Penn and Princeton release stats on admitted classes

Both the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton released statistics Thursday on their accepted students for fall 2013. Both universities will release their admission decisions online, beginning at 5 p.m. on Thursday.

Penn said it accepted 3,785 students, or 12.1 percent of applicants. That includes both early decision and regular decision applicants. The admission rate for regular decision alone was 9.4 percent, the university said.

The target size of the freshman class for the Ivy League university is 2,420 students. More than 31,280 students applied for admission, Penn said.

It appears to be a stronger class, at least by the measure of SAT scores. The university saw a 12-point increase in average SATs to 2,198 for reading, math and writing combined.

More than half of the admitted students are female and 43 percent are self-reported racial/ethnic minorities, the school said.

Pennsylvania was the top state for admissions with 493, followed by New York, California and then New Jersey. Of international applicants, Canada topped the list, followed by India, Korea, China and Mexico.

Twelve percent of the admissions went to children or grandhildren - legacies - of alumni.

Princeton University offered admission to 1,931 students, or 7.29 percent of applicants. Nearly 26,500 applied to the university this year. Target class size is 1,290.

Ninety-seven percent of the admitted applicants are in the top 10 percent of their class, the university said. The largest number of admitted applicants hail from California, followed by New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas. The university said 11.4 percent of admitted applicants are from other countries. Half are men and nearly half have reported they are people of color, including biracial and multiracial students. Nearly 10 percent are sons or daughters of Princeton alumni.

Admitted applicants at both Penn and Princeton have until May 1 to decide if they will attend.