Record Number Applies for Class of 2018

45_Percenter
Mon, 13 Jan 2014 13:02:48 +0000

But what you folks are raising are really systemic issues, and not Penn-specific. Unless most selective schools are willing to end their early admissions programs, it would be foolhardy for one of those schools (such as Penn) to unilaterally end its own early program. We saw what happened when Harvard–with the world’s largest endowment and perhaps the highest RD admissions yield in the country–eliminated its early admissions program along with Princeton and UVA: needless to say, their early admissions programs are back, and bigger than ever (although Princeton now uses EA in lieu of ED). In fact, Harvard now accepts 60% of its target class number through EA, and that’s WITH an overall admissions yield of close to 80% (the EA yield is undoubtedly even higher).

And this is not to make excuses for Penn’s ED program (not that I think it necessarily needs them) by pointing out that everyone else is doing it. But I think it’s unreasonable to expect Penn to unilaterally end or limit its ED program given the programs of its peers. And the question of whether 40%, 48%, or 54% of the entering class is admitted through ED is a bit irrelevant, in my opinion. More relevant are the percentages of enrolled students who are on financial aid and/or come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and those percentages have been steadily and significantly increasing (thanks in no small part to being a major priority of Amy Gutmann’s Penn Compact, and of fundraising efforts such as the Making History campaign).

All that being said, I think you guys DO raise valid points, and this is a healthy discussion to have. :)