wharton Early Decision admission rate

enigma_solved
Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:07:40 +0000

Hey here’s a thought: instead of positing acceptance rates based mainly on intuition, let’s try to find some actual data to use!

[A New Hybrid at Wharton](Businessweek - Bloomberg)

The current dean of undergraduate admissions at that time, Lee Stetson, stated in 2006 that the Wharton acceptance rate was 8-9%.

[UPenn Admissions 2010](ivysuccess.com is for sale)

According to this site, (somebody else can try to find a more official source) 20,479 people applied to Penn in 2006.

[Total apps break U. record | The Daily Pennsylvanian](Total apps break U. record | The Daily Pennsylvanian)

Penn received 26,800 applicants in 2010. This represents an increase of ~30% from 2006. Therefore, assuming that the increase in applications was fairly evenly distributed among the schools (perhaps unlikely, as some have noted), an increase in the Wharton acceptance rate from 8-9% to 12% would imply that the size of Wharton almost doubled in 4 years! (to help illustrate this point - 100(.08)=8, 130(.12)=15.6)

If we assume the size of the Wharton undergraduate population stayed constant, (probably unlikely, I was unable to find past records of Wharton class size, again, somebody can search for data if they feel inclined) the current Wharton acceptance rate would be somewhere between ~6.11-6.88%