Penn admits a record-low 8.39 percent of applicants to the Class of 2022

http://www.thedp.com/article/2018/03/class-of-2022-admissions-regular-decisions-university-of-pennsylvania-upenn-penn-philadelphia-acceptance-rate

For reference:

Harvard - 4.59%
Columbia - 5.5%
Princeton - 5.5%
Yale - 6.3%
Brown - 7.2%
Cornell - 10.3%
Dartmouth - N/A

Dartmouth has offered admission to its most selective class ever, accepting 8.7 percent of the 22,033 students who applied to the Class of 2022. Undergraduate applications rose 10 percent over last year and represent the largest pool in five years.

The acceptance rate for the Class of 2021 was 10.4 percent and the previous record was the 9.8 percent acceptance rate for the Class of 2016.

Northwestern University admitted 8.39 % Class of 2022.

Harvard–4.59%
Columbia–5.5%
Princeton–5.5%
Yale–6.3%
Brown–7.2%

Penn–8.39%
Northwestern–8.39%
Dartmouth–8.7%
Cornell–10.3%

Schools are playing games here - they’re all just trying to look as selective as one another… Here’s a list based on a few other announcements (one from the UChicago board, one from Duke, one from Hopkins, still waiting on Stanford…):

Stanford–???
Harvard–4.59%
Columbia–5.5%
Princeton–5.5%
Yale–6.3%
Chicago - 7.1%
Brown–7.2%

Duke - 8.3%
Penn–8.39%
Northwestern–8.39%
Dartmouth–8.7%
Johns Hopkins – 9.9%
Cornell–10.3%

Virtually all top universities have sub-10% acceptance rates and 50%+ yields. What does that tell you? Schools are increasingly unwilling to even compete in the open market for students any more. They look to lock up as many early as they can.

Ugh.

Penn is admitting from the same pool, and has much larger class size. That explains why Penn’s admit rate is higher than it’s peers.

What? UPenn’s acceptance rate isn’t higher than its peers - they are all about the same.

I believe Penn has the lowest admit rate of any school with a target class of its size (2,450) or larger.

Or, put another way, re class size, for UPenn to be as popular as schools like Harvard and Stanford, UPenn would need to receive about 62,000 applications (!).

A and B are each having parties. More people ask to attend party A. Party A has a larger facility and can allow more people to attend.

Fewer people want to attend party B, but Party B also has smaller facilities.

Which party is more popular? It isn’t clear to me.

If party C has invited people to a party and rejected everyone, is it the most popular?

lol

It’s the party that’s the hardest to get into.

Is it possible that some Ivies are pursuing lower rate by intentionally admitting less and drawing more from waiting list

@f2000sa
Anything is possible, but I doubt it. The problem with that strategy is that if you waitlist a student and they are admitted to other Ivies or peers, they are probably not going to bother to accept a place on your waitlist. I would rather take a bit lower yield, and try to get more students that are worth fighting for.

I think the broader question is how such a high number of schools have sub-10% accept rates.

Are Waiting Lists Out of Control?

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2018/04/02/colleges-and-high-schools-again-debate-use-waiting-lists-admissions