One of Penn’s most venerable and vital residential programs, MLP is dedicated to students who wish to improve their language proficiency and immerse themselves in new cultural experiences… while having fun at the same time. MLP participants range from novice speakers with little foreign language experience to multi-lingual international students; generally, about half are freshmen. Residents in Class of 1925 belong to one or more of the five language houses, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, each of which holds in-language dinners several nights a week, biweekly film screenings and weekly coffee hours. Popular supplemental activities include game nights, dance events, and the annual International Dinner, as well as restaurant, film, museum and performing arts trips downtown.

Program Directors—graduate students who are either native or fluent speakers—supervise the houses; several Managers—upperclass veterans working in collaboration with Program Directors and Penn administrators—also play an essential role.

One unique facet of MLP is that the language departments at Penn realize the value of our programming and award students a half credit per semester for their work. Students enrolled for credit must attend the majority of events that semester, of course; enrollment for credit is entirely optional. MLP also prides itself on serving as a hub for other language-based programming; in the past, the program has hosted Arabic dinners and coffee hours, a Polish film series, and more.

Returning Gregorians: Apply at the Van Pelt Information Center during the regular internal housing process. Be sure to sign the MLP contract on the reverse side of the application.

New Freshmen: Submit the regular housing application online, identifying MLP as one of your top choices. Submit an essay specifying which language house(s) you are interested in, and give us a bit of information about your background, fluency level, and specific interests related to the program.

New Upperclassmen: Upperclassmen coming from other College Houses should fill out an “Application for New Program Participants” at the Van Pelt Manor Information Center. Contact the office of Housing and Conference Services for dates.