Penn admits 8.07% of applicants to the Class of 2024, a slight uptick from last year

Penn admitted 3,404 out of 42,205 applicants for the Class of 2024. At 8.07%, this year's acceptance rate is slightly higher than last year's, marking the first acceptance rate increase in five years.

The Class of 2024 is an exception to the steadily declining acceptance rates over the past few years, with 7.44% of applicants admitted for the Class of 2023, 8.39% admitted for the Class of 2022, and 9.15% admitted for the Class of 2021.

Penn received 42,205 total applications for the Class of 2024, a 6.1% decrease from the University's largest applicant pool in history of 44,960 applications in 2019. 

December’s early decision results also broke nearly a decade of declining ED acceptance rates in Penn’s admission history, admitting 19.7% of applications. The University received 6,453 ED applications for the Class of 2024, a 9.2% decline from the 7,109 applicants in the previous year. 

In 2018, the ED acceptance rate was the lowest acceptance rate in history at 18%, dropping from the 18.5% acceptance rate in 2017. 

According to Dean of Admissions Eric Furda’s blog, 15% of admitted students in the incoming class, approximately 500 individuals, identify as first-generation college students. 

For some admitted students, Penn has been a part of their families for generations. Thirteen percent of students in the admitted class are legacy students with a parent or grandparent who has attended Penn. 

In the Class of 2024, 53% of admitted students are United States Citizens or Permanent Residents who self-identify as a member of a minority group. Fifty-one percent self-identified as students of color in the year prior.

Both this year and last year, 53% of the admitted students are female. 

Twenty percent of the accepted class are estimated to qualify for a Federal Pell Grant, which provides need-based grants to low-income undergraduate students. Last year, the percentage of Pell Grant eligible students was not released in Furda's original blog post. 

“Access and inclusion for talented students of all backgrounds continues to be one of the highest priorities of Penn’s President, Dr. Amy Gutmann," Furda wrote in his blog post. "To have one in every five admitted students come from a Pell Grant-qualifying background is a testament to her leadership, particularly regarding Penn’s grant-based financial aid policies."

Admitted students of the class hail from over 2,000 different high schools and all 50 states, as well as Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The states with the most representation in the incoming class include Pennsylvania, California, New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Texas. One hundred sixty-eight students are from the city of Philadelphia.

International students represent 14% of admitted students who come from 98 countries ranging from Albania to Zimbabwe.

Percentages of accepted female, first-generation, legacy, and international students remain unchanged from the Class of 2023 rates.

Each year, the University admits approximately half of the incoming class through the Early Decision Program. Penn plans to enroll a class of 2,400 after having already admitted 1,269 students through ED.

Regular Decision applicants to Penn and other Ivy League schools can view their admission decisions beginning March 26 at 7 p.m. EST.