<p>U Penn is my dream school, but my parents are pretty much trying to get me to accept that I won't get in. I know my app doesn't stand out in any way, but I'd like another honest opinion of whether I have ANY shot:</p>
<p>I'm a white, Jewish girl from a middle class family in New York</p>
<p>Retaking in the fall after a great deal of studying for critical reading.. going to try to boost it signficantly.</p>
<p>SAT II
US History-710
World history-650
I took Math IIC and Biology M today.. I think I did pretty well on both. (Definitely over 700)</p>
<p>GPA- currently 101.3 transcript average, but will go once this term ends.</p>
<p>Courses
AP World-4
AP US History- ?
AP English Language- ?
AP Biology- ?
I will also be taking 3 more APs next year
All other classes were either honors or part of an advanced science program at my school. </p>
<p>Rank
I'm ranked 2 or 3 out of about 1000</p>
<p>Extra Curriculars
Key Club- 4 years. I'll be the head of a committee head next year
Dance (tap and jazz)- 11 years
Science Newsletter
Animal Club
I'll be getting an internship at a law firm this fall.
I co-founded a project with my friend. We set up a fundraiser to raise money for St Judes.. We're going to turn this into a club and raise for other services.
Arista (national honors society)</p>
<p>Work
At a day camp- 2 years.</p>
<p>Awards
Semifinalist in NY State Math fair
Semifinalist in this national writing contest</p>
<p>is a ranking of top 2% out of all the Juniors in the county (in all the HS's in the county) which is approx 6000 kids considered an extremely good ranking. That is as specific as they will give me and some kids have told me that that will look very good to colleges especially if i bump it into the top 1% (taking 2 AP virtual school classes and one community college class over summer) yet others have told me that it wont look very good because theres still approx 90-145 kids better than me based on where im at within the 2%...your thoughts..thanks</p>
<p>--Laurgirl it would obviously be rude not to give you my thoughts after asking for those on your threads thoughts so here they are: you def. have a shot...(referring to your ANY shot at all). Id say your a match RD and a high match ED considering the ranking and the impressive 11 years of Dance. Good luck.</p>
<p>Referring to your question- I think that would look extremely good. I haven't heard much about national rankings, and I probably am not the best one to answer this since I don't know too much about this whole college process yet. But to me, it sounds great.</p>
<p>Also, the reason I am so worried is because of my extra currics. I really cannot show my leadership in any way. I came in 2nd place for the VP position at my school, but then I couldn't run for anything else because I was sick that day. So, yes. I'm just praying my simple extra currics dont kill me in the college process</p>
<p>just show passion for the extracurriculars in your essays, you have a leadership position in key club thats fine, they're not expecting leadership positions in everything, although some do have that but surely not everyone. have your teachers write good recs that reflect on you as a student and a person, i'm sure they like you if you are ranked so high. critical reading in my opinion is pretty easy to get up, but it needs to be done. i improved 70 points from a 680 to a 750 in one try just by approaching the passages differently. if you get that reading score high 600's to low 700's you'll be straight. right now you've got a good shot, but just for your own self-assurance i would concentrate on reading. i think they look at the sat/satII score sections as one of six. so if you got well into the 700's on math and bio, then you've got 5 700's and a 600 as part of your six scores you'll send to them. thats pretty good, but if you make it 6/6, then thats even better.</p>
<p>Would an essay about how I ran for Arista vice president work.. how losing was a new experience to me. How I felt... but how I realized it's not the title I need.. it's whatever I want to put into the organization, and I don't need a title to prove it? I don't know.. this is hard :-(</p>
<p>It's pretty difficult to judge the potential quality of an essay based on the topic. However, that's a pretty cliche, suburban, "look-what-I've-learned-from-this-so-called-life-changing-experience" essay topic. You'd have to be a brilliant writer to come up with an original twist. </p>
<p>Read Harry Bauld's On Writing the College Application Essay. It contains some awesome advice on how to stand out.</p>
<p>hmmm well i think its less about the topic and more about how you approach the topic, your writing style, remaining humble without sacrificing saying exactly what you want to say. at the same time, i like the topic and it shows maturity which is always a plus. for penn, however, i think they place more emphasis on the "why penn" essay, although you obviously cannot ignore the personal statement since thats what you're gonna write for most, if not all the colleges you apply to</p>
<p>"Id say your a match RD and a high match ED "</p>
<p>Penn's considered a "reach" for everyone (unless your family donates a few million bucks). The only way to evaluate your chances is to apply. Your chances are better with ED if it's your first choice.</p>
<p>I have to write my essay by tomorrow, for my history class (teacher wants to be involved in our college search). I can, of course, and probably will, change my essay when the time comes to submit it in the fall. Basically this was what he told us: Find an adjective that describes you, then write an essay which is a personal essay, that demonstrates the adjective, without explicitly saying "This is how i am caring."</p>
<p>My teacher gave us an example of his daughter's essay (she went to Brown). She wrote about how she joined the volleyball team and it was a new experience to her.. since people always came up to her as the "brain" now she was an athlete and needed help, as opposed to being the one to give help.</p>
<p>Again, I appreciate ALL of your comments and advice. I appreciate it tremendously. Thank you so much.</p>
<p>This actually helps a lot. At home- my parents are basically: You won't get in. Then at the opposite extreme we have my eccentric college advisor- "OH YES! You'll get in anywhere!". And thenn we have my peers who just say- you have over 100 average. You can get in.</p>
<p>I really like talking to people who are realistic and know what they're talking about, and who have been through this recently, even if they're not actually people I know personally :-)</p>
<p>okay, thanks again to all your responses :-). I'm definitely going to listen to everything you've all said, and I'm going to work excessively to boost that critical reading score.</p>