<p>Does Penn have a penchant for accepting jews? Penn has the fourth largest jewish population (25% of undergrads) and I am wondering if it is just because more jews apply to penn than other schools, or of penn accepts a higher percentage.</p>
<p>where do you even indicate religion on the application…?</p>
<p>though they can assume jewish-ness by applicant’s name</p>
<p>my application shows some volunteer work for my synagogue…</p>
<p>I don’t think that Penn has a penchant for Jews, but it is just that there happens to be a lot of Jews who apply/are accepted to Penn. I mean, among Caucasians, the only major religious affiliations are denominations of Christianity and Judaism. Since there are a lot of Caucasians at Penn, that would mean a fairly significant percentage of them are Jewish; with the rest of the Caucasian population being Christians, some atheists, and a small minority of other religions. Plus I think Penn receives a majority of applicants from urban places, and urban places have a fair amount of Jewish population. Also from my own observation, I think on average Jews tend to have a higher standard of living - by that I mean Jewish families are often not below the poverty line. People who are not financially troubled tend to be able to take advantage of education and opportunities more easily. Although, I’m just basing this assumption from the fact Philadelphia has a significant amount of Jews and that a majority of Jews I know are fairly well off. My own class has about a 25/115 Jewish population. </p>
<p>I’m not really sure, this is just my opinion. I can’t see why being Jewish would give a slight edge for anyone though. They aren’t really under represented? haha.</p>
<p>in my school only jews get in which is why i’m screwed haha
i think its mostly cause jews have legacy and have access to many resources</p>
<p>in our school, the Jewish kids have all been rejected (including legacies) over the past five years…it’s all the URM’s that have been accepted…</p>
<p>^ URM definitely has greater advantage than any religious affiliation. In addition, religious affiliation isn’t a required field on the application… some people only choose to mention it directly or indirectly. And legacy doesn’t mean everything if your grades/test scores/essays aren’t good.</p>
<p>^ hmmm, that’s interesting. So urm have more of a boost than legacies. How did the stats of the two groups compare? sat and gpa around the same?</p>
<p>no, urms stats were lower…lower ranks, lower sat’s etc…</p>
<p>yuenie: the legacies I know that were rejected applied ED, top 5%, high SAT’s…</p>
<p>IMO: legacy admittance at Penn is still primarily designed for developmental admits who have given a chunk of change…at least from this person’s perspective…( and my daughters are double legacies who did not apply to Penn)…</p>
<p>I think a URM with fairly good stats definitely has a better chance of getting in than a [mediocre] legacy applicant. Because it’s like “overcoming adversity” of sorts, since a lot of times URMs come from lower-income families, in contrast to legacies who usually come from a fairly well off family. (After all, you shouldn’t be poor after getting an Ivy League degree!) I think Penn often times look for applicants who have a complex background but who still have managed to excel. From what my interviewer said, he was very interested in knowing more about my family’s financial trouble in the past and our current circumstances because he said he wanted to make sure to write that down in his report.</p>
<p>rodney: Then geographic location probably also plays into it somewhat. Otherwise, their essays probably didn’t stand out as well as they could possibly. Who knows. 
I know my Mom’s boss’s daughter who had around a 2350 SAT score, and had good grades but didn’t get into CAS. She lives in the suburb areas of Philly.</p>
<p>One of the reasons Penn has a large Jewish population is because back in the day when Penn’s ivy league brethren were racist anti-Semites, Penn opened its arms to Jews and therefore Penn has fallen into good repute among Jews for that reason. So Penn has something to be proud of, not only was it the first university, it was also one of the few progressive universities. Over time a large Jewish alumni base has naturally developed and that more than anything else is probably what it continuing the trend. That, along with the fact that Jews are very smart and are naturally over-represented at all ivy league schools, the same applies to Asians.</p>
<p>yuenie: bingo…but it does kinda make it difficult for alumni to continue to contribute substantial sums of $$</p>
<p>perhaps the legacies and philadelphia resident did not seem to be a match for penn; maybe they did not show an in-depth knowledge of penn with the precious opportunities they had… or maybe they didn’t apply ED? I know the majority of legacies are not admitted and Philadelphia residents aren’t automatic either… but the more i visit CC the more I do not understand the admissions process lol</p>
<p>I don’t know of many qualified legacies who do NOT get admitted.</p>
<p>don’t worry soitgoes, with your essays, you’ll get in for sure.</p>
<p>thanks =] im nervous as hell though</p>