Penn early decision applications drop 14% from last year

https://www.thedp.com/article/2019/11/penn-admissions-early-decision-applications-class-of-2024

Strange for this to happen this year when Penn’s ranking rose in both USNews as well as the Wall Street Journal. Any theories as to what is really going on here? Less kids out there? Less interest in city schools? Or a random happening?

Probably due to the publicity about the high number of student suicides at UPenn which were publicized recently after the person in charge of mental health counseling committed suicide at UPenn after having moved over from a long career at Cornell University.

Applications are similar to what they were in 2017 per the chart in the article, which still represents significant growth over 2012…seems like the last two years’ increase in apps were the aberration, at least according to Eric Furda, Dean of Admissions:

Tough to identify and quantify all the reasons that might be impacting the numbers, but census for college age students is not yet decreasing.

The decrease in apps could be due to more than one reason as the SAT bump theory makes sense and I do not recall the timing of the publicity concerning UPenn’s alarming suicide rate.

Their most famous alumni making applicants question school’s academic standards and unfair admission policies? Alarming numbers of suicides and depression cases on campus making parents worried? Dean of admission’s anger display video making applicants uncomfortable? There are many obvious reasons and probably many not so obvious ones?

Did this adjust for population? I seem to recall that there was a marked drop in births in our area after the boom of the year 2000.

If the drop in number of applications was due to a shifting population, then the issue would be widespread among the elite colleges & universities.

@Publisher - I’ve unofficially heard that there were drops in EA application numbers at Cornell too.

Also am wondering if some of it could be because of the drop in international students because of the difficulties in obtaining student visas.

Maybe people are starting to figure out that at many Ivy-level schools, ED is nowhere near as big a boost for unhooked kids as some might have you believe.

@momofsenior1: Interesting observation as both Cornell & UPenn were discussed in the article concerning the suicide of UPenn’s mental health director who had spent the prior 20 years or so at Cornell University.

We were 100% dead set on applying ED at Cornell for my daughter…until we changed our minds. We realized that there are too many legit opportunities at other great schools that we simply can’t ignore. Cornell is still her top choice, but we have to be realistic. Once accepted ED, I’ve heard that some schools (Boston University) tend to get stingy with aid. Not sure if others have applied this same logic with Penn.

Are any other top schools reporting? My hunch is that it’s the same across the board. If so, I’d look at costs, drop in international students, who knows. Probably many factors.

Duke ED and Harvard SCEA decisions were released tonight and both experienced a drop in the number of applications received this year.

I just doubt we’ve turned a corner where kids are more cautious in their scrutiny of college targets. Or that kids gunning for prestige would be affected by a suicide.

The question is, seeing the number of early apps go down, will kids leap to the conclusion their own early shot is better next year? Without examining what else affects that?

Parents often have significant impact on where a student applies ED or EA so concerns about extreme pressure & students’ mental health may be a factor affecting the downturn in apps.

Brown’s ED apps were up by 8%. https://www.brown.edu/news/2019-12-12/early

Maybe it does have at least something to do with mental health bc Brown seems like it would be the least intensely competitive atmosphere of all the Ivies. (Whether or not that’s actually true, I don’t know.)

It’s difficult to parse out the reasons that apps increase/decrease. Once the college going population starts declining (around 2025) it may be more straightforward, yet if a greater proportion of 18 year olds go to college then apps could increase even then…it gets complicated!

As for ED apps this year, Bowdoin saw a 12.5% increase over last year: https://bowdoinorient.com/2019/12/05/bowdoin-receives-record-number-of-applicants-for-early-decision-round-i/

No mystery regarding Bowdoin College as awareness grows that it is standardized test optional, has a beautiful campus located near the ocean, & the school serves lobster.

Did someone say Lobster?

Bowdin has only 1800 ugrads.

A 12% increase is fewer than the number of people at your local Walmart.