University of Pennsylvania - College Admission Counseling

University of Pennsylvania Breaks Early Application Record

Jared Hobson — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 22:05:19 +0000

Hopes were high this year among applicants to the University of Pennsylvania‘s Class of 2021: 6,147 applied in the Early Decision round, the highest number to date. The Early Decision acceptance rate was accordingly down a bit from last year’s 23.2%, at 22%. Another record broken for UPenn: half the students admitted Early Decision to their School of Engineering and Applied Sciences were female, a higher proportion than ever before.
Click here to read UPenn’s press release.

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The Ups and Downs of Ivy League Admissions

Jared Hobson — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 14:46:59 +0000

A recent post on the New York Times blog graphically showed the winners and losers among the Ivy League schools in this past admissions cycle. The University of Pennsylvania was the big winner, with an increase of applications of just over 14%. Dartmouth, my alma mater, was the big loser, with a decrease of just over 14%.
Columbia and Harvard saw small decreases in applications, too, while the others (Cornell, Yale, Princeton, and Brown) had modest gains in their application numbers.
Why does this happen from year to year? Hard to know. UPenn credits its partnership with KIPP charter schools for at least part of the increase: more applicants applied for application fee waivers than ever before.
Dartmouth’s precipitous drop may be due to a lot of factors, including ending the practice of accepting AP (Advanced Placement) courses for credit, its lousy publicity in recent months, and the continued dominance of the fraternity system in campus social life. The director of admission, Maria Laskaris, is leading an analysis of the reasons for the decline.
Whether winners or loser, we can expect that overall it will continue to be more and more difficult to get into the Ivy League in coming years.
Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant for Students Bound for the Ivy League

The post The Ups and Downs of Ivy League Admissions first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

U Penn: Large Class Sizes and Inaccessibility of Profs

Jared Hobson — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:58:51 +0000

I find that some parents are stuck on reputation and prestige when they walk into my office and start talking about colleges. I try to remind them that they are buying not only the reputation, but the educational experience for four years.

I also try to talk to them about class size and accessibility of professors, and the fact that many of our large research universities (both public and private) neglect undergraduate teaching in favor of academic research.

Often these parents won’t listen to me. Or they just don’t believe me. Thanks goodness for students who speak the truth about their institutions.

Check out this video from Unigo about the University of Pennsylvania. Not exactly a ringing endorsment of the Penn education. Would you slap down $40k in tuition (plus expenses) for huge class sizes and inaccessible professors–all for the reputation of an Ivy League school?

(Answer: some will, some wont.)

Video – Why I Chose Penn(5) – University of Pennsylvania | Unigo

Mark Montgomery

College Counselor

The post U Penn: Large Class Sizes and Inaccessibility of Profs first appeared on College Admission Counseling.