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.

This is a substantial increase in applicants, from 38,918 for the class of 2020, and a substantial drop in acceptance rate from 9.4 percent last year. 

Regular decision applicants can view their admission decisions starting Thursday, March 30, at 5 p.m. Eastern Time. The university has already accepted 1,354 candidates in the Early Decision round and plans to enroll 2,445 students total across all four undergraduate schools.

Julia Schorr | The Daily Pennsylvanian

Admitted students come from all 50 states, in addition to Guam, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. The highest number of students in the Class of 2021 hail from Pennsylvania, New York, California, New Jersey, Florida and Texas respectively, with 172 of these admits residing in Philadelphia.

Fifty-four percent of the overall class is female, a higher proportion than the 52 percent of the current Penn undergraduate body who are women.

Meanwhile, the number of international applications rose by 10 percent, and accepted students call 94 countries home. Members of the Class of 2021 currently attend 2,145 different high schools.

“Penn offers of admission are truly going across the country and all around the world,” Dean of Admissions Eric Furda said. “That’s not just tallying states and countries, but thinking about it at the high school level.”

Fourteen percent of admitted students have a parent or grandparent who attended Penn, and 13 percent will be the first in their families to go to college. Forty-six percent of the class who are U.S. citizens identified themselves as students of color.

This year, Penn has offered 90 percent of the applicant pool the opportunity to engage in an interview with one of over 9,200 Penn alumni spanning the Classes of 1951 to 2016.

As part of Penn's partnership with over 40 community-based organizations, 225 accepted students are members of one or more of these organizations, including Philadelphia Futures, Steppingstone Scholars and Say Yes to Education.

“In a lot of ways, the responsibility is on the students,” Furda said. “Here’s the opportunity, here are the resources our campus has to offer, and the unknown here is how will these students who then ultimately enroll at Penn intersect with each other up and down Locust Walk and in the College Houses and in these spaces?”

Admitted students will have until May 1 to respond to Penn's offer of admission.