Acceptance rate hits record-low 21.5 percent

After months of nervously checking their mailboxes, high school seniors across the country finally received word on their Penn applications this weekend. And the news was good for only 2,968 -- or 18.2 percent -- of regular decision applicants. "This is the most selective year we've had," Admissions Dean Lee Stetson said. "The depth of the pool was very impressive." Penn's admissions rate has been declining since 1991, and a record-low 21.5 percent of this year's 19,150 total applicants were accepted. Last year's initial rate of admittance was 22 percent, and 22.9 percent after students from the wait list were admitted. The admissions office sent out the decision letters on April 4. "The blackout is over as of today," Stetson said yesterday. "Everyone should know by now." A total of 4,124 students have been admitted for the class of 2005 in both the early and regular admission processes, down from the 4,313 admitted last year. Stetson said the school selected more conservatively this year, as over 40 percent of the class has already been filled by early applicants. "We purposely went out short this year so we could use the wait list to control the class size," he said. The target size for the incoming class is 2,385. "If the yield stays or goes up, we'll be right on target," he said. Last year the yield rate of admitted students matriculating was 55.5 percent. Stetson said the yield has been improving in the last few years. The Wharton School, which saw the greatest rise in number of applicants, accepted 508 of 3,619 applicants, or 14 percent, down from last year's 16 percent. The College most dramatically reduced its number of acceptances, selecting only 2,596 of its 11,969 applicants -- 21.7 percent -- for the class of 2005. Last year the College accepted 23.2 percent. The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences accepted almost the same percentage of applicants as it did last year. The school accepted 916 of its 3,380 applicants, or 27.1 percent. This is up from last year's acceptance rate of 26.9 percent. The School of Nursing, which saw a drop in applicants to 182 from 215 last year, accepted 57 percent of applicants. Last year, 49.3 of applicants were accepted. Stetson does not find the fall in Nursing applicants alarming, saying that the profession is undergoing a "metamorphosis" and will rebound in the near future. "When students see that nursing graduates have the highest salaries in the University, even above Wharton, it will pick up again," he said. Of the students admitted, Stetson said about half are women and 37 percent are minorities. Of alumni legacy applicants, 360 students were admitted. The average SAT score of the admitted class stayed exactly the same as last year, at 1412. The average verbal score is 696, and the average math score is 716. There was a slight increase in the average SAT II score to 710 from 708. "This is a very strong class in every way. It is another step in the right direction," Stetson said. He said the admitted students are all about in the top 3 percent of their class and have an average grade point average of 3.7. The majority of the admitted students attend public high schools. Five home schooled students were also admitted. "We had a stronger group this year. We chose from a more robust pool," Stetson said. "We're slowly moving upward." He said this was evidenced by the fact that 65 percent of the students who were turned away for next year's class scored over 1400 on their SATs. The admissions office will be busy the rest of April touring and hosting the admitted students and encouraging them to matriculate through the Penn Previews program. Admitted students have until May 1 to make their decision.