Interesting numbers from Penn State

[retired711]

Today's Philadelphia Inquirer has a story about Penn State's desire to increase freshman enrollment at the main campus in Happy Valley from 9200 to 10,000 annually. As part of this, Penn State has contracted with a developer to build and manage housing for upperclass students on Penn State property.

The story says that the undergraduate acceptance rate at Happy Valley is 50% (compared with 79% in the entire system) and that the take rate (the percentage of admitted students who enroll) is 17.4% at Happy Valley compared to 15.6% in the system overall. I don't know how those numbers compare with our main campus in New Brunswick/Piscataway. The story also says that 58% of Penn State's students are Pennsylvania residents; the story doesn't specify whether these are numbers for just undergraduates, nor do I know what percentage might be students from abroad. Finally, the story mentions that Penn State is increasing its recruitment efforts in, among other places, Illinois, which it regards as potentially "the new New Jersey."

Here's the link: I think you'll find that it's behind a pay wall.https://www.inquirer.com/education/...th-main-campus-20241204.html?query=Penn State

 

[NotInRHouse]

For whatever reason, college enrollment in PA is hermorhagging to the point they had to merge public colleges. Also, the Cult lags us now in most academic rankings. Our average SAT/GPA is higher.

Our acceptance rate is 65%...which is probably due to us getting less OOS applications given something like 80%+ students are from NJ. And even with these facts, we're still the top ranked public school in the Northeast.

My guess is they like IL because like NJ, it has a higher ranked public school where not everyone can get in, both NJ and IL have a strong college attendance culture, and both are high income states where parents can fit the bill.

While lower ranked schools in NJ seem to be in trouble, I think there is still a large mass of students and parents who value higher ed and what RU specifically provides.