This is the largest first-time applicant pool since it began tracking in 1989, according to AAMC. Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine has not yet released its application numbers for this year. WORD ON THE WALK: Med school popularity

This fall, the reinstatement of Harvard and Princeton universities’ early action programs, which were eliminated in 2006, may have contributed to diminished applicant pools for many of their competitors, including Penn. INTERACTIVE: 2012 early admissions at peer schools

Prompted by a series of opinion pieces that appeared in the Penn Almanac earlier this school year, the panel — which is part of Ware College House’s ongoing “Dinner with Interesting People” speaker series — will take place at 5 p.m. on Tuesday in McClelland Hall. INTERACTIVE: Pell grants around the Ivies

Yes, I did get accepted into Penn because of affirmative action. But so did you — and everyone else.

Since many students were affected by last week’s storm, Penn’s Office of Admissions extended its early decision deadline from Nov. 1 to Friday, Nov. 4.

At a meeting in September, a NACAC committee formed in 2010 to research the annual rankings made a series of recommendations to U.S. News.

In the third part of a series following students applying early decision to Penn, we caught up with Ontario high-school senior William Xiao, who started preparing to apply to an American university in tenth grade.

Penn extended its ED application deadline from Tuesday, Nov. 1 to Friday, Nov. 4 due to last weekend’s Northeastern snowstorm, along with peer schools like Yale and Columbia.

Lauren Shapiro, a senior at Doris and Alex Weber Jewish Community High School in Atlanta, Ga., said “it’s absolutely necessary that [the college I attend] has some Jewish population.” Of 10,000 undergraduate at Penn, around 25 percent are Jewish.

India has roughly 600 millions citizens under the age of 25. As a result, the country’s universities have become overwhelmed with applicants, The New York Times reported last week.

A week after placing 16th on the annual “World University Rankings” by Times Higher Education, Penn was named the ninth best higher-education institution in the world by U.S. News and World Report. INTERACTIVE: 2011 college rankings

Despite Harvard and Princeton’s reinstated early action programs, Dean of Admissions Eric Furda does not anticipate a drop in early decision applications to Penn. INTERACTIVE: Early rates around the Ivies

Penn advanced from the 19th to 16th spot in the ‘World University Rankings’ by Times Higher Education. The rankings, which placed California Institute of Technology at number one, consider international universities.

Jerome Vivino, formerly a member of Penn’s Class of 2013, first transferred from Wharton to the College, then out of Penn entirely. Vivino is not alone — about one in three college students will transfer universities throughout the course of their education. Interactive: Transfers at Penn

The program — a joint venture between the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science — will admit around 25 students interested in alternative energy research.

Although College Board announced earlier this month that the SAT score gap between the average low income and wealthy applicants has continued to widen, Penn will continue to look to the test as a factor for admissions.

In line with a U.S. Department of Education requirement, Student Financial Services is set to unveil its version of a net-price financial aid calculator by the federal deadline, Oct. 29.