Anxious for M&T and SEAS. Chance me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

Hello,

I’m an applicant to M&T and SEAS for the class of 2020. M&T is my absolute top choice so I’m really anxious about decisions. I’m starting to second guess everything I put on my app lol. I already got into some amazing schools, but I’d love to know what are my chances at M&T and SEAS. Thank you so much in advance.

International, male, not seeking financial aid

Scores: 34 ACT, 800 Math L2, 700 Physics, 4.0 GPA (freshman year was a bit rough, but the rest are great). Currently ranked 1/320

Note: APs are not offered at my school, but I’ve still taken the most rigorous course available to me.

Extracurriculurs:

  • Research: 4 papers. 2 in CS and 2 in math. Published research x 2. Selected as ISEF Semi-Finalist for 1 paper (another one that I collaborated on got selected, but I did not attend with that paper). Collaborated with some pretty awesome people. Math papers deal with some relatively significant long standing conjectures.
  • Volunteer Work: Run a non profit with my friends and provide CS education to underprivileged children. Present in 11 cities and helped over 2K children. Teach, manage daily operations as well as handle the 100+ member volunteer base. Serve as COO
  • Startup/Business: Run my own startup that I started with friends. Received closure for angel funding. Employ 19 people (15 at the time of applying).
  • Startup/Business #2: Another startup that was found to build up on a concept from one of my research papers. In talks to patent/seed fund it too
  • Student Govt.: Head boy of the student council (highest position on student council) for 2 years. House captain (3rd highest position on student council) for 2 years. Elected to both of them after school wide campaigns.
  • Clubs: CS Club (President), Debate Club (President), Math Club (Member)
  • Sports: Varsity soccer and basketball (captained both the teams for one season). Started a REC team at new school. Played at city/district level (Only till the 10th grade though).
  • Magic: Perform magic tricks based on mathematical principles. Not professionally or something. Just for fun and helping children learn mathematics in a more fun way.
  • French Language: Learning it since the 8th grade. Scored high marks in an important exam.

Awards

  • ISEF Semi Finalist (National Fair Finalist in Math category; top 1% in the country)
  • Selected for a prestigious national level government competition (sorry for being vague, but I want to protect my identity)
  • Qualified AIME equivalent of my country
  • International physics competition - top 50 internationally (not the IPhO or the APhO lol, but relatively significant)
  • 3rd in state and 36th in national in a computing olympiad
  • A national level merit based scholarship to pursue 11th, 12th grade studies
  • Merit certificate holder (top 10% of candidates) in a relatively significant state government organized science exam
  • Winner x1, Runner-up x1 in an inter school debate competition
  • Lots of other irrelevant stuff (best basketball player (9th grade), overall achievement award (for ranking first), best of subjects award x 2, best performer of the year)
  • A few external scholarships for performance in 10th grade school leaving examinations

Recommendations/Essays:
Essays - CA: Very strong. Got it reviewed by many people who said that it was the best response to the prompt they had ever seen. Supplement: Really showed my passion for math/CS/entrepreneurship. Talked about how I want to continue doing research and then commercializing it for the greater good of the community. Connected it to stuff that I had already done and my ventures.

Teacher recs: Pretty strong.
Additional rec:

  1. From my research mentor (AB Harvard/PhD MIT). He said that he would write a strong recommendation based on my research work.
  2. From a person at the firm which is helping us patent the device we’re building at the second startup. Possibly funding too

Note: Math research is really strong. Like grad-level strong. (the person who previously solved another part of the problem that we worked on did so as a part of his PhD thesis). I also cold emailed like nuts to get opportunities and work with really awesome people (read: additional rec writer and another top prize winning tenured prof at a vv top institute). I am the first author on all papers.

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M&T is so selective. It is meaningless to chance. You are strong applicant. Good luck!

3

@f2000sa What are the acceptance rates for M&T?

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Around 6%

5

Around 6%

That is overall. The rate for RD is even lower. They already took about half during ED round, and deferred many.

6

How about admissions rate for SEAS?

@anotherdude Given the fact that M&T’s admissions rate is 6%, and I think they accept around 50 students a year, it’s going to be tough. However, you are definitely a strong applicant.

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@BL2017@anotherdude Penn does not release individual school/program acceptance rates. That said, a 5-6% for M&T and a 9-9.5% for SEAS would be good estimates. These are overall rates. I imagine that for RD both rates are lower and especially the M&T rate must be much much lower since many of the M&T people apply ED

I think you are definitely a qualified candidate. Your chances are good but it is so competitive that you never know.