Maybe Penn is trying to increase yield even more and thus reduce acceptance rate.
Penn is at a disadvantage when it comes to acceptance rate due to its considerably larger class size than Chicago, Columbia, Duke, HYPSM . When yield was factored into the rankings Penn was able to be in the top 5, but since usnews stopped using it, Penn has been relegated to the lower half of the top 5. Also it is part of Penn’s identity to admit more well-rounded people or people with amazing ECs (company founders, charities etc) who might have competitive but not amazing SATs which then results in lower average SATs, which is similar to Stanford s philosophy. I don’t think Penn is willing to sacrifice that by admitting more of the bookish, nerdy high SAT kids at the expense of what it thinks are more interesting people, so maybe it is looking for ways to improve its ranking through lowering acceptance rate.
And I can’t say I blame them, I don’t see any legitimate reason why Penn should be ranked lower than Columbia or Chicago. This year Penn ranked #9, the first time it has held a position that low in almost 20 years, so it might have been a wake-up call to action. This isn’t a reflection of deterrioration in quality or any other issue, Penn has been going from strength to strength in all areas. It is just that the ranking criteria don’t favor Penn as much so i guess they feel that some changes needs to be made. StillI don’t see how this new policy will have a meaningful impact on the acceptance rate though.
I think what Penn needs to do is lower the class size by 400-500 people and they should be fine. Not just to make the acceptance rate more competitive, but just in general I think Penn is slightly too big for an ivy, a class size of 1900-2000 would be ideal.