Penn State University Park's admit rate has held within a 43.2-point band over 7 reported cycles.
The headline numbers, drawn from CDS sections A–H.
Per-cycle Common Data Set values. Enrolled is first-year matriculants (CDS B1), not total undergraduate population. Blank cells mean the field was not published in that year's source CDS.
| Year | Admit rate | Enrolled | 6-yr grad | Retention | SAT (50th) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-2025 | 60.6% | 9,169 | 86.0% | 92.6% | 1,330 |
| 2023-2024 | 92.0% | 908 | 59.0% | — | — |
| 2022-2023 | 55.0% | 9,174 | 84.6% | — | 1,300 |
| 2021-2022 | 92.3% | 908 | 52.1% | 79.3% | — |
| 2020-2021 | 76.7% | 944 | 59.8% | 78.7% | — |
Cross-admits and statistical look-alikes, surfaced from the CollegeNumbers peer model.
Comparative observations derived from this school's reported CDS values and from IPEDS / College Scorecard reference data. Every claim is grounded in a number — no editorial overlay.
Admit rate has tightened 16.2 percentage points over 5 reporting cycles.
Penn State University Park's admit rate fell from 76.7% (2020-2021) to 60.6% (2024-2025) — a 16.2 pp drop. Year-over-year: 76.7 → 92.3 → 55.0 → 92.0 → 60.6. A snapshot of the current year alone would hide this structural shift.
Six-year graduation rate exceeds the national median by 30 percentage points.
Penn State University Park's 86.0% six-year graduation rate exceeds the national 4-year-institution median of 56.3% (per IPEDS, n=1555) by 29.7 pp.
Cross-admit cohort spans an unusually wide selectivity range.
The schools Penn State University Park applicants most commonly also apply to range from 45.0% admit to 86.2% admit — a 41.2 pp band. A reasonable read: applicants choose by region or program fit rather than selectivity tier alone.
Broadly accessible — admit rate near the national norm.
Penn State University Park's 60.6% admit rate is in line with the national 4-year-institution median of 76.6% (per IPEDS, n=1437 institutions). Most U.S. four-year colleges admit between 61.2% and 88.3% of applicants.
Sources: each school's officially-published Common Data Set; IPEDS / College Scorecard for federal comparisons. Methodology →
Compare every CDS field — admissions, aid, outcomes — side by side.
Open in CollegeNumbers compareThe Common Data Set is a standardized reporting form U.S. colleges file annually — sections A through J covering admissions selectivity, enrollment, aid, faculty resources, and outcomes. CollegeNumbers extracts every value directly from each school's officially published CDS PDF, xlsx, docx, or HTML, then normalizes into a unified schema.
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