Penn released early decision admissions results for the Class of 2030 on Dec. 18, 2025, welcoming students from over 60 countries and 49 states to campus.
During last year’s early decision application cycle — the first since Penn reinstated its standardized testing requirement — Penn received over 7,800 applicants. The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with three students admitted early to the Class of 2030 about what drew them to Penn and what they are looking forward to in the upcoming years.
Cortney Buford is from Dallas and was admitted to the College of Arts and Sciences, where she intends to study health and societies. Buford — who hopes to attend law school after completing her undergraduate degree — is pursuing the major to study the equities of American healthcare outcomes.
“This major was so interesting to me because it didn’t approach health as a very black and white thing,” Buford said. “It’s not a monolith — it’s built on a lot of exploitation of different communities.”
Buford is also “super excited” about becoming involved with Penn’s cultural centers.
“I follow a lot of them on Instagram, and I always see the cool activities that they're getting up to and speakers that they have come and talk to them,” Buford said.
Buford visited Penn’s campus the summer before her junior year of high school, which informed her decision to commit to the “binding aspect” of the University’s early decision application.
“I just really fell in love with it,” Buford told the DP.
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Anya Li, who is from Santa Clara, Calif., was admitted to the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology and plans to study electrical engineering alongside a concentration in either finance or accounting.
The M&T program is a “great opportunity to explore both sides and truly make a difference,” Li explained. She decided to apply through the early decision process after attending the M&T Summer Institute in 2025, where she met several Penn students and faculty.
Li, who has also practiced synchronized swimming and coached athletes with disabilities, discussed how the M&T program offers an opportunity to pursue her interest in creating assistive technology for swimmers and ultimately help athletes with disabilities compete at the Paralympic Games.
“I liked the energy there,” Li told the DP. “I really want to be able to use STEM to create technology to make it easier for athletes to maneuver in the pool.”
While on campus, Li saw the University’s student clubs — such as Penn Electric Racing — in action. She currently participates in robotics programs at home and found the “larger scale of electric racing cars that these students built” to be “really cool.”
“We were able to go into their facility and see the motor cars that they created,” Li explained. “I want to be able to be a part of that when I go to Penn.”
The DP also spoke with Wharton School admit Akshaya Sreeram, who explained that her choice to apply early decision was shaped by her proximity to campus and interest in Penn’s extensive network.
“I only live 40 minutes away from Penn, I’ve always loved my family, and I've always wanted to stay on the East Coast,” Sreeram said.
Sreeram emphasized the opportunity to make “lifelong connections” at Penn, “whether it be your friends, industry partners, [or] industry connections.”
“It just seemed like a very sociable experience but also a long-term beneficial investment that I would love to put myself in,” Sreeram said.
Sreeram explained that she hopes to pursue her interest in financial consulting and Penn’s business partnerships, along with other Wharton offerings.
“Through the Netter Center’s economic development partnerships, I hope to work with small business owners to understand their operational challenges and limited access to capital, and really work with them to design strategies to address them,” Sreeram told the DP.
These three students will join thousands of others from the 2025-26 application cycle to comprise Penn’s incoming Class of 2030.
