Dean of Admissions Eric Furda leads the staff in charge of handling the thousands of applications Penn has received. | DP File Photo
Penn admitted 23.2 percent of its early decision applicants this year, down a fraction of a percentage point from last year’s 24 percent admittance rate.
Of the 5,762 students who applied, 1,335 received an acceptance at 3:00 p.m. today, via an online admissions decision.
In a statement, Dean of Admissions Eric Furda said there is “an outdated notion that Early Decision serves a narrow group of students.” This notion, he said, “does not hold true at Penn.”
Furda cited grant-based financial aid, extensive recruitment and quality of post-college outcomes as reasons for the increase each year in the number of students who apply to Penn through the Early Decision program — up 5 percent from last year and 58 percent since 2009.
The early decision class represents 46 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and 44 countries. Of the accepted students, 10 percent will be the first in their family to attend college, over 44 percent self-identified as members of minority groups and 11 percent are international.
These students make up 54.6 percent of the target class of 2,445 students for the class of 2020, very close to the percentage of early decision applicants who were accepted in the class of 2019, which was at 54.4 percent.
Applications for regular decision are due on Jan. 5, 2016.
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