Admissions
Financial aid's budget increased again, but some middle class students could still feel the pinch
“What are we offering to the middle-range student, the student that can afford to pay some money towards education, but not enough to cover the full bill?” University Director of Financial Aid Elaine Papas-Varas asked. “Does that mean loans for a middle-income student?”
Ivy League schools are becoming more accessible to home-schooled students
On average, research has shown that homeschooled students have higher average scores on standardized testing than their peers in formal educational institutions.
Students with positive Quaker Day experiences are more likely to volunteer to host admitted students
A positive experience during Quaker Days was a major motivating factor for many students when deciding whether to volunteer to be a host for admitted students for the event this year.
Penn to stop giving credit for two more AP courses in the fall, following a trend in recent years
Credit for Biology 091 and Chemistry 091 will no longer be offered to students enrolling in fall 2017.
Penn Nursing and Wharton Business School take top spots on college rankings
Penn's School of Nursing and the Wharton School took the top spots on U.S. News & World Report and QS World University Rankings.
How Penn prevents mistaken acceptance letters
Some universities — most recently Columbia — have accidentally sent congratulatory acceptance letters to students who were in fact rejected.
Graduate students had their approved federal loans canceled just before tuition bills were due
Student Financial Services blames the abrupt shift in policy on the Department of Education, but some students suspect Penn’s financial aid officers made the mistake.
Who will suffer the most from the 3.9 percent tuition increase? Opinions vary drastically
College freshman Michelle Lu, who receives financial aid for approximately half the total cost of attendance, said that while the $3,000 tuition increase doesn’t seem like a lot incrementally, it will be significant by the end of her four years at Penn.
Admissions office considers deleting admitted student Facebook group after racist GroupMe incident
“If this is an admitted student group, then we can decide at a certain point, let’s say the May 1 reply date, that that group no longer exists, that we take the group down,” Admissions Dean Furda said. “The purpose has already been served.”
Applying to college? There's an online class for that
Furda touted the course recently as a way Penn is attempting to play a larger role in students' lives before they get to college.
PennFirst, UA VP push for expanded application fee waiver availability
“We talk a lot being first generation low income in college, and we forget what it was like when we were seniors in high school and all of the fees we had to pay,” Alfaro said.
Furda says Betsy DeVos could impact Penn
Graduate School of Education Senior Lecturer Anne Pomerantz also examined the influence DeVos could have on the many educational issues beyond Penn, specifically the effect of voucher programs on Philadelphia public schools.
To attract applicants, some universities are sponsoring listicles on Buzzfeed
Buzzfeed had partnered traditional higher education institutions as well as a number of online institutions in the past year, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Temple University was one of Buzzfeed’s first university clients, with six sponsored articles starting in 2015.
Here's what a Penn student found when he pulled his admissions file
“I was really curious about what went through the minds of the admissions people when they decided to let me in here,” Mandyam said. “Maybe this could shed some light.”
This U.S. Congress bill would force schools to allocate donation money to middle-class students
The wealthiest colleges in America may soon need to give a quarter of the donations they receive to middle-class financial aid or risk their charitable status.
Scaled-down version of Quaker Days awaits early decision admits next week
Dean of Admissions Eric Furda noted that housing and staff restraints prevent ConnectED from becoming an overnight program.
Dean Furda responds to The New York Times' report highlighting Penn's lack of economic diversity
According to the New York Times, Penn undergraduates’ median family income of $195,500 represents the 82nd percentile amongst U.S. families.
Penn Reading Project will have students interact over the summer
Students will have a chance to participate in an interactive website where they will be able to annotate the text and share their comments with the rest of the group over the summer. The groups will still meet during NSO to discuss the text in person.
The number of applicants to the Penn class of 2021 is the most ever — did the new SAT play a role?
Penn received a record 40,394 applications to the Class of 2021, including 6,147 applicants who applied through the early decision round. The Class of 2021 applicant pool increased four percent from last year, continuing the trend of two to four percent increases every year.
