Penn announces new director of admissions after three-month search

Jordan Pascucci will be Penn’s vice dean and director of admissions beginning March 2, according to an announcement that Penn Admissions provided to The Daily Pennsylvanian on Wednesday.

Pascucci was selected following a national search that began when former Vice Dean and Director of Admissions John McLaughlin departed Penn last November to serve as dean of admissions at Hamilton College. Pascucci has worked in Penn Admissions for a total of 13 years during two periods. Leading up to her appointment as vice dean, she served as senior associate dean and deputy director of admissions.

McLaughlin’s departure from Penn in November launched a “national search that yielded an exceptional pool of candidates,” Vice Provost and Dean of Admissions Whitney Soule wrote in the announcement. After an extensive search and feedback from interview committees, Pascucci was selected to fill the position.

Pascucci, who received her Master of Liberal Arts from Penn, worked in Penn Admissions from 2007 to 2016 before working in private schools in the Philadelphia suburbs. She served as director of institutional research and co-director of college counseling at the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pa. She later served as director of enrollment management and strategic initiatives at the George School in Newtown, Pa.

She returned to Penn Admissions in 2020 as associate dean of evaluation and selection. During this time, Soule wrote that “she encountered and managed one of the most complicated admission selection experiences — ever — in the midst of the pandemic," including remote work amid a 30% growth in the applicant pool. 

The announcement comes two years after Penn appointed Soule, the former senior vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid at Bowdoin College, as vice provost and dean of admissions.

“We are thrilled to have Jordan in the role of Vice Dean, Director of Admissions,” Soule wrote in the announcement.