Penn appears to have its most selective year on record, accepting 5.4% of applicants
The details on the incoming class were shared at a board of trustees meeting.
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The University of Pennsylvania admitted 5.4% of applicants this year, which appears to be its most selective year on record.
Despite the turmoil of last fall and spring over the university’s handling of antisemitism complaints and pro-Palestinian protests, the university received 65,235 applications, the most in its history, and accepted 3,508 students, Whitney Soule, dean of admissions, told the board of trustees Friday.
But Soule did not release information on what percentage of the class is Black or Latino or any other racial demographic, other than to note that 13.4% are international students. Penn has been mum on the racial breakdown of the class. It was the first class to be admitted following last year’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to ban race-conscious admissions.
» READ MORE: Penn offers no demographic information on its admitted class but does tout one of largest cohorts from Philadelphia
About 2,400 of those accepted have enrolled at Penn, Soule told the board. That’s more than 68% of those accepted. She said 150 are from Philadelphia and 14.5% are from Pennsylvania. They come from 47 states and more than 90 countries, and 13.7% are legacy students, meaning they are either a child or grandchild of alumni.
Friday’s meeting marked the first time this year the admissions office released the number of students it admitted. It used to release that information in March when admissions decisions were announced, but it stopped doing so in recent years in part to downplay its selectivity.
Under federal law, colleges eventually must report the racial makeup of their classes, and that’s when it will be possible to compare this group of admitted students with those who were admitted before the court decision.
The admissions data came at a quiet meeting of the trustees that lasted less than an hour. It was a departure from the prior meeting when about a dozen student protesters, shouting “endowment transparency now, divest from genocide,” caused the meeting to be cut short.
Also during the session, the board voted to appoint Ramanan Raghavendran to another term as chair and Julie Beren Platt to another term as vice chair. Raghavendran stepped into the role after former chair Scott L. Bok resigned in December, along with former president Liz Magill. Their resignations followed a backlash over Magill’s congressional testimony about the handling of antisemitic incidents on campus.