This year, 5 kids from my high school were accepted to Penn. However, all 5 turned it down for other schools. Could this hurt my chances at Penn for next year? I’ve heard that 0 attending could annoy schools that try to protect their yield and could impact decisions for the next year. I know this shouldn’t be a problem if I apply ED but I’m not yet sure I’ll be able to.
I doubt it will but no way to know. Apply on.
It depends on many factors. For example, if the admissions officer who reviews applications from your school tracks this sort of data, it will definitely affect your chances. 0 for 5 does not sit well in an Ivy League. Since you are asking, I assume Penn is your first choice. If that is the case, apply ED to mitigate risk.
I’m pretty sure it will not affect your application. Agreed that if Penn is your top choice and affordable, apply ED.
@Alexandre @TheDidactic Thank you. I want to ED, but I need special permission from my high school in order to do so. I’m on academic scholarship, and as part of the contract I signed away my right to ED. Sometimes they allow students on scholarship to ED, sometimes they don’t. We’ll see next fall.
I don’t think it should make a huge difference. Last year, only 1 out of 5 accepted at my school ended up going to Penn, but this year, at least 3 were still accepted.
Unfortunately it might affect your chances. That doesn’t mean it will, so there really is nothing to be gained by worrying about it.
If your school had 5 kids accepted the adcoms are certainly aware of your HS. Adcoms are in a partnership of sorts with GCs. Especially at the schools they know they may contact the GC to get extra information not clear from the app that may help the student; for example there is a dip in grades one semester but the GC says “oh, her mom was in and out of the hospital that semester”. GCs can pass on unofficial recs: “the teachers say Joe is really the star of the senior class this year”.
As part of the partnership, though, the adcoms expect the GC to make sure students that kids for whom the school is a good fit understand that. If they feel they aren’t getting their “fair share” of such kids they may decide to send a message to the GC staff. Now you’re not going to find this on any school website, but if you read books about admissions written by adcoms such a philosophy is mentioned.
Just checked again and it was actually 0/6. If anyone’s wondering, of those that turned it down:
1 chose Harvard, 1 chose Yale, 1 chose CalTech, 1 chose UChicago, 1 chose Vanderbilt (Cornelius Scholar), 1 I don’t know.
Penn has to fill a freshman class of ~2400 students every year. If they get too fancy and arbitrarily deny qualified students, then they would feel some consequences for that as well.
It should not, theoretically.
Only thing I can think of that would affect next year’s decisions is when ED applicants break the agreement
UPenn may need to reevaluate its aid. Maybe all those qualified students got better aid elsewhere. UChi doesn’t use NCP info, H and Y give better aid, V doesn’t use NCP info, but that kid got merit, etc.
I think if you’re worried, and you believe that the NPC info is correct and affordable, then apply ED.
Do you have any situations that will hurt FA, such as having a NCP or family business or family deductions?
@mom2collegekids thankfully, I won’t need FA anywhere. Like I said, I plan to ED, just hope my school lets me.
@merc81 great point, thank you.
One thing that you can do proactively is to contact your regional representative.
Ask them directly if the action of other graduates from your school will be help against you in the admission process, because you’ve heard rumors about this type of thing and you’re concerned.
No AdCom in their right mind would ever admit to this even it it were true (and I don’t think that it is), but by letting them know of your concern, you’re implying that your intention would be to accept an offer.
You should make sure that the rep knows that you are potentially under restriction regarding ED, but that if you could, you certainly would. This should be done in conjunction with your counselor, if possible.
Your counselor can make clear to the U Penn folks that under your current scholarship obligations, you are not able to apply ED. This is also a good chance for the counselor to advocate for your candidacy.
Be sure to follow up any on contacts and where possible, continue to reinforce your message that U Penn is your solid first choice.
Realistically, if you’re a scholarship student, it’s unlikely that ED would be a good choice for you anyway, since you’ll most likely need to factor in FinAid to afford your four years. Mom2collegekids made a good point about those students likely accepting other offers because of getting better aid. This is something that you may also need to factor in, when you compare your final offers.
Best of luck.
@hop thanks so much! My guidance counselor has told me that if I am not allowed to apply ED, she will explain the restriction to Penn as you suggested. Also, my high school scholarship is completely merit based. Thankfully, I won’t need any FA and Penn is my definite first choice, so ED is the best option. I greatly appreciate your thoughtful reply.
Not to distract from the real question at hand, but I’m curious. Why would your high school ask you to sign away your right to ED?
@ClaremontMom the concensus on campus is that they want more acceptances in the brochures. “Jonny was accepted to Harvard, Yale, Penn, and Columbia”, rather than just “Jonny was accepted to Columbia”. It makes sense in that the students on scholarships are the smartest kids and will get the most acceptances anyways.
I suspected that might be the case, but I was hoping there was a better reason than that.
Penn is a school that you can apply ED to whether or not it’s affordable. They encourage you to apply if it is your first choice. Not all schools do this. If they don’t offer you a package that will enable you to attend, you can ask for a release. You and your parents get to decide if the package enables you attend. Over 95% of the people who accepted ED attend. About 1 in 20 find their packages unworkable.