Admissions & selectivity
University of Pennsylvania Acceptance Rate & Admissions
What is the acceptance rate at Penn?
Penn’s reported acceptance rate is 5.4%.
- Acceptance rate · Fall 2024
- 5.4%
Source: College Scorecard · Fall 2024 admissions. Acceptance rates can change from year to year; this figure does not predict the current or next admission cycle.
How to interpret the acceptance rate
The University of Pennsylvania admitted 5.4% of applicants, a figure far below the median of 47.1% for comparable institutions (same type and size).
What SAT and ACT scores do Penn students report?
In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported that 92% of enrolled first-year students with a reported class rank placed in the top tenth of their high-school class. Among those who reported a rank, 99% placed in the upper quarter and 100% placed in the upper half.
For enrolled students who submitted SAT scores, the middle half scored between 1,510 and 1,570. Among ACT submitters, the middle half ranged from 34 to 36.
The ranges mark the twenty-fifth to seventy-fifth percentiles among enrolled students who submitted scores; they do not set a minimum for admission. A prospective student can measure their own SAT score against the university's 1,510 to 1,570 range.
The corresponding ACT range is 34 to 36, and both reflect enrolled students who chose to submit.
The ranges below describe enrolled students who submitted test scores at Penn. Use them as academic context, then check the university’s current testing policy for your application cycle.
- Approximate lower endpoint
- 1510
- Approximate upper endpoint
- 1570
Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff. The endpoints add section percentiles; they are not verified composite-score percentiles. A separate SAT-equivalent average is not plotted as a median. Source: College Scorecard; sum of section 25th/75th percentiles; enrolled score-submitters.
- 25th percentile
- 34
- 75th percentile
- 36
Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff.
Figures cover fall 2024.
Who enrolls at Penn?
- Pell Grant recipients
- 16.5%
- Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group
- 4.0%
- First-year retention
- 98.9%
Retention source: College Scorecard; full-time first-year retention.
About these student measures
The entering-student group includes part-time entrants as well as other attendance patterns.
University of Pennsylvania enrolls 10,650 undergraduates. An estimated 4.0% enter as transfers or part-time students; the student body is built almost entirely from the first-year class.
16.5% of undergraduates receive Pell Grants. That share measures financial access; it is not a first-generation share and it is not a poverty rate.
The composition points to a campus where most students start together and few continue coursework begun elsewhere.
The first-year retention rate is 98.9%, well above the peer median of 90.1% for comparable institutions. The six-year graduation rate for the first-time full-time cohort is 96.5%, compared with a peer median of 80.0%.
Both figures sit far above the typical outcomes for similar universities. The six-year completion rate for Pell recipients is 86.2%, which runs below the overall rate by 10.3 percentage points.
The gap is present, and the Pell completion rate itself remains high in absolute terms. An enrolled student can expect a university that keeps nearly everyone through the first year and graduates the large majority within six years.
The strongest outcomes accrue to students who stay continuously enrolled and take full advantage of the academic advising and support structures available from the start.
Data & methodology
Sources and reporting periods: methodology.
Analysis and methodology by Daniel Rogers, founder of College Azimuth.
Explanatory text is AI-assisted drafting checked against those figures; it is not an additional data source.
Admission rates describe past applicants, not an individual’s chance of admission; confirm requirements and deadlines with the institution.
Figure notes link to sources and limitations. About College Azimuth.