Fear the waitlist? You could still have a shot

Penn may accept a greater number of applicants regular decision and from the waiting list this year, largely in response to Harvard and Princeton Universities' decisions to eliminate their early-acceptance programs, interim Dean of Admissions Eric Kaplan said.

Kaplan said he thinks Penn's applicant pool likely includes students who, in past years, would have been accepted early at Harvard or Princeton and who are now are now applying to a greater number of schools. This could lead to fewer students deciding to enroll at Penn.

As a result, Penn may have a higher regular-decision acceptance rate than it has seen in recent years, and Penn and other universities are preparing to utilize their waitlists more extensively than in the past.

Stanford University does not plan to admit a greater number of applicants than it has in previous years but might admit more students from its waitlist if necessary, according to Shawn Abbott, Stanford's director of admissions.

"Using our waitlists more actively this year is certainly an option in the event the number of students who accept our offer of admission isn't as high as we expect," Abbott wrote in an a-mail.

Washington, D.C.-based college consultant Steven Goodman said he believes it is a smart idea for universities to be prepared to go to their waitlists, because the lists can "serve as an insurance policy" if the schools still have room in their classes after accepted students make their decisions.

It is difficult for selective universities to predict yield rates because they do not ask applicants where else they applied until after the students are accepted, Abbott wrote.

However, it will take a few years to determine the effects of Harvard's and Princeton's moves away from early decision, Kaplan said. For now, he is not worried about the caliber of Penn's class of 2012, even if more students than usual are accepted from the waiting list.

"I'm optimistic that the class of 2012 will be Penn's finest," he said.

Experts also agree that admitting waitlisted students doesn't dilute the quality of the incoming class.

"A lot of students end up on the waitlist who are perfectly qualified," said Nadine Warner, a counselor with the firm AdmissionsConsultants.

This year, Penn saw an increase of only 225 regular-decision applications from the 2006-2007 admissions cycle, while other Ivy League universities saw larger increases.

However, rising application numbers are not necessarily the result of Harvard and Princeton dropping their early-acceptance programs, Warner said.

"I think that more students are applying to more schools regardless," Warner said. "It's not a single factor at play."

Penn's early-decision acceptance rate matched the school's lowest-ever percentage at 28 percent.

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