Early Decision to Wharton / Regular Decision to UPenn

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>If I apply early decision to Wharton and don't get it, can I apply regular decision to UPenn?</p>

2

<p>I’m not sure what you are asking. Wharton is one school or department in UPenn. If you get deffered ED, you are automatically considered in RD, but if you are rejected, you are pretty much out of the picture. This is true regardless of the department you apply to</p>

3

<p>No.</p>

<p>

</p>

4

<p>Nope. Good thinking to go for “two bites at the apple”, but it’s not doable the way you’re suggesting. However, you can get two chances at Penn by applying to one of the specialty dual degree programs (Huntsman, Vangelos, etc). When you apply for the dual degree program, either ED or RD round, the application asks if you’re rejected do you want to be considered for either ED or RD admission to one of the regular programs.</p>

<p>So you could, for example, apply ED Vangelos with backup as ED or RA (your choice) Wharton.</p>

5

<p>Just to be clear, for people who apply Early Decision, by far the most common outcome is that their applications are deferred to the Regular Decision round in the spring. The least common outcome – after deferral or acceptance – is outright rejection at the Early Decision stage. </p>

<p>If you are outright rejected at the Early Decision stage, then you are rejected, period. You can’t apply to another college within Penn that year. If, like most people, you are deferred, then your application is still pending as a Wharton application. It may be possible, I suppose, to switch at that point and make it a CAS application, but there is little or no chance that you would improve your chances of admission that way. The fact that you had initially preferred Wharton would probably count against you in CAS admissions, and if you were so great that the CAS admissions people wanted you anyway you probably would have been accepted ED at Wharton. There’s a myth out there that Wharton is completely different than CAS, but it’s not true. The students accepted at Wharton may be a little stronger, on average, but there isn’t anyone who is a marginal candidate at Wharton who would be a clear admit at CAS.</p>

6

<p>

Actually, that’s incorrect. The most common outcome for Penn ED applicants is rejection in the ED round, and not deferral. For example, for the Class of 2017, 1,027 ED applicants (or 21% of the ED applicants) were deferred (of whom 10.9%, or 112, were ultimately accepted in the RD round), 1,194 (or 25% of the ED applicants) were accepted during the ED round, and 2,597 (or 54% of the ED applicants) were rejected in the ED round:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/incoming-class-profile”>http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/incoming-class-profile&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

</p>

<p>As a general rule, you are not allowed to switch schools between the ED and RD rounds. However, if you apply to a dual degree program, you are allowed to designate one of the schools that are included in the dual degree program (such as Wharton and CAS for the Huntsman Program) as a backup if you are not accepted to the dual degree program.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Actually, there’s never been any publicly released evidence that Wharton students are even a little stronger than CAS students on average in terms of SATs, GPAs, etc. In fact, among those who follow Penn admissions fairly closely, as well as Penn students and recent alumni who’ve discussed this kind of thing with each other, the general belief is that they are essentially comparable statistically (although Wharton does have a somewhat lower acceptance rate).</p>

7

<p>I completely disagree Wharton students are a little stronger than CAS students. In my experience at Penn, the most intelligent students I met were usually in CAS and SEAS, not in Wharton. Wharton applicants are more self selective in general than CAS applicants, but the students who get in are at the same level.</p>