Penn’s Early Decision applicant pool plateaus for the Class of 2023

The early decision applicant pool for Penn's Class of 2023 has stagnated since last year's record-breaking 15 percent increase.

This fall, 6,746 students applied to be considered for early admission, which is a 0.22 percent increase from the 6,731 students who applied ED last year. Kathryn Bezella, Penn Admissions Vice Dean and Director of Marketing and Communications, said the plateau comes as no surprise following last year’s drastic increase.

“Being level this year was expected after we grew 15 percent in a single year last year,” Bezella wrote in an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian. 

These numbers do not include applications received through QuestBridge, a nonprofit organization that connects low-income students with top colleges; early decision data including QuestBridge applicants will be finalized at the end of next week. Penn received 7,073 ED applications last year including QuestBridge applicants. Out of this pool, 1,312 students were admitted during the 2017 ED round.

Before this year, Penn's early decision applicant pool was steadily growing every year since 2011. 

In 2012, 4,780 students applied ED, a five percent increase from the 4,527 students who applied in 2011. In the years following, 5,149 applied in 2013, 5,489 applied in 2014, 5,629 applied in 2015, and 6,147 applied in 2016.

The decision release date has not been announced yet, but the date will be revealed sometime next week, according to Bezella. In previous years, applicants were notified around mid-December. Last year, early decision hopefuls received a decision on Dec. 13, with 18.5 percent of them being accepted — a record-breaking low acceptance rate.