PENN GSE EDUCATION ENTREPRENEURSHIP · GRADUATE STUDY GUIDE
The University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, known as Penn GSE, runs its Master of Science in Education (M.S.Ed.) in Education Entrepreneurship as a 12-month executive program for working professionals, starting each summer. You meet in person for intensive sessions, study online in between, and develop a venture as your capstone. Start here to understand the program and prepare each part of your application.
Summer 2027 entry
GET TO KNOW THE PROGRAM
You start in summer 2027 and study for four terms: summer, fall, spring, and a second summer. Penn GSE says the format is meant to work alongside a full-time job.
IN PERSON
The 2026–27 cohort’s first session ran from July 29 to August 6, 2026. Shorter sessions follow through the fall and spring, one of them online, and a final session runs June 12–17.
THE COURSES
In 2026–27, they include entrepreneurship, marketing, entrepreneurial finance, teaching and learning, and schools as organizations. You work online between sessions.
YOUR VENTURE
Develop a new venture or one that already exists, through experiments, a financial model, and a pitch or paper.
The dates here are for the 2026–27 cohort. That cohort’s year also has a ninth, optional session that Penn GSE recommends: the ASU+GSV (Arizona State University and Global Silicon Valley) Summit in San Diego, April 3–7.
2026–27 sessions: July 29 to August 6, 2026; September 25–27; October 30 to November 1; December 4–6; January 22–24, 2027; February 26–28, online; March 19–21; and June 12–17.
Where you’ll stay: Hotels are provided for the two summer sessions, and you book your own lodging for the fall and spring ones. Penn hasn’t offered on-campus graduate housing since spring 2023, so if you’ll live in Philadelphia, its off-campus services can help you find a place.
Health insurance: Ask Penn GSE whether Penn’s rules for full-time students apply to you as a hybrid student. Full-time students need comprehensive insurance each year: the Penn Student Insurance Plan, or an approved waiver for your own plan, which must cover routine, inpatient, and outpatient care in Philadelphia, including mental health, not only emergencies. They also pay a $385 clinical fee each semester in 2026–27, and the summer waiver window runs April 15 to May 31.
Required subjects: Entrepreneurship, technology strategy, design thinking, management, marketing, and entrepreneurial finance, alongside educational foundations, teaching and learning, the design of learning environments, and schools as organizations.
One choice: A course on the educational ecosystem, or an introductory economics course that assumes no economics background.
Your visa documents: Once you’re admitted, you request the I-20, the form you need to apply for an F-1 student visa, or the DS-2019 for a J-1 exchange visa. A complete request takes Penn GSE about three weeks, so it advises applying early. New F-1 students can be issued a visa up to 365 days before their program starts, and can enter the U.S. up to 30 days before it.
If you’d live abroad between sessions: Before you make plans, ask ISSS which visa status you’d need to attend each session while you live abroad. Don’t assume a visitor visa will do.
Working during the program: On a student visa, an off-campus job while you study needs its own permission. Curricular Practical Training (CPT) is work authorized as part of your degree. At Penn, the training must be required for all students in the program’s established curriculum and directly related to your major. You also need your department’s confirmation, a cooperative agreement with the employer, and ISSS authorization on an updated I-20 before you start. Course credit alone isn’t enough. In its CPT notice, updated October 2, 2026, Penn says it’s reviewing requests again on these terms, but decisions on pending requests stay paused while it reviews programs and documents. CPT normally needs a full academic year of study first, unless your graduate program requires it from the start. A year or more of full-time CPT ends your eligibility for OPT after you graduate. Don’t assume your capstone or your current job will qualify.
After you graduate: OPT needs a recommendation from Penn and approval from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services before you start work. The STEM extension adds conditions for your employer, including formal training and a training plan you both sign.
UNDERSTAND WHAT PENN GSE LOOKS FOR
You need a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited U.S. college or university, or its equivalent, by the time you enroll. Penn GSE says it looks for a “strong commitment to education,” and it doesn’t consider scores from the GRE (Graduate Record Examinations).
