Author: Kristina Clark
Penn’s Senior Auditing Program started in the 1970’s as a noncredit offering open only to retired Philadelphia schoolteachers.
One of Penn’s most devoted alumna and life-long learners, Mae Pasquariello, CW’53, GRD’85
The program soon expanded to include anyone older than 65. Classes currently cost $500 a course – all of which goes toward funding scholarships for undergraduates in the College of Liberal and Professional Studies – and over 160 seniors are currently enrolled.
The program invites life-long learners aged 65 and older to audit undergraduate lecture classes in Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences at a reduced tuition rate. Senior auditors may enroll in a maximum of two classes per semester.
Enrich your life. Learn new skills. Be engaged, energized and intellectually stimulated. Make new friends. Attend classes with brilliant young minds. Have fun. These are a few reasons that we’ve heard as to why the Senior Auditing Program is so worthwhile.
One of Alumni Relations’ most devoted volunteers is alumna, Mae Pasquariello, CW’53, GRD’85, age 81, who registers each semester for a class. As Mae puts it “I’m committed to being a lifelong learner. I’ll be doing this as long as I can walk into a classroom.”
Over the last 30 years, Mae has studied women and religion, Italian cuisine and culture, 20th-century American poetry, and she even took a course about gun control that had her practicing on a shooting range.
For information on Penn’s Senior Auditing Program, please email: senioraudit@sas.upenn.edu.
Frankly Penn 
Mae is amazing! There was a row full of senior auditors in my Music History course during my senior year at Penn. They were so engaged and fun in class!