Early admit rate down for Penn's Class of 2007

While many high school seniors still have months to wait for college admissions decisions, 1,122 students already have their acceptance letters from Penn in hand. Forty-seven percent of next year's freshman class has been admitted under Penn's early decision program this year, down from 49 percent last year, according to Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson. The acceptance rate itself is also down. About 33 percent of early applicants received offers of admission in December. Last year, 39 percent of early applicants were admitted. Despite the recent debates over early decision, Penn and most of the other Ivy League schools saw an increase in early applicants this fall. "This is the lowest acceptance rate we've ever had," Stetson said. "The percent accepted gets lower each year, as the pool continues to grow and the quality of the applicants also increases." Of the students admitted, 742 were accepted to the College of Arts and Sciences, 151 to the School of Engineering and Applied Science, 200 to the Wharton School and 29 to the School of Nursing. Twenty-five students were accepted to the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, and 22 got into the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology. Acceptance rates varied among the four undergraduate schools. About 35 percent of applicants to the College or the Engineering School were accepted, while 26.7 percent of Wharton applicants and 50.9 percent of Nursing applicants were accepted. Penn admitted 47.4 percent of legacy applicants this fall, a decrease from last year's 50.1 percent, making up about 19 percent of all those admitted early. The high percentage of legacy students accepted has been controversial at Penn and other schools across the country, but Stetson defended Penn's legacy preference. "Our legacy applicants are very important to us," he said. "We take the best of those applicants whose families are part of the University of Pennsylvania community." Penn saw an increase in early applications from minority students this year. Forty-five black students were accepted early, up from 32 last year. The number of Latino students accepted rose slightly to 48 from last year's 46. Like the issue of legacy preference, affirmative action policies in college admissions have also faced recent criticism. Two lawsuits against the University of Michigan's affirmative action policies are currently before the Supreme Court. Although Penn's admissions office does not use any form of point system that awards a numerical advantage to minority students as Michigan does, Stetson stated that Penn does use affirmative action in admissions. "Penn believes in accepting a broad-based entering class from all walks of life," he said. There was a slight decrease in the number of international students accepted, down to 80 from last year's 91. Penn also looks for diversity in the secondary schools from which students apply. Fifty-three percent of students accepted early currently attend public schools, 42 percent attend private schools and the remainder attend parochial or home schools. While in past years early decision candidates had to wait for their admission letters to arrive by mail, this year they could access their acceptance status online. The online decisions "worked out perfectly," Stetson said. The Penn Web site saw about 9,000 inquiries on Dec. 12, the day decisions were released. Admissions officers are already in the process of reading regular decision applications. A few are still trickling in, according to Stetson.