YOUR EXPERIENCE
You need at least two years of professional experience. Penn GSE describes its students as working professionals from many industries, aged 22 to over 60.
Letrado’s adviceMake your résumé show the work that connects you to the problem you want to take on.
YOUR COMMITMENT
Your statement can describe what you’re doing now to change education or to build a venture, and what you’d contribute to the program’s community.
Letrado’s adviceName something you’ve done for learners, such as a program you started or a lesson you rebuilt, instead of saying you care about education.
YOUR YEAR
The prompt asks why you want to join. You may also say what you hope to gain and accomplish during the year.
Letrado’s adviceName one problem you’d work on in your capstone, and the skills you’d need to take it on.
THE HYBRID FORMAT
A first session from July 29 to August 6, 2026, shorter ones through the fall and spring (one of them online), and a final one from June 12 to 17, in the 2026–27 cohort’s year
Provided for the summer sessions, and yours to book in the fall and spring
Coursework and your capstone continue between sessions
On a student visa, check with Penn’s ISSS before you count on keeping a job.
WHO SENDS WHAT
Your statement of purpose and your current résumé
Two letters, sent directly to Penn GSE
A course-by-course evaluation, if your degree is from outside the U.S.
PLAN THE APPLICATION
You apply through Penn GSE’s own online application. After February 1, Penn GSE reviews applications on a rolling basis while space remains. A complete application includes your two letters and any credential evaluation, so start early.
First priority date
Nov 1Second priority date
Feb 1Dates without a year are as Penn GSE lists them. Confirm what time each priority date closes, and finish a few days early. After February 1, decisions usually come 4 to 6 weeks after your application is complete.
Penn GSE’s own application, with no application fee.
Up to 750 words on why you’re joining the program, with room for your plans for the year.
It should show at least two years of professional experience.
Your recommenders submit them through the link Penn GSE emails them.
From every college or university you’ve attended, including any you transferred from or left. For U.S. colleges and universities, copies issued by the registrar are enough to apply.
Penn GSE asks for the TOEFL iBT or IELTS, both English-language tests, if English isn’t your first language, unless your bachelor’s or graduate degree is from an institution that teaches only in English.
Transcripts: Screenshots, grade reports, and advising records aren’t enough. If you enroll, official records must reach Penn directly before classes start.
Study abroad: An exchange of up to two semesters needs no separate record if its courses and grades appear on your home transcript. Otherwise, send the foreign school’s registrar copy, in English. Longer study abroad needs a credential evaluation.
Degrees from outside the U.S.: Ask a member of NACES, the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services, to send a course-by-course evaluation directly to Penn GSE. It must show your degree and its date, your course grades, the U.S. equivalent, and a GPA. A transcript or translation on its own isn’t enough. Evaluations can take 8 to 12 weeks, so start at least 12 weeks before the priority date you’re aiming for.
Three-year degrees: Your degree must be equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s, and a three-year degree isn’t accepted automatically. Ask admissions before you apply.
English tests: The exemption depends on your whole institution teaching only in English, not just your program. Send TOEFL scores to code 2943 and IELTS scores to Penn GSE’s electronic account. Scores are valid for two years. Ask admissions what score it expects, and whether it accepts any other test.
If you’re admitted: Ask admissions when you’d need to reply and whether a deposit is due, so you can plan around your other offers.
Deferring: Penn GSE defers admission only in exceptional circumstances. In 2026, it took deferral requests from May 1 to June 30, so ask for the 2027 window.
With a Wharton MBA: Wharton is Penn’s business school, and you’re admitted to each school separately. Your first year is full time at Wharton, and the M.S.Ed. starts the following summer as a nine-course version of the degree, with limited places for first-year MBA students. Penn GSE says three quarters of the M.S.Ed.’s tuition can be funded through the MBA, so ask both schools what you’d pay for each degree.
