Penn Early Decision

It’s a whole lot easier getting into Penn when you apply Early Decision than when you apply Regular Decision (photo credit: Bryan Y.W. Shin).

Penn Early Decision numbers are in and applications are up by about 5.9% from last year’s cycle. There was an article published last night by “The Daily Pennsylvanian,” the newspaper of UPenn, in which our founder, Bev Taylor, is quoted that suggests that Penn’s Early Decision application data compares favorably to other Ivy League colleges. In fact, this year’s 5.9% increase at Penn broke Penn’s all-time Early Decision record and the figure marked one of the highest in the nation for schools with Early Decision programs in place. Dean of Admissions Eric Furda even states in the article that he believes they’re nearing the top of the range for Early Decision applications. Perhaps he’s lowering expectations for next year because he doesn’t feel like he can keep besting himself? Maybe!

At Ivy Coach, we have long asserted — as Bev asserts in this article — that students who apply Early Decision to a university have much better odds of admission. Schools, after all, love to be loved. And nowhere is this more true than at the University of Pennsylvania. If a student applies Regular Decision to Penn, they’ve got to be really special to get in. They’ve got to really stand out from the rest of the applicant pool. When they apply through Penn’s Early Decision program, do they have to be special to gain admission? Yes. But not nearly as much. Penn and its Dean of Admissions, Eric Furda, will deny this like most highly selective universities across the nation, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t so.

It is. And in the college admissions community, it’s not that big of a secret. We’ve been saying it for years and we’ll say it again now. If you want to get into Penn and if that’s the school you want to matriculate to, you should absolutely apply Early Decision. It’ll be that much easier for you to get in! Penn, after all, loves to be loved. They’re narcissistic in that way, we suppose. And many schools are!

Do you think Penn’s Early numbers always go up? Not so. Read about a year in which the Penn Early Decision numbers went down.