<p>Admitted students will comprise about 47 percent of the Class of 2016</p>
<p>By Rachel Finkel · December 9, 2011, 5:09 pm**</p>
<p>This year, Penn’s early decision acceptance rate declined by almost 1 percent, from 26.1 percent last year to 25.4 percent, Dean of Admissions Eric Furda announced on Friday.</p>
<p>Online admissions decisions were available to all applicants at 5 p.m. Friday.
<p>A lot more information has now been added to this article since the first post, above. For example, note that significantly fewer applicants were deferred this year (low 800s this year vs. 1,100 last year), but they hope to have a higher admit rate for the deferred students during the regular decision cycle:</p>
<p>^ And note that Dean Furda says they hope to have a higher admit rate for the deferred applicants during the regular decision cycle (that is, higher than that for the RD applicants and, I presume, higher than the RD admit rate for deferred applicants last year).</p>
<p>I am really hoping I get in. I love Penn so much. I wish they would let us send some more materials to show them that we haven’t given up and Penn is still our first choice.</p>
<p>^ You should definitely communicate with them to let them know that–perhaps now and again in late January or early February. At the very least, I’d suggest that you send an email to your Regional Admissions Officer:</p>
<p>^ That’s what I meant. Or if you have some sort of update (new award, grades, etc.), you could email them about that, and reaffirm that Penn remains your #1 choice and that you’d definitely attend if admitted.</p>
<p>I can’t remember where I saw it (maybe the video of the admissions panel at Wesleyan last year that included Eric Furda), but somewhere I’ve heard or read that it’s not a bad idea to let them know–although not excessively, of course–that you continue to have strong interest (i.e., at the ED commitment level) in attending. I may have heard it in the context of being waitlisted, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t also apply in the case of a deferral. If it’s not done to excess (i.e., not more than once or twice), I can’t see how it would hurt and, in a close case, it might help.</p>
<p>Okay, I just wanted to make sure because that was my exact concern. I read about cases where students let them know a little too much and it ended up hurting them in the end.</p>
<p>Thanks for the pointer 45 Percenter. You’re awesome as always :)</p>
<p>^ You might want to wait to do it until late January or early February, just to remind them about you while they’re slogging through all of the RD applications. :)</p>
<p>There’s no secret or absolutely correct answer to this–a welcome, friendly reminder to one admissions officer might be an annoying pain in the arse to another. But it just seems to me based on common sense and human nature that a well-timed reaffirmation of serious interest and commitment couldn’t hurt.</p>
<p>@45 Percenter, when they’re reviewing apps for deferred students, will they clearly be labeled as “deferred” or will we just blend in with the rest of the RD applicants?</p>
<p>My understanding is that during the RD cycle, the Admissions Office continues to recognize the fact that deferred applicants originally applied ED (it indicates a strong commitment to attending Penn, after all). And Dean Furda’s statements in The Daily Pennsylvanian article linked above, would seem to corroborate that.</p>
<p>Thank you 45 percenter, this thread helped. I’ll shoot an email over once I have composed my thoughts.</p>
<p>What things would be considered meaningful to mention or would a letter restating my commitment and passion for Penn suffice since grade reports will be sent over through the mid year report.</p>
<p>I won’t purport to know all that goes into an admissions decision, but I remember when I was applying, my essay contained text characters not recognized by the Common App. So I contacted the admissions rep for my geography, and we had a nice email exchange as she helped me figure out how to get Penn the materials needed. When I went to Preview Days, she remembered me immediately, so that was pretty cool. The point? Making contact, even to ask a question or something like that, is generally a good idea, whether it is for admissions or job applications!</p>
<p>Princeton and Harvard reinstated early action program, now it seems that they accept and defer less people in hope of getting more applications from other HYP rejects. It is quite interesting that they actually admit or hint at planning on carrying out such a thing.</p>
<p>^ Apparently, it’s not that they expect more RD applications from HYP EA rejects, but rather that they expect a higher RD yield because many of the HYP EA acceptees won’t be in the RD pool:</p>