Wharton’s application: It’s a separate 2026–27 application, with its own test requirement, English rule, essays, one-page résumé, recommendation, transcripts, and a $275 fee. Its deadlines are September 8, 2026, January 5, 2027, and March 31, 2027, each at 5 p.m. Eastern Time.
WRITE IN YOUR OWN VOICE
Up to 750 wordsPenn GSE’s limit for the statement of purpose. Your current résumé goes in alongside it.
With no GRE score to look at, admissions learns about you from your statement, résumé, and letters. If the application asks further questions, give them the same care as the statement.
Letrado’s adviceBuild the statement around one problem you know from your own work: what you’ve already tried, what you’d test in the capstone, and what you need the program to teach you. In 750 words, go deep on that problem and leave your other ideas out.
You may also write about your aspirations, what you’re doing now to change education or to build a venture, what you’d contribute to the program’s learning and community, and what you hope to gain and accomplish during the year.
Penn GSE asks for a current résumé with your statement. Describe your work in plain words rather than your organization’s own terms.
It asks for a preliminary venture case and a personal statement. The case covers the problem, your research, your solution and its value, and its measurable impact. The statement covers your fit and how you’d use the fellowship. A first-semester information session offers coaching, and Penn GSE tells students when applications open.
MAKE ROOM FOR THE FINANCIAL QUESTION
Penn GSE prices this program by term: summer, fall, spring, and a second summer. Travel and living costs come on top.
MERIT AWARDS
Penn GSE lists this program for its partial merit awards toward tuition, and considers applicants from the U.S. and abroad when they apply.
NEED-BASED AID
This program is listed for need-based aid too. Need is assessed separately from merit, and the two can be combined up to the cost of tuition.
GLOBAL IMPACT FELLOWSHIP
A tuition award with mentoring, startup training, and conference access, for students building scalable education or education-technology ventures with measurable global impact.
Merit and need-based awards come with your admission decision and aren’t adjusted after your first term. Part-time students and Penn employees aren’t eligible for them.
Master’s funding at Penn GSE (opens in a new tab)PUBLISHED 2026–27 TUITION · EACH OF FOUR TERMS
$18,144Each term also carries $3,203 in program, hotel, and dining fees, which you pay even if you don’t use the hotel or meals. You book your own lodging for the fall and spring sessions, so ask Penn GSE what those terms’ fees cover.
These are 2026–27 rates, and new rates usually start each summer. To estimate a summer 2027 start, Penn GSE suggests allowing for typical yearly increases of up to 4%. Ask for your cohort’s own rates, second summer included. Penn GSE’s general per-course prices don’t apply to executive programs like this one.
Penn GSE’s tuition and fees (opens in a new tab)Letrado’s adviceAim for a priority date if you’ll need an award: that’s when Penn GSE gives scholarships its strongest consideration.
On September 24, 2026, Penn GSE announced a $3 million commitment that establishes the Milken Endowed Scholarship for Education Entrepreneurship Fund, permanent scholarship support for this program. Ask admissions how and when the fund will make awards.
Penn GSE’s announcement (opens in a new tab)ADMITTED TO PENN GSE · L.W.
She had taught middle-school math for five years in a U.S. district serving rural communities. She hadn’t built a commercial product, and she lacked formal design training. We helped her ask better design questions, and not treat what she saw in class as proof that her changes worked.
She had adapted math lessons for inconsistent internet access and a wide range of reading levels.
They showed that technology can create new barriers as well as solve problems.
Leaving the classroom didn’t mean leaving education. In her plans, she looked at instructional design, curriculum development, and education product roles.
Penn GSE’s statement of purpose (opens in a new tab) lets you write about what you’re doing now to change education. If you teach, as L.W. did, start with your own classroom.
AI illustrationHER PENN OUTCOME
Offered a place in Penn GSE’s M.S.Ed. in Education Entrepreneurship
HER CHOICE: STANFORDMain Quad, Stanford University · Photo: Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Cropped.
In the end, Stanford’s emphasis on design and projects mattered more to her than being able to keep working.
ALSO ADMITTED TO
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