Penn State Sends More Acceptance Letters Early

The Penn State admissions office has offered admission to 40 percent more students than it had by this time last year. About 5,600 applicants to the school's various campuses have gotten acceptance letters.

Officials say that they do not plan to admit significantly more students in the end but that accepting students earlier in the year was just a nice thing to do. "We had been hearing from high school counselors and some students and families that the time from application to [Penn State's] decision was longer than expected," the executive director of admissions said. "We felt that getting earlier decisions out would help reduce some of that anxiety that goes with hearing from the university you're interested in."