<p>I'm a white male applying ED to penn CAS this year. I go to a catholic school in the Philly area. 4.0 or close to that with all honors and two aps last year and taking morning classes at a local college this year along with all honors. 690 math. 680 reading. 620 writing(trying to bring it up lol). Subject tests: bio(Eco) 790. Math 1(720). Eagle scout. Held many leadership positions. Participated as school tour guide and community service club member. Work a job at a fast food restaurant. Played guitar 8 years(that might be frivolous). Grandfather attended penn and penn medical school. One Teacher I'm asking for reccomendation is penn grad and foreign language teacher(which is what I want to major in) and I received A+s every year with her. Any advice for how to improve my resume, what else I should include, how else to present it or any overall advice? Will ED help me or am I just unlikely all around? Im clueless!</p>
<p>Legacy will help you. I’m not sure if it matters if its your grandfather versus your parents though. Penn loves legacies.</p>
<p>However, your SAT score is on the low side. Assuming you get that up, with your ECs, you should be a competitive applicant.</p>
<p>No guarantees though.</p>
<p>Do you live in the city itself or the suburbs? Does your school regularly send students to Penn? Have you considered taking an SAT foreign language test? Did you take AP tests? </p>
<p>You already know your SAT scores are low, though the subject tests are good. A teacher who really knows you is an excellent recommender, no matter where she went to school. (Unless she worked in the admissions office, the readers won’t know her; individual departments aren’t involved in undergrad admissions.) As you also may know, legacy may have become less important recently because so many apply.</p>
<p>This is just a hunch, but your application will look very different from so many. You’re a Boy Scout. Your community clearly considers you a leader. You’ve worked in fast food, not at a nuclear reactor. You want to study languages, not neuroscience or finance. If your essays really convey your distinctiveness, you could charm the admissions office and find yourself in the next class.</p>
<p>i live in a suburb about 20 minutes away from penn. i got a 4 in ap bio and a 3 in ap music theory(will the fact that i at least took the course and did well in it impress anyone?). im pretty sure my school does not regularly send students to penn. is that a bad thing? also at my work i am the only american and the rest are arab and indian immigrants which is what helped me realize i love foreign cultures. my essay is going to be about how my boss taught me the araic alphabet as i helped him study for his citizenship test.
will ed help my chances at all?</p>
<p>I love your essay topic. You’re using a very specific incident that shows you not only have experiences but reflect on them. You approach new situations with curiosity, and you’re receptive to differences. That’s what people do in an academic community; you’re showing you belong.</p>
<p>And I think Penn will welcome the chance to take somebody good from a place that usually doesn’t send students. I don’t know how much ED will help, but I’m not convinced that you’ll need much help.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot. I appreciate the input. Do you think my location will have any bearing on this though?</p>
<p>Well, Penn likes to accept at least one person from every state every year. Could you and your family move to a state that doesn’t send many students? Just kidding. You’re obsessing.</p>
<p>Haha just wondering because you asked if I lived in the city or suburbs. But may I ask how you know all of this?</p>
<p>I asked about the city because of the need to accept city students to meet Mayor’s Scholarship requirements. (There’s a discussion of this somewhere on this site; you can search to find it.)</p>
<p>I went to Penn back in the dark ages. Ben Franklin signed my admission letter and sent it on a kite because he hadn’t invented the post office yet. I came from a small Pennsylvania town and had a record much like yours (Girl Scout though). Penn actually had a program to recruit from places like that.</p>
<p>I also have worked at Penn, know people who work there, live in the neighborhood, pick up the DP several times a week in the box near the grocery store…</p>
<p>And I’ve been reading this site for two years. I’ve read so many of these Chance Me threads. So many sound alike. It’s as if somebody had published a book called Send Your Baby to An Ivy in Eighteen Years: A Surefire Formula and handed out copies at every maternity ward in every suburb in the country.</p>
<p>Your voice is really distinctive. It will stand out. It shows that you have the personal qualities (curiosity, receptivity to differences, initiative) to contribute at Penn and the larger world. Your academic record shows that you can do the work. Even if you refuse to move to North Dakota or Mississippi.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>You know, I’m so thankful people like you exist on this site; those who offer counselling to students on matters as seemingly trivial and these.
But I’m just surprised you think my ECs are solid. From the info I’ve gathered on this site, it seems unclear as to how highly colleges regard eagle scouts nowadays. I see all of these people on here with activities like model un president, NHS president, president of literally every group that has that title.</p>
<p>Regarding all these presidents, see page 543 of Send Your Baby to An Ivy in Eighteen Years: A Surefire Formula. It’s in there at the top of the page in bold italicized large type.</p>
<p>Make sure your kid is the president of at least one organization, even if it accomplishes nothing. If no club is available, create one and designate the kid as the president.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that all of these positions are meaningless or bogus, but so much of the value of the experience comes from reflection about it. Like you did in your job. The kids who are just going through the motions to get another bullet point for an admissions office really haven’t done anything of value.</p>
<p>Hahaha im starting to wonder whether or not this book really does exist somewhere. The “Real Book” of college admissions. It really agitates me how so many of my peers have titles such as that and all of these meaningless clubs and activities. I just wonder how the admissions officers can determine which ones really are bona fide activities.</p>
<p>If a school regularly sends a lot of kids, they have an idea about the context of the claims. Otherwise, they read the essays and the recommendations for evidence of a working brain.</p>
<p>P.S. I misspoke before. I just looked at the Penn website, and Mississippi actually sent more than one freshman this year. I apologize.</p>