972: Inside UPenn Admissions - with Whitney Soule, Vice Provost & Dean of Admissions, University of Pennsylvania

Vice Provost and Dean of Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania Whitney Soule is the first female Dean of Admissions in Penn’s history. She has more than three decades of experience in higher education admissions.

In the higher ed environment, which continues to experience record levels of anxiety in its student base, Soule is taking a closer look at how academia can reinforce the practice of gratitude to best center individuals - and the characteristics they demonstrate - now and in the future. Working with other Penn luminaries and past TED Talk speakers such as Angela Duckworth and Adam Grant, as well as Martin Seligman - the leading authority in the field of Positive Psychology - Soule debuted a gratitude prompt asking high school applicants to write a thank you note to someone about the positive impact that person made in their life. Led by Soule, the goal of the prompt was to lessen anxiety around the admissions process, and to demonstrate an ability to accept positive influence from others. Additional benefits have included stories of appreciation (https://www.inquirer.com/news/penn-admissions-assignment-gratitude-thank-you-notes-20221001.html) from high school students and leaders, as well as a campus-wide effort for Penn students to conduct the same exercise on Locust Walk as they move among their classes.

Soule and her team are also influencing change in the higher education admissions pace through mentoring leaders in higher education, waiving Penn’s $400 deposit fee (which removes a barrier for low-income students), sending applicatio… Read More