Are these hooks that can get me into Penn?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
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<p>Hi, I was reading alot of post and found that hooks really help if you're applying to Penn. I was wondering if the things listed below can be considered hooks that will increase my chances of getting into Penn. I's applying RD to CAS:</p>

<p>1.) African American Male
2.) West Philadelphia Resident
3.) Competitive Philadelphia Public School (Ranked 53rd in the Nation)(Masterman)
4.) Varsity Track Team Years in a Row (All-Public Honors)
5.) Thomas Jefferson University Internship
6.) Boy Scouts Captain
7.) National Acheivement Outstanding Participant
8.) Certified Martial Arts Instructor in two Different Styles [Ninjitsu; Wing Chung (Form of Kung Fu: The Same Style Bruce Lee Did)]
9.) President of a Religious Organization (Muslim)
10.) Personal Tutor</p>

<p>I appreciate any feedback that anyone can give</p>

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<p>Well, the first 2 are anyways, 1 for sure, 2 most likely will help.</p>

3

<p>1 will surely help. 2 and 3 might not be considered hooks, but they will probably help to some degree. The rest are just extracurricular activities (which if good enough can act like a hook ;) ). I think you've got a good list.</p>

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<p>Screw everything else, 1 is all you need.</p>

5

<p>actually, 2 and three are at least as important as one. If you're in the top half of the class, you're almost assuredly in. Competitiveness of the high school is not an issue - masterman isn't because it's incredibly grade-inflated (I know, I went there), but if you go to masterman or central and aren't terrible, odds are penn will take you.</p>

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<p>"masterman... is incredibly grade-inflated"</p>

<p>amen to that! :(</p>

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<p>With 1, 2, and 3, I'll be surprised if you don't get in.</p>

8

<p>I'm not a masterman fan. The kids at Episcopal, Haverford, Agnes Irwin, etc. are about a million times smarter. So what if they're also rich? They are better qualified than the kids at masterman.</p>

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<p>and you assess this how? by simple statistics, the kids at masterman should be 'smarter' simply because masterman takes in a smaller proportion of students (100 per class) from a larger pool of students (all of philadelphia) than any of the private suburban high schools. if by 'smarter' you mean 'better educated' then of course, the private suburban schools have vastly more resources and the student's families can afford private tutoring and the like, which is out of the question at masterman in most cases.</p>

<p>I would also like to note that your example schools left out notable powerhouse private schools that happen to be in philly proper, penn charter, gfs and the like. to me, this says your bias is as much urban/rural as it is public/private, and as such I am highly skeptical that you even know a single student who went to masterman.</p>

<p>Lastly, the advantage gained by going to masterman has almost nothing to do with the school itself. Penn is REQUIRED to accept a certain number of Philadelphia residents each year, and masterman and central students are required to be city residents, whereas many of the students at the private schools, even the ones within the city proper, technically reside in the suburbs.</p>

<p>and just for fun, and to show that masterman puts out smart kinds in the eyes of schools other than penn, here are where the top 10% of my graduating class went to college in order of rank (10 students out of 100):</p>

<p>mit, harvard, yale, duke, penn, penn, amherst, penn, northwestern, princeton</p>

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<p>[Moderator's Note: the College Confidential Terms of Service prohibit racial slurs, so the post has been edited out.]</p>

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<p>^Thats fairly racist........</p>

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<p>fairly.....</p>

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<p>"I'm not a masterman fan. The kids at Episcopal, Haverford, Agnes Irwin, etc. are about a million times smarter"</p>

<p>i'll have to disagree with that statement!</p>

<p>"they all got in out of pity, the top private schools send the top 10% of their classes to Ivy League schools as well, except those kids are future leaders, whereas the masterman kids are a bunch of illiterate puerto ricans who go to poetry slams, etc."</p>

<p>where the heck did you hear that? (and for the record, i'll bet a lot of those "private school" kids get into top schools because a) their parents pay a hefty price to get them in. b) they sleep with the admissions officers. :p just kidding about example b!)</p>

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<p>also for clarification, though not particularly important, only 3 of the ten students i listed applied URM.</p>

<p>where's a mod? I figured such a flagrantly racist post would have been taken down by now</p>

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<p>"the top private schools send the top 10% of their classes to Ivy League schools as well, except those kids are future leaders,"
i guess we're ****ed if we dont go to rich private schools then, as there can be no poor future leaders.</p>

<p>"whereas the masterman kids are a bunch of illiterate puerto ricans who go to poetry slams, etc."
are you one of those very qualified rich kids that got rejected and now blame it on the poor little puerto ricans that got in, despite having lower scores b/c they couldnt go to a rich private school or pay for sat tutors?
anyone can be qualified when you have rich parents to pay the price. too bad the rest of us get in just out of pity</p>

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<p>"whereas the masterman kids are a bunch of illiterate puerto ricans who go to poetry slams, etc."</p>

<p>oh, and for the record, of the 120 people in my graduating class, 2.5 are puerto rican... (and they are all quite literate, thank you).</p>

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<p>How is this thread still open?</p>