Not only did a record number of high-school students apply to Penn this year, but a higher percentage of those accepted are choosing to enroll.
According to Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson, preliminary results have Penn on track for a 1 to 2 percentage-point increase from last year's yield of 65.5 percent.
This number is even higher than admissions officers expected, and Stetson said he believes that the number of students accepted from the waitlist will be "nominal."
"We will have enrolled precisely the number we wanted," Stetson said. "It just appears that Penn's star continues to rise."
The University accepted 3,622 out of 20,479 applicants this year for a record-low 17.7 percent acceptance rate.
Keeping with recent trends, the Class of 2010 is shaping up to be among the most diverse and skilled ever to attend the University, Stetson said.
"The class looks to be as interesting and academically accomplished as any we've had," he said.
All 50 states will be represented in the Class of 2010.
According to Stetson, the class is on track to set a record for diversity. In particular, 206 black students are set to attend, compared to 193 last year.
After the University faced a housing shortage when the Class of 2009 exceeded predicted enrollment rates, Stetson had said more students were waitlisted this year than the year before.
However, Stetson said he does not anticipate accepting more than 20 or so students from the 800 to 900 in the waitlist pool.
"We are fortunate to be in a very strong position," Stetson said. "It means more students are choosing Penn as a first choice."
Even the possibility of a housing crunch would not have deterred Taylor Bernheim, a senior at Ramaz High School in New York who has been accepted to the Class of 2010, from enrolling, however.
"I would rather have been accepted and lived in a closet," Bernheim said. "I would have lived on the roof because I really wanted to go to Penn, so I feel bad for the people who wanted to go to Penn and are now waitlisted."
According to Stetson, Penn's yield has risen in recent years and is now in line with most peer institutions.
David Reiman, the assistant director of undergraduate admissions at Yale University, said that while some letters from the more remote regions of the country have yet to arrive, the university is "right on track" to maintain a yield similar to last year's 73.1 percent.
Harvard University Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath Lewis said the school should have a yield rate around 78 percent, as in previous years. She does not expect the rate to drop after the university's slight decrease in the number of applications received.
"If a college finds its yield drops dramatically, especially for more than one year, then that might raise all types of questions," she said.
Harvard was the only Ivy school to accept a greater percentage of its applicants this year than last.
