Record number applies for Class of 2018

Penn saw a record number of applications for admission to the Class of 2018, the University announced today.

Penn received 35,788 applications, a 14 percent increase from last year’s 31,250. The previous record number of applications was set in 2011 when Penn received 31,662 applications for the Class of 2015.

More than 40 percent of the applicant pool for the Class of 2018 identified themselves as a member of a minority group.

The single greatest increase in applications came from California, which saw a 19 percent increase to 4,680 applications. Applications from New York saw a 15 percent increase to 3,655.

Penn pushed back the regular decision application deadline to Jan. 6, after students encountered problems submitting the Common Application and the Penn supplement. Technical issues plagued the Common App this fall after a switch to a new platform called CA4.

The announcement to extend Penn’s regular decision deadline was made on Jan. 3 in a letter from Dean of Admissions Eric Furda on the applicant homepage. Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton and a number of other colleges and universities made similar decisions to extend their deadlines.

Penn’s Office of Admissions also pushed back the early decision deadline from Nov. 1 to Nov. 11 because of the Common App’s technical difficulties, including problems generating PDF previews.

“We want to provide enough flexibility as Nov. 1 approaches so students, counselors and teachers who do encounter technical issues can take the time to step back knowing that they have until Nov. 11 to submit materials,” Furda said at the time.

Check back for updates.

Correction: The caption of this story was edited to reflect that nearly 36,000 students submitted decisions in total. A previous version of this story stated that 36,000 students submitted regular decision applications to Penn this fall.

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