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**Early decision admission rate increases by less than one percent</p>
<p>Harvard University and Dartmouth College's early decision acceptance rates also increased</p>
<p>By JEREMY JICK · December 16, 2013, 6:27 pm · Updated December 16, 2013, 7:40 pm**</p>
<p>After receiving a record-breaking number of early decision applications this fall, Penn admitted 25.3 percent of the early decision applicant pool for its class of 2018, a small increase from last years 24.9 percent acceptance rate.</p>
<p>The Office of Admissions posted acceptance letters at 5 p.m. for 1,299 of the record 5,149 applicants. These students represent approximately 54 percent of the target class size of 2,420 students. The number of applicants grew by approximately 6.7 percent, and the number of admitted students represented an 8.6 percent increase from past years.</p>
<p>With this years applicant pool surpassing over 5,000 applications for the first time in Penns history, the Office of Admissions will congratulate the largest, strongest and most diverse admitted ED class, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Eric Furda said in a statement.</p>
<p>The average SAT score of the early decision class is approximately 2186, an eight point increase from last year.
<p>^ My understanding is that the percentage of the target class size admitted through ED is usually fairly consistent across the schools, i.e., around 50% (give or take).</p>
<p>I actually think that Penn’s practice regarding early decision is a positive one. Given the relative quality of the applicants in general that apply to all the top schools I think giving students that really want to commit to one an edge is smart. Otherwise the same students might get admitted to all the top schools and they can only attend one. It always a nice match between the quality school and the quality applicant.</p>
<p>Yes, in the past, Penn generally has accepted slightly less than 50% of the class through ED (last year, it was 49.3%).</p>
<p>I guess that given the 337 additional ED applicants this year (exceeding 5,000 for the first time), and the exceptionally strong ED applicant pool (per Dean Furda, and seemingly borne out in the stats and demographics that have been released), they felt comfortable accepting a higher percentage of the class through ED. And it might perhaps decrease the RD and overall acceptance rates. Also, because of the size of its class, Penn still has more spaces to fill through RD than virtually all of its peers, so from a moral or ethical standpoint, taking a slightly higher percentage of its class through ED is at least somewhat defensible. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>And Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are now admitting more than 50%–and in the case of Harvard this year, up to 60%–of their target class numbers through Single Choice EA, albeit not ED, so it seems to be a trend of sorts (for what it’s worth).</p>
<p>‘The top countries represented are Canada, with 17 students, China, with 16 students, the United Kingdom, with 15 students, India, with 11 students, and France and the United Arab Emirates, each with seven students.’</p>
<p>I know three people in my country that got in…but I know there were at least 8 interviewed so a few definitely got cut… I have an even bigger appreciation for the opportunity offered to me now after reading this article.</p>
<p>^ I’ve personally heard Dean Furda state that more than 80% of Penn applicants clearly have the credentials–SATs, GPAs, etc.–to succeed at Penn.</p>
<p>Also, more than “a few” get “cut” as you describe it. The Early Decision acceptance rate is only 25%, and the Regular Decision rate is under 10%, for an overall acceptance rate of about 12%. So almost 90% of the applicants to Penn ultimately get “cut.”</p>
<p>To a great extent, it really is a matter of chance as to who gets accepted and who doesn’t. So yes, you should definitely appreciate the wonderful opportunity you’ve been offered to study at one of the finest universities in the world. :)</p>
<p>^Sorry if I’m a bit colloquial hahaha. What I meant to say was that with those figures there are a maximum of six people from my country who were accepted. Including me, I know three people who got in. There were at least 8 of us interviewed and the three in the same session as me had amazing stats.
I agree, it really is a matter of chance. I’m just happy I get to go and I get to go with one of my best friends as well!</p>
<p>There was a thread on CC a while back basically doing the math and finding out true acceptance rates for Wharton and the other schools? Anyone know what I’m talking about and have the link?</p>
<p>^ It’s in the ‘UPenn Class of 2018 ED Applicants’ thread, but that thread is over 80 pages long now. My guess is that its somewhere in the middle, around 40-50 ish.</p>
<p>^Wharton overall admit rate versus that of other divisions isn’t really the issue here. </p>
<p>I think that 65+% of the Wharton class, including joint programs, are selected through ED. According to the Wharton profile, there are 527 Wharton freshman this year. Of the 1299 applicants admitted ED, I bet 350 of those are Wharton or Wharton joint program admits. That would leave about 949 of the 1299 admits in the three other divisions, which on average will get 50% of their students through ED. For those who seek an undergraduate business program, Wharton is second to none, and applying ED to Wharton makes sense.</p>
<p>I don’t believe a uniform 54% of the CAS, SEAS and Nursing classes has been determined. It would be a bad idea to fill a majority of the class in those divisions under ED.</p>