Swoon. Everyone’s favorite Dean of Admissions got up close and personal with the one and only Al Roker this morning on Today, discussing the college search. He positively rocked a RED AND BLUE tie and told Al he loves when prospies are “relaxed.” As if anyone could be relaxed around Eric Furda. He also recommended touring high schoolers find out where students “hang out,” effortlessly identifying Locust Walk as Penn’s social hub. So in tune with student life! Check out the clip above, complete with footage of Houston and College Green. We might have preferred he chat with Kathie Lee & Hoda on Today‘s fourth hour, at least Al said he wants his 10-year-old in the “UPenn” Class of 2025 (!).

Remember how long you spent on your college essays? How you slaved for weeks because your guidance counselor told you that your dissertation on why puppies will one day save the planet was what would definitely set you apart from the rest?

Well, there’s a chance that it was all for nothing. The board of directors of everyone’s favorite source of anxiety, The Common App, announced that there would no longer be an open-ended essay option, rather a choice between five more specific prompts.

In response, Dean Furda said it probably wouldn’t matter anyway, admitting that maybe one in seven essays are actually considered in the admissions decision. So basically, 86% of the people reading this worked their butts off on an insightful, introspective composition that was inconsequential to their admission. Read the rest of this entry »

Congrats to all the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed high school seniors who just received admission to the glorious University of Pennsylvania! You are the 12.3%. (But really, you’re the 1%!—if you still find that reference funny.) This acceptance not only validates all your hard work, but it justifies the countless hours you’ve wasted reading a blog from a college you don’t even attend…yet.

In preparation for your upcoming four-year journey, should you choose Penn, keep in mind the following: come September, Amy Gutmann will be your Queen, Ben Franklin your guardian angel, sector requirements your worst enemies, and Mr. and Mrs. Bui your ultimate saviors.

Penn just joined the Plastics of uber-popular universities. According to U.S. News, which has decided to measure college popularity by  yield rate from acceptance to enrollment, Penn is the 10th most popular national university, with a 62.7% yield rate with the class entering in Fall 2010.

Harvard was #1 with 75.5% (Surprise!), but who knew the University of Alaska at Fairbanks was cooler than us? So not fetch. In other news, that social climber Princeton was only ranked at lucky number 13.

The top 10 most popular universities this year, after the jump:

The best and brightest of 2015′s best and brightest have it great. As if a “likely letter” saying they’re getting into Penn isn’t enough (which, wtf, those exist), they now get their very own video from admissions heartthrob Dean Furda kissing their asses telling them the good news.

We’re the first school to ever try such shenanigans, so no word yet if it actually helps snag overachievers. But Pennporn + Furda’s starring role + Admissions Dean’s Advisory Board kids gushing about the Penn experience probably can’t hurt anything.

Watch the lovefest here (yes, the URL is pennlikely.com, wow)!

Aaaand the class of 2015 now knows if they’ve been accepted Early Decision. Mazel tov, kids born in 1993! Seniors, you are officially old as shit.

New admits, you should be receiving flyers under your doors soon to commence the start of dirty rush. And as always, big ups to Dean Furda for letting ‘em in.

Breaking! The New York Times‘s college admissions blog, The Choice, reports today that test scores don’t matter that much. Or something. The real point is, they consulted our favorite admissions director, Dean Furda, and in our never-ending quest to creep his media career, we’d like to let you know that that happened.

What’s actually interesting, though, is that they shared his sage advice alongside that of Ted Spencer, the Eric Furda of Michigan. Was the “Penn/Place Where Everyone Goes When Rejected From Penn” dynamic on purpose?

Extra, extra: it’s good to be gay at Penn. This shouldn’t be news to many of you, given our highly official status as the number one LGBT-friendly campus, according to Newsweek. But Newsweek‘s not the only one paying attention — this month’s issue of Details features a former 34th Street editor’s profile of the LGBT outreach shindigs that go down during Penn Previews.

The Details piece explores some of the outreach programs at Penn, while also following a senior making his college decision last April. As the story notes, Penn and Dartmouth became the first two schools this year to offer outreach programs to LGBT admits, in the hopes of getting these students to enroll. Much to our disappointment, David chooses Dartmouth. Whatever.

But still, we’ve got lots to be proud of by way of being progressive. We caught up with the writer and former Street ed, Doree Shafrir ’99 about her experience coming back to campus to write the story. “It was great to meet so many students for whom being gay at Penn was no big deal–they were members of fraternities and played sports and did all the things that, when I was at Penn, would’ve been a ‘big deal’ to be doing as an out person,” she told us. “The school seems to be doing a good job at making sure this continues to be the case.”

The “write page 217 of your autobiography” essay prompt has died. The essay prompt, which was part of Penn’s supplemental application, was well-known for driving eager high school seniors to confusion, tears, and on occasion, bouts of creativity.

The essay lived a long and illustrious life, surrounded by friends like “Why Penn” and “name a professor you would like to study with.” Frequently, the essay instilled a belief in high schoolers that they were being rather creative. Many students have noted that they started or ended the essay mid-sentence, which they believed to be rather creative, until arriving at Penn and learning their entire freshman hall did the same. Read the rest of this entry »