Applications to Penn Drop 1.7% for Class of 2016

Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Freshmen applications for admission to the University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy League school in Philadelphia, decreased by 1.7 percent.
Applications fell to 31,127 for the class that will enter later this year, admissions Dean Eric J. Furda said today in an e-mail.

Penn had seen applications jump 40 percent in the past three years combined, Furda said. The decline this year may be a result of more schools offering early admission plans, he said. Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Princeton University, in Princeton, New Jersey, reinstated early admissions for this year after a break of several years.

Last year, freshman applications climbed to all-time highs at the eight Ivy League institutions in the northeastern U.S.

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