A world-class fencer from Spain, a published author of fiction from Ghana, a reality TV star from North Carolina and a Bulgarian who raised money to pay a local orphanage's electric bills all could be on Penn's campus next year.
These individuals are just four of the 3,912 who were admitted out of an applicant pool of nearly 20,000 to Penn's Class of 2009. The 20.8 percent acceptance rate represents a 0.4 percentage point decrease from last year, admissions officials said yesterday.
For the regular-decision round, Penn's acceptance rate was a record low of 16.7 percent, down 0.8 percentage points. This decrease can be attributed to a 3.1 percent increase in the number of regular applicants as well as a slightly larger number of students being accepted in the early-decision round this year.
In 2004, 2,611 out of 14,942 regular-decision candidates were accepted, whereas this year 2,579 of the 15,403 were accepted in the spring.
Although the College granted admission to 2,455 students this year -- 49 more than in 2004 -- its acceptance rate basically remained constant, decreasing by just 0.1 percent.
The School of Engineering and Applied Science also saw little change from last year, as it accepted the same number of students, 850, with an admittance rate of 32 percent, 0.3 percent lower than last year's.
The Wharton School, which had an acceptance rate of 13.6 percent -- down from 15.2 percent last year -- saw a more significant change. The admitted students numbered 484 -- 9 fewer than last year.
Finally, 123 applicants were accepted to the School of Nursing, a rate of 41.8 percent. Last year, 129 were accepted, representing 39.7 percent of the pool.
In total, 13,067 applicants were rejected and 1,297 were placed on the waiting list.
According to Dean of Undergraduate of Admissions Lee Stetson, wait-listed students have a "5 to 10 percent chance" of ultimately being accepted, but that number depends on what percentage of accepted students take Penn up on its offer of admission.
The goal is to have a freshman class of 2,420.
In general, application numbers were up and acceptance rates were down across the Ivy League. Stetson attributed this to more active recruiting, rising rates of matriculation -- which have caused schools to admit a smaller number of students to fill the same number of spots -- and the fact that Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Cornell and Dartmouth all now accept the Common Application.
Stetson said that he briefed President Amy Gutmann and Provost Peter Conn on the results last Friday and that Gutmann "seemed to be very excited about what she heard."
"The students are, every year, a shade more talented in and outside the classroom, and this year is no exception," Stetson said.
He added that the average SAT score of accepted students was 707 in verbal and 727 in math, for a total of 1434. This is up three points from last year's average.
The average SAT II score this year was 720, up one point from last year.
Stetson said admitted students represent all 50 states, 81 countries and six continents.
However, 26 fewer international applicants were accepted this year. The 463 accepted represent 12 percent of all admitted students.
Among minorities, 367 black applicants, 278 Latinos and 17 Native Americans were accepted. These represent increases of six, 10, and seven, respectively, over last year.
Adding that he expects these minorities to constitute about 15 percent of the Class of 2009, Stetson said that the matriculation rate for minority students is typically higher than the average and has been "rising nicely over the last number of years."
With a record-high number of accepted applicants from six states, Stetson said that Penn is becoming "more geographically diverse."
For this he credited the national recruiting tour that the school has run over the last few years with Harvard, Georgetown and Duke universities, as well as the increased amount of national media coverage Penn has recently received.
Also among those admitted were 449 students whose parents or grandparents attended the University -- 10 more than last year -- and 185 students from Philadelphia, the same figure as last year.
