This was shared with me and I thought many of you would find it interesting. Data from THIS admissions cycle:
From the Faculty Senate Report:
“Rob Pangborn, Vice President and Dean for Undergraduate Education discussed the current
enrollment numbers. As of February 19, 100,173 undergraduate applications have been received,
including 91,586 baccalaureate applications for the incoming summer/fall 2018 class, up by
26,893 or 42% compared to the same date last year. University Park applications are up 36%,
and direct applications to the Commonwealth Campuses are up 64%. PA applications are higher
by 15%, while out-of-state applications are up by 72% and international applications are up by
19%. Owing to the earlier application date and offers made, as well as the larger volume, paid
accepts are up 10% compared to last year, including 2,457 for the Commonwealth Campuses,
3,201 for University Park; and 132 for the World Campus, for a total of 5,790 paid accepts to
date.”
The +72% in OOS aren’t going to result in +72% commitments - a lot applied just because it was easy through Commonapp and some applied hoping for financial aid which they won’t get. It’s a false increase - something the +42% applications/+10% enrollment.
+10% is better nevertheless, which means they’ll indeed be more selective.
Agree @MYOS1634 But that increase in applications with the same number of student yield means that the acceptance rate will go down significantly making Penn State look more selective overall. It’s a shame because the 10% increase in accepts means that the higher ups will think this whole plan was a good one, rather than the unorganized mess it actually was.
Does this explain why many kids are 1) still waiting and/or 2) getting accepted to 2+2 programs? Seems like enrollment management. They’ll have a huge problem if they over-admit by 1,000 kids.
@STEM2017 I think so. Because they have more applicants to choose from, more high stat kids will be accepted to 2+2 rather than direct to UP.
Kids are always still waiting at this point because the application process is rolling. So acceptances will still come in in April.
The wait list is uncommon for this year and I haven’t quite figured out how that plays into it. Other than they are waiting to see their yield of deposits to see how much room there is.
A couple years ago they way over accepted and they had a major problem with enrollment. They were giving scholarships to have students change to a commonwealth campus for just one year. Some took it, some did not. There was more supplemental housing that year until things cleared out.
@jlhpsu I agree, I think the waitlist is because they don’t want to over accept just in case they have a surplus of students enrolling. Hopefully they don’t and some kids will be able to get off the waitlist, otherwise they have the 2+2 offer, which still has its benefits.
In our case my son applied because it was on the common app and no extra essay… we planned to keep it as a backup until he saw the ranking of his program and accepted… he even pulled his ED… common app really helped to push him to apply so adding the common app might be a huge benefit to Penn State