Penn is exchanging its individualized application form for a more generic one.
The University plans to switch to the Common Application -- a standard form accepted by 300 American colleges and universities -- this July.
Penn denied the common application for years while its peer schools accepted it, but now the Admissions Department says that the Common Application will help Penn to attract a new demographic.
In February of 2005, Stetson told the Daily Pennsylvanian that Penn did not accept the Common Application because "the seriousness with which students use the common application is suspect."
Until now, the University accepted only its own individualized application, which included two essays and several short answer questions.
The University will now require a supplement to the more bareboned Common Application. It will likely include previously used questions such as why applicants are applying to Penn and what the 217th page of their autobiography would say, according to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Stetson.
Stetson said that the switch was prompted by research and discussion with other schools that found that the application has been successful in reaching racial, ethnic, geographic and economic groups that are typically underrepresented. Reaching more students in those groups was the primary motivation for the change, he said.
Admissions officials also conducted a non-scientific survey of high school college counselors and found them comfortable with the Common Application.
Other schools have seen applications rise about 10 percent as a result of the application, Stetson said, adding that he expects a similar increase.
"I do plan to consult with other Ivy institutions to get their take on how it worked for them and what their challenges were," said Stetson, who has already conferred with Princeton and Harvard universities.
Last year, Cornell and Princeton universities joined the Common Application, leaving Brown and Columbia as the only Ivies not accepting it.
In addition to Penn, 22 other schools became Common Application members last month, including the California Institute of Technology and Northwestern and Drexel Universities.
Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers, said that convenience is the primary cause of the Common Application's rising popularity.
"The Common [Application] is kind of a success story of how institutions can come together and basically negotiate ... and convenience is the name of the game."
Sally Rubenstone, contributing editor of college counseling Web site collegeconfidential.com, said that she prefers to think that schools institute the Common Application to simplify the admissions process for students. But she added that the application is often accompanied by lengthy supplements.
Caltech Director of Undergraduate Admissions Rick Bischoff said that his office chose the Common Application to alleviate pressure on high school students, teachers and counselors.
A potential application increase did not affect the decision, though critics might suggest that it did, Bischoff said.
One potential drawback to accepting the Common Application is that many applicants may not be as serious about actually attending all of the universities they apply to, because of the relative ease with which they can submit applications.
Still, Stetson said that the supplement will allow admissions officials to determine applicants' interest in the University.
Rubenstone said that schools treat supplements to the Common Application as "something of a litmus test to see who really wants to go there" because the application enables students to apply to a school "simply by a point and click."
The application is therefore a double-edged sword, she said, because students can apply to a broader range of colleges but may not have sufficiently researched them.
Rubenstone said that well-known schools like Penn will not see more applications because of the Common Application if they include supplements.
However, high school junior Han-Bin Im of Mount Michael Benedictine High School in Nebraska said that the Common Application facilitates the application process and would make him more likely to apply to Penn.
Nassirian is optimistic about future expansion of the Common Application.
"There's no question that the standardization -- that these kinds of activities will move forward," Nassirian said. "My assumption is that the Common App will do well."
