommendation.