Admissions
Here's how Penn, like many other Universities, is using Big Data to recruit new students
Director of college preparation group One-Stop College Counseling Laurie Kopp Weingarten described Big Data as “the wave of the future” for college admissions. “Many times now instead of just meeting a Director of Admissions, I meet the Vice President of Enrollment Management,” she said.
Applying for Penn financial aid may be harder this year after an IRS tool was shut down
The Internal Revenue Service Data Retrieval Tool, which allows Americans to upload tax-return information without having to manually enter it, has been disabled until October.
Read the essay this high school senior wrote to get accepted to all eight Ivy League schools
Cassandra Hsiao, a first-generation Malaysian immigrant, wrote about her struggles with the English language.
Meet the high school seniors experiencing Penn during Quaker Days
“I went over to the physics table, and I’m not even interested in physics,” Class of 2021 admit Neelu Paleti said. “But seeing their enthusiasm really made me want to do something in that field.”
After consideration, Penn Admissions opts not to delete admitted student Facebook groups
"The Class of 2021 Facebook group will remain active this year, barring any unforeseen issues,” Vice Dean and Director of Marketing and Communications Kathryn Bezella said in an emailed statement.
Here's how Ivy League colleges chose to unveil their Class of 2021
Virtually all schools cited their admission percentage and the size of their applicant pool.
Princeton sues Department of Education to keep admissions data private in midst of racial discrimination claims
“I personally have not noticed discrimination against Asian-Americans in my practice,” Laurie Kopp Weingarten, director of One-Stop College Counseling, said.
'I started hysterically crying' — read stories of high school seniors who found out Thursday that they got into Penn
“I kind of cloistered myself because I was scared of what would happen,” Victoria Mak said. “Those ten minutes before I found out were the longest ten minutes of my life.”
Penn acceptance rate drops to 9.15 percent — lowest in history
Penn has admitted 3,699 students among 40,413 applicants to the Class of 2021 — a record-low 9.15 percent acceptance rate.
Financial aid's budget increased again, but some middle class students could still feel the pinch
“What are we offering to the middle-range student, the student that can afford to pay some money towards education, but not enough to cover the full bill?” University Director of Financial Aid Elaine Papas-Varas asked. “Does that mean loans for a middle-income student?”
Ivy League schools are becoming more accessible to home-schooled students
On average, research has shown that homeschooled students have higher average scores on standardized testing than their peers in formal educational institutions.
Students with positive Quaker Day experiences are more likely to volunteer to host admitted students
A positive experience during Quaker Days was a major motivating factor for many students when deciding whether to volunteer to be a host for admitted students for the event this year.
Penn to stop giving credit for two more AP courses in the fall, following a trend in recent years
Credit for Biology 091 and Chemistry 091 will no longer be offered to students enrolling in fall 2017.
Penn Nursing and Wharton Business School take top spots on college rankings
Penn's School of Nursing and the Wharton School took the top spots on U.S. News & World Report and QS World University Rankings.
How Penn prevents mistaken acceptance letters
Some universities — most recently Columbia — have accidentally sent congratulatory acceptance letters to students who were in fact rejected.
Graduate students had their approved federal loans canceled just before tuition bills were due
Student Financial Services blames the abrupt shift in policy on the Department of Education, but some students suspect Penn’s financial aid officers made the mistake.
Who will suffer the most from the 3.9 percent tuition increase? Opinions vary drastically
College freshman Michelle Lu, who receives financial aid for approximately half the total cost of attendance, said that while the $3,000 tuition increase doesn’t seem like a lot incrementally, it will be significant by the end of her four years at Penn.
Admissions office considers deleting admitted student Facebook group after racist GroupMe incident
“If this is an admitted student group, then we can decide at a certain point, let’s say the May 1 reply date, that that group no longer exists, that we take the group down,” Admissions Dean Furda said. “The purpose has already been served.”
Applying to college? There's an online class for that
Furda touted the course recently as a way Penn is attempting to play a larger role in students' lives before they get to college.