<p>Does anyone know if Penn has hinted in any way that it is planning to switch from early decision to early action?</p>
<p>I do not know about that, but the current policy is only early admission and regular decision. I would doubt that Penn would change, since the current trend among colleges is to switch from early action to early admission.</p>
<p>Are you a student of the class of 2011? IF you are it is unlikely that any change, if there is one, would affect you. This is because since nothing was announced yet, if there was going to be a change i would expect it to be for the class of 2012 at the earliest.</p>
<p>Penn admissions officers have said repeatedly that Penn has absolutely no intention of changing, and they do not foresee us changing ever in the not-even-so-remote future.</p>
<p>As was pointed out in the Newsweek article last year, ED is one of the things that makes Penn such a happy campus... most of the students at Penn had Penn as their #1 choice while applying to schools, so they are genuinely happy to be there. There are not nearly as many people who had to go to Penn as a fall back option. ED is one way the admissions committees can ensure that this remains the case. I think that Penn, moreso than many other schools, has a very solid and good reason for preserving ED.</p>
<p>In my humble opinion, the reason schools use mechanisms such as Early Decision is to increase class matriculation rates. These high rates are the kind of statistics that go into the US News rankings that we all follow so religiously. So, rather than schools switching from ED to EA, I predict that we are going to see more schools going the other way. But that is only assumption based on fact.</p>
<p>countrytoconcrete: Penn also said they would never do the common app.</p>
<p>Actually that's not true. I'm in the admissions office quite a bit and there's been chatter about the common app for some time, and in every info session I attended where prospectives asked about Penn's thoughts on the Common App, the counselors simply said it's possible sometime in the future... but everytime the ED vs. EA question comes up, it's always an emphatic no.</p>
<p>ive looked at the penn app and the common app supplement, and they are more or less the same. all the common app does is save you time from rewriting your basic info. </p>
<p>about the EA/ED, i doubt penn needs to boost its rankings by boosting it's marticulation rate. i personally think all schools should switch to SCEA so i dont have to lock in before i know what scholarships, programs, and other incentives other schools may give me but will know whether i got into my top choice or not.</p>
<p>Yield is not a factor in usnwr rankings.</p>
<p>I think Penn should leave the ED policy as it is.</p>