Class of 2023 yield rate jumps to 70% — Penn’s highest in 10 years

Penn’s yield rate reached 70 percent for the Class of 2023 after the most selective round of admissions in the University’s history.

The yield rate measures the percentage of students who enroll at Penn after receiving an acceptance. This year, 70% of 3,345 admitted students accepted their offers, the highest yield rate in the past decade, according to the Penn Common Data Set.

The Class of 2020 previously held the record for the highest yield rate at 67.8 percent. The rate has dipped since then, reaching 67.3% last year.

"This year, for example, was the first full year of our new information session, it was a year when we made programmatic changes to our admitted student events, and a year when we launched a redesigned website and branding strategy," Kathryn Bezella, Vice Dean and director of marketing and communications for Penn Admissions, wrote in an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian. 

"With so many areas that are growing and improving, it is difficult to attribute our yield rate to specific initiatives, but we’re happy to see Penn continue to be a top choice for so many students and their families," Bezella added.

Penn’s peer institutions also reported increases in their yield rates. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported a record-high yield rate of 78%, and Harvard University and Princeton University also reported historically high yields at nearly 83% and 73.2% respectively.

The newest class of freshmen is comprised of 2,400 students who hail from 79 nations and all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, according to Penn Today. 

In March, Penn admitted a record-low proportion of applicants for the Class of 2023, with 3,345 out of 44,960 applicants being accepted.

Fifteen percent of students in the incoming class identified as first-generation. Fifty-one percent of admitted U.S. students self-identified as students of color and 53% of the admitted students identified as female.

New Student Orientation for the Class of 2023 takes place from August 21 to August 26.