Last year, Penn admitted 16.4 percent of its applicants, Princeton University admitted 9.3 percent. This year the Wine Preceptorial topped all with its 2.3 percent admit rate.
Out of the 869 students who applied to participate in this year's wine-tasting class, only 20 were allowed to enroll through a random selection process.
Although the class has been a popular rite of passage for many seniors - as in past years, over a third of the senior class applied to the program - the Preceptorials Committee will not increase enrollment.
The Undergraduate Assembly granted the Preceptorials Committee its requested budget for the program, but Wharton senior and Preceptorials vice chairman Varun Jain explained that the Committee never intended to expand the class.
"The preceptorial requires pretty extensive planning," said Jain. "We were always [planning to keep] the same number of students and just [lower] the cost per student to run the preceptorial."
According to College junior and Preceptorials chairman Danny Fein, the professors leading the course also prefer that class size be capped at 25 students to preserve the intimacy of the event.
In an e-mail notifying students who applied to participate but were placed on the 849-member wait list, Jain explained that he included several options similar to the class offered in the Philadelphia area.
These suggestions included the Philomathean Society's latest wine seminar - which began Wednesday - and local commercial options like the Wine School of Philadelphia.
"However, our wine preceptorial - if one gets in - trumps all," Jain said, noting the number and variety of wines as two of the program's unrivaled strengths. He also stressed that the Wine Preceptorial is free, while the others require a fee.
Many seniors were not surprised, however, when they received the wait list e-mail notification.
"I pretty much assumed that I wasn't going to get in," College senior Mark Magee said. "I think that's unfortunate."
He also signed up for the Cheese Tasting Preceptorial but was wait-listed for that program also.
Other students, however, did not expect such demand.
College senior Jessica Shanken explained that she did not expect many to apply, based on the seniors-only policy and a lack of publicity. She only heard of the Preceptorial through word-of-mouth.
"I felt very cool that I knew about something that no one else did," said Shanken. "I didn't expect that many people to sign up. I honestly thought I was going to get it."
The program, however, may not always be such an exclusive event. Jain said he suspects the class may "be opened up to many more students next year" and in the future.
Shanken proposed that multiple classes at different time slots would be a great way to combat the class' popularity.
Jain's only advice for this year? "Stay on the list and brave it out," he suggested.
