Can I get into Wharton?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello everybody! I’m a freshman in high school right now and my dream school is Wharton. I want to know how likely it is that I could be accepted there. Below, I have a list of my projected qualifications. Please let me know how likely my acceptance would be and anything I could do differently to maximize my chances. Thank you!!!

GPA: 4.598 (weighted), 3.904 (unweighted)
ACT: 36
Class rank: my school does not rank. It has a good reputation as it’s the 3rd best public school in Ohio.

Curriculum:
Freshman year-
Honors Geo
Honors Bio
Honors English 9
APUSH
Spanish 3
Intro to Design
Health

Sophomore Year-
Honors Alg 2
Honors Chem
Honors English 10
AP Micro, AP US Gov
Honors Spanish 4
AP Comp Sci

Junior Year-
Honors Pre-Calc
AP Physics 1&2
AP eng lang
AP Macro, AP Comp Gov
AP span lang

Senior Year-
AP Calc BC, AP Stats
AP Physics C
AP eng lit
AP euro history
AP span lit

Extracurriculars/Sports, leadership role:
4 years golf, varsity captain
4 years tennis, varsity captain
4 years debate, captain and state champion/finalist in public forum
4 years business club, president
2 years national honor society (most years possible!), some random leadership role
4 years leadership conference, one of the leaders (about 10 out of the 150 who participate are designated, “leaders”)

Random Stuff:
Wrote a couple essays that were published on Wharton website
Participated in around 200 hours of business related internship (paid)
180 hours volunteering at little kids camp
Went to a shitty country and did something nice for poor people for a week or two

Awards:
Magna Cum Laude (top 10% of class)
Honors Diploma
Probably more…we’ll see

Background:
White, 6 figure household income, from northeast Ohio, native to area

Other Application Stuff:
My recommendations will be EXCELLENT
My essays will hopefully be just as great

PLEASE NOTE that these are my IDEAL qualifications, I’m on track right now to achieving all of these, but there is the possibility that I can fall short.

2

Come back when you have actual stats. You can’t “project” a 36 on the ACT. Have you even taken the ACT?

3

“some random leadership role”
“Went to a **** country and did something nice for poor people for a week or two”

Here’s a suggestions: do something you’re passionate about. Don’t go for leadership roles just to pad your resume. Definitely don’t dismiss third world volunteering as “doing something nice for poor people”. I know you’re trying to be general for projected qualifications, but the way you phrased some things sounds like you are doing a lot of these just to get into Penn.

Penn, and all colleges in general, want to see a student who is driven and passionate (and for Wharton, a leader). Many of these schools will see through disingenuous activities so focus on your passions.

4

I took the practice ACT and got a 31, which is what leads me to “project” a 36 on the real one before I apply.

5

No college, anywhere in the world, has ever admitted a student based on projected or hypothetical accomplishments. Come back in two years.

6

@patientpatrick ,
The practice ACT is nothing like the real one, but I’m sure you know that already. If anything, your score will be lower than when you take the practice tests because the stress and atmosphere are likely to crunch your numbers. I would only believe a 36 ACT if you have previously scored 36’s on your ACT multiple times in a row on practice tests. I agree with @woogzmama : You can’t expect an honest chance without any real qualifications so far.

7

yes

8

I live in the Philadelphia area. Everyone applying to Penn looks just like you. you are nothing unique that makes them want to accept you. We have had many students from our HS that is very highly ranked not get accepted because all they worked on was school and winning things. My daughter had a few students in her class get in because they were leaders and were true to their passions. They were not straight A’s or a 36 on the ACT. Find what you love and go out into the world and do something with it. Good Luck and keep up the good work.

9

What are your stats so far?

10

A perfect SAT/ACT score is much harder than one would think if you’ve already scored high. I took the ACT for the first time studying hard for about a week and got a 34. Then I took it again for who knows what reason and I put in a lot more effort into this one because I wanted the “perfect score”. Ended up with a borderline 35. There’s a reason less than a thousand kids get them every year. I think after 30, every point up is considerably more difficult to get than the last.

11

@patientpatrick do you go to beachwood high school??

12

Ya fam it’s crabby patty!!

13

@woogzmama I wasn’t planning on applying with hypothetical accomplishments,

14

@patientpatrick Woah, slow down there! UPenn has tens of thousands of students to choose them, and if you behave at all similarly in real life you will likely be rejected on personality alone.

15

You sound like the character from Legally Blonde without the cuteness.

16

Scores are great (36 on ACT? Wow!) Have you taken any SAT 2s? Pretty sure Penn wants two of those. You’re going to want 750+ on both. Your ECs, however, are nothing exceptional and pretty cookie-cutter. Those are definitely your weakest point. There’s nothing unique about them. That’s what those Ivy schools really want: beyond incredible scores and academic ability, they want unique, special people who won’t just follow some set path for the rest of your life. They want people who have shown that they break out of the box and want to be big names in the world. They want to see their alumni on the cover of Time in 20 years. Would that kind of person limit themselves to Sport A + Sport B + generic club A + generic club B + internship?

My apologies if that seems kind of harsh. It’s just how I see it. If you’re a junior, you’ve still got one summer left to do something incredible. Best of luck.

EDIT: Just saw that these are all just “projected” scores. Really? You expect to get a 36 on the ACT? Do you know how difficult that is? You expect you’re going to publish articles in the Wharton newsletter, that you’re going to get a paid business internship? You know all of this for sure, do you? (Those are weirdly specific ‘projected’ GPAs…)

My advice:

Do try your best to get these “projected” scores. Try to do ECs that are more unique and will make you stand out. There will be a million other kids with perfect stats and GPA. You still want to keep a couple sports, but take the time to figure out your true interests and pursue what you love. If you apply to Penn with those stats, they will all-too-clearly see that you have geared your entire high school career towards your college application. They want genuine passion in whatever you’re interested in, and for you to excel in those areas.