About the Application

At Penn, we practice what we call “Whole-Person Review.” That’s not just a sound byte. Students often want to know what specific scores, courseload, or extracurriculars they need to be accepted, and we mean it when we say there is no formula. We want to understand each student within their context. We want to know what applicants did with what was available to them, and how they plan to explore their unique interests at Penn. 

We provide detailed information about our application in our How to Apply section, and we recommend you and any student intending to apply to Penn begin there. 

What’s Changing for Penn’s 2024-2025 Application

Penn's application for the 2024-2025 cycle is now live! To help you guide your students, we have outlined the major changes to our application and application process below. We recommend directing students to the Preparing Your Application section of our website for more detailed information.

Test-Optional

Penn's test-optional policy will be continued for the 2024-2025 application cycle. Applicants who do not submit SAT, ACT, or SAT Subject Test scores will not be at a disadvantage in the admissions process. Penn will accept the digital SAT if a student opts to submit testing. The exam is scored (or superscored) the same as the paper and pencil SAT. While we encourage students to submit their entire testing history for SAT exams, we also permit score choice and will accept a combination of scores from both formats of the exam. If students submit multiple sets of test scores, we will combine the highest Evidenced-Based Reading and Writing with the highest Math score in either format to calculate a superscore.

School-Specific Essays

Our non-academic prompts will remain the same for this application cycle. Our application will continue to feature our Gratitude and Community prompts.

Like last year, students will also be asked to respond to a prompt specific to the Undergraduate School or Coordinated Dual-Degree Program to which they choose to apply. Each school or program will have its own unique question and students will be asked to respond to the prompt that corresponds to the school to which they are applying. For example, a student applying to Wharton would respond to the Wharton-specific prompt, while a student applying to the School of Nursing would respond to the Nursing-specific prompt. Some of these school-specific prompts have been updated this year. All prompts can be viewed on our Essays page.

We are also maintaining an OPTIONAL question following the selection of school/program choice in the application. Students will be shown a list of resources and hubs on Penn's campus and be asked to select which, if any, they might want to explore at Penn. A list of these hubs can be found on our website. It is meant as an opportunity for students to learn about the various resource and community centers at Penn, and for students to share a little more about how they might see themselves engaging with Penn's community. No writing is required for this section, and it will not impact admissions decisions.

Alumni Conversations

Beginning last application cycle, Penn does not offer evaluative interviews that impact students' admissions decision. The application materials we require are sufficient for us to make our admissions decision.

Instead, we offer Alumni Conversations, which are simply opportunities for students to learn more about Penn from someone who can speak from experience. Penn alumni make efforts to arrange informational conversations with applicants to provide the opportunity to get to know the Penn alumni community and for applicants to share information about themselves. These optional conversations are not evaluative and are subject to alumni volunteer availability. Due to the limited capacity of alumni volunteers, we cannot guarantee all students will be contacted. Penn Admissions will automatically opt students in for an alumni conversation unless they indicate that they do not wish to participate. Again, opting out of participating will not impact the admissions decision.

A brief summary of the conversation is provided to admissions, providing an opportunity to add information to your file, but the conversation is not rated and applicants who choose not to interview are not penalized in any way in our review process.

Letters of Recommendation

At Penn, applicants submit one academic letter of recommendation from a current or recent teacher, and one from someone who knows them personally and whose perspective would add information not captured elsewhere in the application. This second person may be another teacher, a supervisor at work, mentor, coach, arts or music instructor, spiritual leader, or cultural leader.

This is in addition to the counselor letter students will submit as part of the Common App or Coalition App.

The required letters from an applicant's counselor, teacher and an additional recommender are sufficient to give us a sense of who they are as a student and person.

We prefer letters from those who have worked with the applicant recently (junior and senior year). We recommend that students choose recommenders who know them well and like them.

As a matter of equity, Penn allows for only one additional supplemental letter of recommendation beyond those required. We ask that students only submit an additional letter from someone who knows them personally and whose perspective would add information not captured elsewhere in the application. (Letters from family members and close family friends usually do not provide information that is helpful to the evaluation process.)

Choosing Majors

At Penn, we encourage students to begin with what interests them and see where it takes them. For this reason, we do not ask students to indicate their intended major during the application process for the College of Arts and Sciences, The Wharton School, or the School of Nursing.

Students in Penn Engineering select a major area of study at the end of their first year and are asked to indicate their major on their application because it is helpful for the admissions committee to understand their potential focus within engineering.

Students in the College of Arts and Sciences will not select a major until the end of their sophomore year, allowing additional time for exploration across disciplines.

Penn Nursing students have the opportunity to take coursework that allows for exposure to different areas of expertise, but all students graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing so no majors are present.

Wharton students also do not have majors, but can choose from a variety of concentrations that are typically four course units as they pursue the Bachelor of Science in Economics degree.