**Video promises admissions</p>
<p>The Admissions Office sent out more than 200 academic likely letters to outstanding applicants**</p>
<p>by Seth Zweifler | Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 1:56 am</p>
<p>Regular decision applicant Omar Sobh thought he would have to wait another three weeks before finding out his college admissions fate.</p>
<p>But last Friday, Sobh a senior at Shelton High School in Fairfield County, Ct. learned of some good news much earlier than expected. </p>
<p>Sobh was one of a few hundred students who received a likely letter from Penn informing him of his upcoming acceptance to the University.</p>
<p>Last year, Penn sent out approximately 200 likely letters to top applicants an increase from 120 the year before. Though Dean of Admissions Eric Furda would not provide an exact count for this years likely letters, he said there were significantly more than last year. </p>
<p>Even in an applicant pool of 31,000-plus, some candidates are going to stand out to the highest degree, Furda said. Were identifying those students who are going to have a lot of options when decisions roll in. </p>
<p>Currently, all Ivy League schools utilize some form of academic likely letters. Harvard College Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William Fitzsimmons told the Harvard Crimson in mid-February that Harvard will send out approximately 300 likely letters this year.</p>
<p>In past years at Penn, likely candidates have received a more-or-less generic note from the Admissions Office with news of their impending decision. This time around, however, Penn decided to change the game. </p>
<p>Friday evening, likely candidates received an e-mail from the Admissions Office with a link to a website where they were greeted with a video from Furda informing them of their likely status.</p>
<p>Early in the video, Furda tells applicants that youre among a small group of students who are designated as likely candidates, meaning that on March 30 youre going to be admitted to the University of Pennsylvania. </p>
<p>The video goes on to feature input from members of the Admissions Deans Advisory Board a newly created group made up of 17 undergraduates. ADAB representatives began meeting with Furda last December to provide input on various admissions initiatives. In the video, ADAB students talk about what their Penn experience has been like.</p>
<p>This marks the first time that Penn has reached out to likely candidates in nontraditional ways like a website and video. Furda said he hopes that this years efforts provide richer opportunities for high-achieving students to learn about us
in more authentic ways. </p>
<p>Sobh said his likely e-mail was the best news [hes] received so far this year. He added that he has since received a physical copy of the letter in the mail. </p>
<p>For Charlene You a senior at Bergenfield High School in Bergen County, N.J. receiving a likely e-mail on Friday has definitely increased my pull to Penn, she said. </p>
<p>However, Jacob Feldman a senior at R.J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, N.C. said he wished that his likely letter had come in the mail before it came online.</p>
<p>It seems a bit less collegiate
and less official to first share that news through a video, he said. </p>
<p>While Feldman considers Penn a top choice, he is still waiting on decisions from Harvard, Northwestern and Yale universities. Though he is more likely to attend Penn now that his acceptance is a virtual certainty, Feldmans mind is far from made up. </p>
<p>Tim Lear, director of college counseling at the Pingry School in Martinsville, N.J., said that Penns experimentation with new strategies to inform likely candidates is the first of its kind [hes] ever seen. </p>
<p>A video is so much more effective than a piece of paper, Lear said. If Im a likely candidate, Im going to be excited because Penn made an extra effort to reach out to me.</p>
<p>Lear speculated that more peer schools may begin to implement similar strategies to keep yield rates high among likely letter recipients.</p>
<p>Nothing is ever done in a vacuum in the Ivy League, he said. When a school like Penn makes a change, its going to create a ripple effect in policy at other institutions.</p>
<p>Last year, Furda told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the Admissions Office sometimes uses likely letters to target students in under-enrolled majors like physics and chemistry. </p>
<p>Director of Hernandez College Consulting Michele Hernandez added that she has seen likely letters used as a way to bring more minority applicants to campus. </p>
<p>A school like Penn doesnt necessarily look at likely letters as a way to increase yield in general, but rather as a way to increase yield among a very specific group of applicants, Hernandez said. Either way, likely letters take a lot of the uncertainty out of a very uncertain process.