<p>Does the fact that your school (private) is located really near to Philadelphia (10 minutes) improve your chances to Penn? I know schools that are actually located in Phillie and their students send a lot (at least 10+) to Penn.. Then again, they are actually in the city, while mine is kind of on the outskirt but not technically in.</p>
<p>the benefit, as far as i know, is for those who are city residents.</p>
<p>no, the philly suburbs are one of the more competitive regions. the only possible benefit is that your school could have a strong relationship with penn.</p>
<p>There are several things that boost chances for nearby schools, not all of which apply to everyone at those schools:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Penn has a charter requirement to provide free education to 100 Philadelphia students. That provision has been reinterpreted in court to mean 100 full-time-equivalents from the Philadelphia region (I think limited to southeastern Pennsylvania only). So Penn has to accept enough financial aid students from the region to add up to 100 full scholarships.</p></li>
<li><p>There are strong historical ties between many schools in the region and Penn. Penn gets their best students, or most of them. For decades, my kids’ public school in Philadelphia sent 20-30 kids per year to Penn, including future Nobel Prize winners and such. Philadelphia’ current mayor is an alumnus of Penn and another local feeder school.</p></li>
<li><p>Schools in the Philadelphia area tend to have a high concentration of legacies and faculty brats, which of course increases their admission percentages.</p></li>
<li><p>Schools in the Philadelphia area also tend to have a high concentration of kids who are working in labs (or similar projects) with Penn faculty members already, or with people who are close to Penn faculty members. So there is a natural imbalance of power.</p></li>
<li><p>Harvard takes seriously its role as the trainer of Massachusetts’ elite, Yale has a similar attitude towards Connecticut, and Penn traditionally sees itself as the core educational institution for southeastern Pennsylvania and south Jersey. And it is. This is a two-way street – with the Mayor and the Governor as Penn alumni, and their administrations stuffed with Penn alumni, and every business group dominated by Penn alumni, Penn gets most of what it wants from the political system.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>By the way, all of the foregoing seems to be weakening significantly, especially since the Gutmann administration began. People feel like there has been a definite cut-back in the number of local kids Penn takes. You should hear local alums whine about it! At my kids’ school, until a few years ago it was unheard-of for Penn to reject someone in the top 20 or so kids, but over the past three years it seems that holds only if the kids apply ED.</p>
<p>If you go to a school that sends a lot of kids to Penn, you probably know it.</p>
<p>thank you JHS for that answer… unfourtunately I believe that I will not benefit much… actually living “near” philadelphia and going to a school “near phialdelphia” may be a disadvantage… -.- it is more competitive for me I guess. Im going ED and I’ll hope for the best. (my school doesn’t send many… about 2 out of 55 kids)</p>
<p>Is that really Amy Gutmann’s malevolence or just that the increased nationwide applicants to Penn means the bias towards local/regional students must inevitably give way?</p>
<p>Some of both, I think. People attribute it to her because the difference between the last Rodin year and the first Gutmann year was pretty sharp, and because she made a few public statements early on that were widely seen as telegraphing reduced interest in middle-class local applicants. But certainly the stronger the national applicant pool is, the less the institution is going to want to bend standards to admit local kids.</p>
<p>Penn is still admitting plenty of kids from this area, but I would bet it is down 25-30% from 10 years ago.</p>