Any personal insight on the Penn legacy situation?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
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<p>Brown undergrad is excellent, and their placement has generally been great. Not really academically rigorous (unless you want it to be). Providence is… OK. Ideally, could be the most fun you might have at an Ivy League school. You look competitive for any Ivy League school, although perhaps your closest “matches” in terms of you and the average accepted applicant are the “middle-Ivies” - Columbia, Penn, Brown and Dartmouth. This doesn’t mean you’d be an auto-admit, but you’re definitely closer to being accepted than just a 15% likelihood or whatever. You’re basically in at Cornell and a big ol’ reach for HYP - but definitely still a chance. </p>

<p>Your ECs are very respectable. And, btw - going to Columbia or Penn won’t be the end of the world. It just won’t be Harvard. So, decide and stick to it. Try not to look back.</p>

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<p>The real advantage of being a Penn legacy is that you have an upper-hand in knowing (through anecdotes and visits) why you are a perfect fit for Penn. If you are applying ED just because you have legacy status, then essentially you are depriving yourself from that advantage. Unless Penn is your dream school (and you can display this through your essays), then i suggest not applying early decision.<br>
An important lesson is learned after reading the post from the guy with legacy at Harvard. Perhaps if he applied early decision to his dream school (Penn in his case), he would have been accepted. Personally, I believe that showing a deep interest in a school is more important than legacy. (and this is coming from someone who has legacy)</p>

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<p>What about Princeton? I know they kind of take a sort of different type of student than Harvard does… in a way.</p>

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<p>Quite frankly, I am not sure that you will get into Harvard or Princeton. You WILL get into Penn ED with your profile at ED. Penn has excelllent pre-med and its medical school is tops. Go for it!</p>

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<p>Well what should I do to increase my chances for Princeton? I know it’s a crapshoot for anyone (Unless you’re like Melanie Oudin and you want to play tennis) or if you won Intel, but what am I lacking? I think the way I described my ECs might not make them that appealing… but IDK.</p>

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<p>

I think you would need outstanding stats to get into Princeton since you are attending a NJ high school. Everyone val and sal in NJ high schools is probably going to apply. Unless you are one of them or have other hooks, you will be at a disadvantage.</p>

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<p>yo carin, definitely choose Penn. we can be premed brohoes. (if we both get in)</p>

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<p>Outstanding stats? That’s very vague. More specification, please? And val/sal doesn’t really do anything. We don’t even RANK in our school, except for specifying top 5-10%.</p>

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<p>I think that Carin has a perfectly good chance of getting into Princeton. But his chance of getting into Penn is obviously higher.</p>

<p>Carin: I would visit the schools, see if Princeton does interviews, and then if you decide to apply to Princeton, write some GREAT essays. I don’t know how much they help, but I think that you could have a shot.</p>

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<p>Okay. I think my chances are blown at Harvard, since they don’t like my school, apparently. I don’t really know anything about Yale. I guess I need to visit it.</p>

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<p>So does anyone have any thoughts:
Likelihoods (just your own opinion)-
Penn ED:
Penn RD:
Columbia ED:
Columbia RD
Princeton RD:
Harvard RD:
Yale SCEA:
Yale RD:
Brown PLME RD:
Johns Hopkins RD:</p>

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<p>bump ten char</p>

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<p>Looking at the list above, it is quite possible that if you don’t choose to apply to Penn ED, you will end up at Hopkins.</p>

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<p>Penn ED: 70%
Penn RD: 20% (prob even lower, because legacies applying RD show disinterest, so not only does it not help you anymore, it counts against you)
Columbia ED: 45%
Columbia RD: 30%
Princeton RD: 15%
Harvard RD: 15%
Yale SCEA: 10%
Yale RD: 10% (SCEA has no effect on yale admissions)
Brown PLME RD: Tough to say, they care more about essays than grades. 8%
Johns Hopkins RD: 70%</p>

<p>I must say, you have a similar application plan with me, but I’m definitely applying early to Penn. If I don’t get in, then I’ll consider my other choices. </p>

