EARLY DECISION

While many high school seniors still have months to wait for college admissions decisions, 1,122 students already have their acceptance letters from Penn in hand.

Forty-seven percent of next year's freshman class has been admitted under Penn's early decision program this year, down from 49 percent last year.

The acceptance rate itself is also down. About 33 percent of early applicants received offers of admission in December. Last year, 39 percent of early applicants were admitted. Despite the recent debates over early decision, Penn and most of the other Ivy League schools saw an increase in early applicants this fall.

Of the students admitted, 742 were accepted to the College of Arts and Sciences, 151 to the School of Engineering and Applied Science, 200 to the Wharton School and 29 to the School of Nursing.

Twenty-five students were accepted to the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, and 22 got into the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology.

Acceptance rates varied among the four undergraduate schools. About 35 percent of applicants to the College or the Engineering School were accepted, while 26.7 percent of Wharton applicants and 50.9 percent of Nursing applicants were accepted.

Penn admitted 47.4 percent of legacy applicants this fall, a decrease from last year's 50.1 percent, making up about 19 percent of all those admitted early.

Penn saw an increase in early applications from minority students this year. Forty-five black students were accepted early, up from 32 last year. The number of Latino students accepted rose slightly to 48 from last year's 46.

There was a slight decrease in the number of international students accepted, down to 80 from last year's 91.

Penn also looks for diversity in the secondary schools from which students apply.

Fifty-three percent of students accepted early currently attend public schools, 42 percent attend private schools and the remainder attend parochial or home schools.

While in past years early decision candidates had to wait for their admission letters to arrive by mail, this year they could access their acceptance status online. The Penn Web site saw about 9,000 inquiries on Dec. 12, the day decisions were released.

Admissions officers are already in the process of reading regular decision applications.

Regular Decision

Penn's overall acceptance rate, encompassing both the early and regular decision pools, reached an all-time low of 20.5 percent this year. Penn received 18,827 applications for the Class of 2007, and 3,858 students were offered admission.

Last year's overall acceptance rate was only slightly higher, at 21.1 percent.

Regular decision applicants faced especially stiff competition this year. The acceptance rate of the regular decision pool was 16.5 percent, while early decision applicants saw an acceptance rate of 33 percent this fall.

The average combined SAT score rose seven points from last year to 1426. Of the students accepted, 689 were valedictorians, and the majority were in the 98th percentile of their graduating class.

Acceptance rates varied among the four undergraduate schools. All in all, 19.4 percent of College applicants, 15.5 percent of Wharton applicants, 28.1 percent of Engineering applicants and 42.6 percent of Nursing applicants were admitted.

Twelve percent of deferred early decision applicants received offers of admission in the regular round.

This year, 1,510 minority students were accepted, down from 1,583 last year. Of these students, 17 are Native American and 278 are Hispanic while 346 are black, down from 353 last year. However, 45 black students were early decision applicants and have already committed to Penn.

Of the 3,858 offers of admission, Penn expects about 2,385 students to matriculate.