UPenn's English PhD

[janeeyre]

I just heard from a professor there that Penn's English department had 680 PhD applicants and they will be admitting 5. I don't want to add to anyone's anxiety but I thought anyone who applied there might like to know.

[Pamphilia]

I just heard from a professor there that Penn's English department had 680 PhD applicants and they will be admitting 5. I don't want to add to anyone's anxiety but I thought anyone who applied there might like to know.

Holy shit. Admitting five, or aiming for a cohort of five?

[Venetia]

Wow, that's...intense. That's not even "look at the people on either side of you, only one of you will get in", it's "look at your whole auditorium, only one of you will get in". If that makes sense. Best of luck to everyone!

[JennyFieldsOriginal]

well that gives me indigestion.

i wonder if it is because they had more people accept last year than they expected, or funding is down, or both.

then again, i just keep reminding myself that this is why i applied to 12 schools, and barring miraculous advances in human cloning, i will only be able to attend one.

[ratiocinator]

A few months ago, a professor told me that Penn was admitting only 5 this year... Terrifying news. Let's hope that other schools are more liberal with their acceptances!

[jkl444]

I just heard from a professor there that Penn's English department had 680 PhD applicants and they will be admitting 5. I don't want to add to anyone's anxiety but I thought anyone who applied there might like to know.

Can you give us a citation for this? A .73% acceptance rate doesn't sound plausible. 2% to 5% maybe.

[janeeyre]

Can you give us a citation for this? A .73% acceptance rate doesn't sound plausible. 2% to 5% maybe.

Sure, here's the direct quote: "I should warn you that we ended up with a huge overyield of grad students last year, with 17 new matriculants in the Ph.D. program. That committed funding for 6 more students than we are allowed. So this year we will only admit 5 new students. We received 680 applications, making the process of selection something of a nightmare and, from the standpoint of applicants such as yourself, something of a lottery."

[jkl444]

Sure, here's the direct quote: "I should warn you that we ended up with a huge overyield of grad students last year, with 17 new matriculants in the Ph.D. program. That committed funding for 6 more students than we are allowed. So this year we will only admit 5 new students. We received 680 applications, making the process of selection something of a nightmare and, from the standpoint of applicants such as yourself, something of a lottery."

Thanks. Does anyone have any other first-hand knowledge about acceptance rates for any of the top twenty schools?

[Pamphilia]

Hello! Sorry to be starting the morning off with some bad news...but, I know some people are still skeptical about these numbers. I spoke to a friend who is a current Penn PhD candidate, and she confirmed that there will only be five acceptances this year. Bummer.