The University of Pennsylvania admitted 1,354 early decision applicants to the Class of 2020.  

Early decision applications rose 7 percent from the previous year to 6,147, resulting in an admission rate of 22 percent.

Click here for the news release.

College Kickstart for High School Counselors features several new and exciting capabilities for 2017 to help you reflect your school's admission "bump" and to better track and report on the impact you're having on college planning and outcomes.

We're putting the finishing touches on College Kickstart for Independent Counselors and thought we'd give you a sneak peek of what's in store for 2017, including personalized plan printing and a 5 student starter plan.

The University of Georgia offered 8,000 high schools students early admission.  A record 15,800 early action applications were received this year, up 9 percent from the last year.

Click here for the article.

With 2017 right around the corner, we thought it was time to give you a sneak peek of some of the cool new capabilities we've got in store for rising seniors and parents this January.   

With the University of California application now open for submissions, it's time to make sure everything is in order.  

Here are the top five tips for freshman applicants, courtesy of the University of California:

Still struggling with your college essays?  Here's an excellent post from Johns Hopkins University on essays that worked.  It provides seven actual essays submitted by applicants and commentary from the admissions committee on why they worked.

Still looking for ideas on how to write a compelling admissions essay? Then check out this set of essays that worked, courtesy of Tufts admissions.

This blog post includes successful responses for all of the essay prompts included by Tufts, as well as some video commentary on why each one proved compelling to the admissions team.

Click here for the essays.

Here's an excellent post from Connecticut College on essays that worked.  It provides several actual essays submitted by recent applicants along with some tips from the Dean of Admissions.

Here's another good read from Will Dix at Forbes—this post focuses on the need to pay attention to admission history as part of your college plan and features some of the analysis from our recent notable admission rate changes post.  We think this article reinforces the importance of staying current with admission results, as each year there are surprises like American University—where the admission rate has fallen from 45 percent to 26 percent in the span of just three admission cycles—which can materially change how schools on your list might get categorized.

Click here for the Forbes article.

In search of schools with generous merit scholarship programs?

Look no further.  

Here we've compiled a list of competitive 4-year institutions that offer merit aid to 20% or more of undergraduates.  Merit awards are typically not based on financial need but rather on academic performance and other qualities deemed desirable by the institution.  As such, they can make college more affordable for academically gifted students—especially those that are unlikely to qualify for need-based financial aid. 

Most of these schools automatically consider you for merit scholarships when you submit your application.  

Here's our list of reported overall admission rates for the Class of 2020. We've included results for nearly 100 popular institutions, including American, Amherst, Babson, Bard, Barnard, Bates, Boston University, Bowdoin, Brown, Bucknell, Butler, BYU, Caltech, Carleton, Carnegie Mellon, Claremont McKenna, Colby, Colgate, Colorado College, Columbia, Connecticut College, Cornell, Dartmouth, Davidson, Dickinson, Duke, Emory, Oxford at Emory, Fordham, Franklin Olin, George Washington, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Grinnell, Hamilton, Harvard, Harvey Mudd, Haverford, Johns Hopkins, Kenyon, Lafayette, Lehigh, Macalester, Miami - Oxford, Middlebury, MIT, Mount Holyoke, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Oberline, Occidental, Pepperdine, Pitzer, Pomona, Princeton, Rice, Scripps, Skidmore, Stanford, Swarthmore, Tufts, Union College, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, University of Chicago, University of Florida, University of Georgia, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Maine, University of Maryland, UNC Chapel Hill, University of Pennsylvania, University of Richmond, USC, University of Virginia, Union College, Vanderbilt, Vassar, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Washington and Lee, Washington University in St Louis, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Whitman, William & Mary, Williams and Yale.  

Click Continue Reading for the list.

Here's our latest list of reported early admission rates for the Class of 2020.

This list includes several popular private and public schools, including Amherst, Bard, Boston College, Boston University, Bowdoin, Brown, Colorado College, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Davidson, Dickinson, Duke, George Washington University, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Hamilton, Harvard, Harvey Mudd, Johns Hopkins, Lafayette, Middlebury, MIT, Mount Holyoke, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Pitzer, Pomona, Princeton, Scripps, Stanford, Tufts, Union College, University of Georgia, UNC Chapel Hill, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, William & Mary, Williams and Yale. 

Click Continue Reading for the list.

The University of California has updated its subject test recommendations for fall 2017 applicants. Remember, these are recommendations, not requirements, and they are primarily geared towards applicants in STEM fields.

To our subscribers: this has already been incorporated into the requirements section of College Kickstart.

Click here for the latest subject test recommendations.

University of California counselor conferences have commenced, and there are lots of useful insights to be gleaned—including the latest freshman admission profiles from this past year (Class of 2020).

We've tabulated the findings for you in this post. Two things to keep in mind:

• The profiles are for California residents only
• The profiles are for admitted students, so they're likely to appear more selective than the profile for the class that actually enrolls

Click Continue Reading for the list.