While high school seniors are still waiting to hear back from colleges, Penn’s Nursing class of 2014 can finally relax.
Dean of Admissions Eric Furda confirmed that Penn notified applicants to the Nursing School about their admissions decisions on Friday, Feb. 19.
Continuing Penn’s trend of increased applications this year, nursing applications went up 26 percent.
The Nursing class will be the most selective ever, with a 20-percent acceptance rate, according to Furda.
Penn’s other undergraduate schools will also see low acceptance rates, according to Furda.
However, unlike applicants to the College, the Engineering School or the Wharton School, Nursing students do not have to wait until April 1 to know if they have been accepted.
Furda explained that the decision to notify Nursing students earlier is because several other schools also notify their nursing applicants before others.
“We don’t want to be at a competitive disadvantage,” Furda said.
“People who apply to Nursing usually apply to only nursing, so I’m guessing schools try to compete for people to accept,” Nursing freshman Tacie Reger said.
She did not know she would find out earlier from Nursing schools but liked having the extra time to be able to visit and make her decision.
Nursing sophomore Hannah McInnes thinks nurses are notified earlier because the Nursing school has its own Penn Preview Days, which happen soon after acceptance letters are sent out.
“It’s all Nursing-based. We get paired up with a freshman student and do an overnight trip,” McInnes said.
Having just found out about his admission to Penn’s Nursing and Health Management program, high school senior Karl Ingram said the earlier notification has “definitely” motivated him to go to Penn over the schools he has not heard back from.
Peer nursing schools, including Villanova University and Boston College, do not release their nursing decisions before their decisions on other schools within their institutions, according to Villanova Coordinator of College Relations Ann McKenzie and Boston College Admissions Graduate Assistant Katherine Kelley.
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