<p>^
Exceedingly pleasant is just about right.</p>
<p>guys if youre worthy, youre worthy. if youre not, youre not. i dont think the number of ED applicants will change that. if this was about RD, then yes it would affect it. but i am sure Penn will accept whoever they see as Penn material.</p>
<p>…oh boy</p>
<p>Well, there go my chances. Oh well, at least I can try for a school in California.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the rises in applicant numbers, not just ED but overall. I was on the Ivy Coach site and looking at admissions statistics and just as recently as 06-07, Penn got only 18,000 apps, now that number is close to 28,000. Is this growth normal, or something unique to this “generation”. I don’t think that in 2003 Penn only got 10,000 apps. Are there any explanations?</p>
<p>I think a lot of it has to do with the mind set of the applicants. Sure, there have always been people who have wanted to go to Penn, or HYPS, or somewhere top 25, but even MORE people want to now-a-days. Just within my own high school, competition is probably triple or more than it has been in the past few years. This year my school will probably have the highest amount of students applying to top 25 schools in its entire history.</p>
<p>True, competition is increasing, but do we have any clue as to why the mindset of applicants is changing. Are we witnessing the successful efforts of college advertising, is it the online nature of applications and the more ease of use through Common App. Or is there some fundamental social change occurring that is driving more and more kids to apply to such elite schools. There has to be some reason that leads to the massive jumps in such short spans of time.</p>
<p>Effective advertising and campaigning probably didn’t hurt. And if that’s the case it could mean two things. That either they attracted students of higher caliber to apply ED, which would result in increased competition, or those slightly less qualified. If it’s the latter, it would not only lower their ED acceptance rate, but make the school look more desired and wanted. And the implication of that for those of us applying, is that it will merely dilute the application pool. I don’t think we have too much to fear.</p>
<p>Any statistics on the breakdown of Penn ED or RD applicants according to school?</p>
<p>When time gets tough like the current economic environment, one needs to possess the best possible CV to get a chance for a job. Having an Ivy degree wouldn’t hurt.
My younger son is graduating this year. He told me in all the job interviews he has been, almost every candidate that managed to get through the initial screening and given a chance for interview is from the Ivy League or MIT, Duke and the top three LAC.</p>
<p>heres my theory on why more and more people are applying to top schools. a while back, just going to college meant you had a great chance of being successful in life. having that degree meant job security. as time has progressed, we have seen the economy weaken and people with either degrees from great schools or people with no degrees that were just straight brilliant be successful. we have seen the success of people from these colleges, and they present more a of a guarantee of success in the future for us.</p>
<p>after posting this, i have seen that above people said the same thing my bad haha</p>
<p>
In the last several years, there have been large jumps in the numbers of applicants to all the top schools, not just Penn.</p>
<p>Actually, it was in the 2004-2005 admissions cycle that Penn last had around 18,000 applicants (18,749). The numbers on the Ivy Coach site are by college graduation class year, not by year of admission.</p>
<p>There are several explanations offered for this across-the-board growth in applicant pools, among them being the growth in the number of high school graduates (the so-called Baby Boom Echo), the worsening economy and resultant widespread belief that a prestigious college degree is necessary for a decent job, and the expanded use of the Common Application (making it easier to apply to more schools). I think that other factors influencing the growth of Penn’s applicant pool (and those of some of the other top schools) include the expansion of financial aid and elimination of loans from aid packages (as emphasized by Dean Furda in the DP article linked in the first post), and a significant widening of applicant marketing both geographically (domestically and internationally) and economically (to bright students who in the past would have assumed that they couldn’t afford schools like Penn).</p>
<p>^^You Whartonite you.</p>
<p>^ If you’re referring to me, that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. ;)</p>
<p>Sweet, so I’m making my four year plan at my local state school right now…</p>
<p>45 Percenter…you are very insightful, good explanation. </p>
<p>I thought there was going to be a slight down turn in the number of high school graduates this year just based on pure population numbers? I guess even though the numbers may be down the amount of students wanting to go to the more prestigious schools is up for the reasons you stated. I would still think there would not be enough “free money” to go around for all of these additional people applying only because they think the financial aid packages are better now? In your opinion, are you any better off from an admissions stand point if they see a strong financial background on a given candidate? Thanks for the thoughts.</p>
<p>^ At least for US and Canadian citizens and permanent residents, admissions decisions at Penn are need-blind, so that financial background is not a factor in the admissions decision.</p>
<p>For other applicants, admissions decisions are not yet need-blind, and financial background can be taken into account in admissions decisions. However, there is some financial aid available for these international applicants, so financial background, alone, is not a determinative factor.</p>