Total number of applications for Class of 2012 increases slightly over Class of 2011

[45_Percenter]

<p>

**Total application numbers steady</p>

<p>By: Naomi Jagoda</p>

<p>Posted: 2/15/08**</p>

<p>For the class of 2012, the University received the largest number of applications in the school’s history, the Admissions office announced this week. </p>

<p>But the less-than-1-percent rise in the number of total applicants to Penn is significantly less than increases reported by peer institutions.</p>

<p>A total of 22,794 students applied to Penn in the 2007-2008 admissions cycle, representing a .7-percent increase over the class of 2011’s previously record-breaking number of 22,646 applications.</p>

<p>The number of students who applied regular decision also rose by a small amount. This admissions cycle, 18,865 prospective students applied regular decision, compared to 18,645 in the previous cycle. Early-decision application numbers were down this year by 1.5 percent.</p>

<p>Application numbers remained about the same at all four undergraduate schools, interim Dean of Admissions Eric Kaplan said.</p>

<p>Penn’s relatively steady total numbers were unusual among its peer institutions. Harvard University’s application numbers saw an increase of 19 percent and Dartmouth University also saw a double-digit increase. At Princeton, Brown and Cornell application numbers rose by more than 5 percent.</p>

<p>Kaplan said he is not concerned about the relatively small increase in applications this year because Penn’s application numbers grew by 10 percent for the 2006-2007 admissions cycle.</p>

<p>“It’s impossible to sustain those increases every year,” he said.</p>

<p>Steven Goodman, an education consultant based in Washington D.C., said he believes Kaplan’s statement is valid.</p>

<p>“One can’t constantly have dramatic increases,” he said. </p>

<p>Goodman also said he believes Penn’s consistently large applicant pool means that students are “inherently comfortable with the University as an institution.”</p>

<p>However, Goodman said Penn has reason to be concerned if its growth rate remains consistently lower than other Ivies’ rates because it will make Penn appear to be less selective.</p>

<p>If that ends up being the case, “it may be that Penn needs to do slightly more aggressive outreach,” he said.</p>

<p>Kaplan said there were not substantial differences in the demographics of the applicant pool compared to last year, though there was a small increase in the number of applicants who reside greater distances from Philadelphia.</p>

<p>There were, however, significant increases in the method of application. 73 percent of prospective students used the Common Application rather than Penn’s own application, up from 64 percent in 2006-2007. </p>

<p>This is the last year that Penn will offer its own application. Starting with the class of 2013, applicants must apply using the Common Application or the Universal College Application, which Penn will accept for the first time this fall.</p>

<p>The number of applicants who applied online increased from 18,849 to 20,725.</p>

<p>Regular decision applicant Raffi Greenberg, a senior at J.R. Masterman High School in Philadelphia, said he is optimistic about his chances of admission despite Penn’s large application numbers. </p>

<p>“It’s definitely somewhat intimidating because there are so many strong applicants,” Greenberg said.

[Total</a> application numbers steady - News](<a href=“http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2008/02/15/News/Total.Application.Numbers.Steady-3212701.shtml]Total”>http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2008/02/15/News/Total.Application.Numbers.Steady-3212701.shtml)</p>

[AY8888]

<p>More competition for wharton :(. Oh well, thats life. :p</p>

[classic3020]

<p>Christ why are there so many of us…</p>

[ilovebagels]

<p>Because there are so many of us</p>

<p>signed,
the undergraduate body of 10,000 students ;)</p>

[arachnophobia12]

<p>

Regular decision applicant Raffi Greenberg, a senior at J.R. Masterman High School in Philadelphia, said he is optimistic about his chances of admission despite Penn’s large application numbers.

lol-he’s in my class <– (random, i know)…</p>

<p>well, good luck, everyone!</p>

[ilovebagels]

<p>On the plus side, the acceptance rate will probably be marginally higher–more of the applicants are RD as opposed to ED, which means the admissions people will have to anticipate smaller yield and offer acceptance letters to more students because of it.</p>

[45_Percenter]

<p>^ Not necessarily. 2 words: waiting list.</p>

[Czar212]

<p>way to look on the bright side</p>

[mattwonder]

<p>Actually, this is going to be the easiest year to get into Penn, relatively speaking - application rates are way way up at so many of our peer institutions that they’ll all be getting much more selective this year while Penn remains the same.</p>

[Percy_Skivins]

<p>Too bad you can’t get in “relatively” - given that the # of apps to Penn is higher than ever and the # of seats hasn’t changed, logically it will be slightly harder to get in than last year. Can’t say what the future holds but this year is close to the peak baby boom echo year and after that the # of US HS seniors starts to go down. So I’d say that difficulty is at or near the peak right now. “Easiest year” in the modern era would be back in early 90s in between the baby boom and the baby boom “echo” - at that time the pool would have been about 25% smaller than it is today and the admission rates were several times higher than they are now.</p>

<p>This chart (add 18 yrs to the birth years) gives you a pretty good hint on the situation:</p>

<p><a href=“Search | Infoplease”>Search | Infoplease;

<p>1990 was the top year for births since 1961 - demography is destiny.</p>

[FellowCCViewer]

<p>

1986 3,731,000 15.5
1987 3,829,000 15.7
1988 3,913,000 15.9
1989 4,021,000 16.2
1990 4,179,000 16.7
1991 4,111,000 16.2
1992 4,084,000 16.0
1993 4,039,000 15.7
1994 3,979,000 15.3

</p>

<p>I knew there was something fishy about my year.</p>

[classic3020]

<p>you 1990 people are messing everything up for us 1989ers…</p>