<p>Since you’re probably planning on going to med school, you should realize the prestige of undegrad is not as important as the GPA you receive there. (I can’t even believe I’m saying this in defense of UPenn, a very prestigious university). But I guess compared to HYP, it’s still second tier.</p>

<p>Consider this, if you end up at a school like Princeton with no hospital on or near campus and with grade deflation, you’ll get the fleeting benefit of showing off its brand name to your friends and family, but once the initial gloss and glamor wears off, you’re stuck at a very competitive, difficult, environment in which getting As and maintaining a competitive GPA will be harder for medical school. You can argue that grad schools take into account the difficulty of a school, but this sadly is not as big of a factor as you may hope. Places like MIT, where grade deflation and course rigor is clearly known, still suffer from the a fairly low medical school acceptance rate for their prestige.</p>

<p>Don’t think you’re “too good” for a place like UPenn. I know how you feel since I was also in this dilemma a few weeks ago. I have a 2310, two 800s and one 770, and I’m captain of debate, VP of the environmental club, I have hundreds of volunteer hours for a slew of different organizations under my belt, I’ve done Brain cancer research at a hospital and I can go on for about half a page.</p>

<p>I’ve realized, however, that undergrad is less about prestige and more about fit. When I visited in August, I knew UPenn was for me. I know I can thrive best in this setting, which can ultimately prepare me best for what’s more important: grad school.</p>

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<p>I live in Princeton. I volunteer at their hospital, the UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER at Princeton University. So you’re false.</p>

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<p>They also mention that legacy status will never be counted against you.
And I think Princeton is reasonably easier to get into than Harvard, because they accept different type of excellent students.</p>

<p>I thank you for your input, which is what I asked for. You gave me your honest opinion. Ugh… Do you have any advice for what I can to do improve my application? Or rather what I should’ve done?</p>

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<p>

That’s a medical center, not a medical school. UPenn has the 3rd best med school in the nation, not to mention two more hospitals just around the corner.</p>

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<p>I hope you realize UPenn is not stupid enough to actually publicize what goes on behind the scenes. That would be a public relations nightmare. I stand by my statement, and as an anecdote: A couple years back when I was a freshman, there was a senior in my HS with perfect stats, NMS, President of a wide range of clubs, double legacy at Penn. He skipped UPenn early, b/c like you, he expected a better college. He was rejected to Harvard and Princeton, waitlisted at Yale and Stanford, and was accepted to Brown and Columbia. He eventually chose Columbia. OH, and he was flat out rejected from Penn. I don’t think that was an accident. By not applying ED, you’re telling them you’re experiences as a son/daughter of a Penn alumni was not convincing enough to make it your first choice. Furthermore, they often infer that you probably spend your ED on another school like Yale or Stanford, or saving the ED so you can apply to Harvard and Princeton. When you have stats like yours, thats when they raise their eyebrows.</p>

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<p>Thats all very subjective. As it is, college admissions are a crapshoot. People all the time get accepted to both P and H, or accepted to P and rejected from H and vice versa. You can’t make generalizations such as “its easier to get into”. Especially since your from NJ. … and Asian.</p>

<p>And no problem about my opinion. Take it for what its worth, though I have a feeling you’re mind has not in the least bit changed and you’re probably going to apply to HYPS anyway. Good luck with that.</p>

<p>edit: the last sentence sounds sarcastic. It’s not supposed to be. I really mean it when I say good luck…</p>

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<p>Good post Set Point. OP’s gotten all the advice he needs, this thread doesn’t warrant any more posts.</p>

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<p>Carin: Set Point speaks the truth. As yet another Penn student who was in precisely the same situation and chose incorrectly the first time around, I cannot stress this enough. You’re free to make any decision you want, but don’t have any false hope.</p>

<p>They only accept 7% of transfers - don’t make that your back-up plan.</p>

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<p>^ The transfer acceptance rate is more like 17% (367/2190), but that’s still pretty low:</p>

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