Can you help me decide? I want to go to UPenn.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>First of all I'm new here, so I am probably posting this in the wrong forum.</p>

<p>I am a first generation college student, white, male, immigrated from Russia in '96.</p>

<p>According to these conversion systems from CollegeBoard and Princeton Review I would have a 4.0 uw gpa. Not sure what it would be for the weighted one, but it is 97/100 on a 100 point scale.</p>

<p>SAT Superscore: 2130----> CR: 690, M:750, W:690 (I hope to retake it and get math to 800 and writing in the 700s, reading is tough for me though.)</p>

<p>SAT II: Math 2: 720 US History: 720</p>

<p>AP: USH: 4 Calc AB: 5 Spanish: 3 Euro: 3</p>

<p>AP Scholar with Honor, Discus Award Winner</p>

<p>Taking AP Physics B, AP govt, AP stat senior year in a very rigorous and competitive high school in NYC.</p>

<p>My school doesn't rank but I know I'm def in top 10%. Probably even top 5%.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: captain of Vars XC and Track teams (4 years, captain senior year), Sports Editor for School Newspaper (4 years, editor for junior and senior years), Chairperson of NHS (3 years, chairperson senior year), not official, but I'm going to be an Eagle Scout in about a month or two. I am going to have a community health fair with the local hospital and red cross volunteering to help.</p>

<p>Work/ Volunteering: Worked at some summer camps where I personally taught classes to kids ranging in age from 6 to 18. Worked as an assistant chef at a cafe. Worked as an intern for a big real estate company. Worked with famous Med School professor to create visuals for presentations to first year med school students, which included research and finding/ making visual representations of biological processes. 50 hours at a community mural project (Volunteer). Worked in the Parent Coordinator's office during the summer for 175 hours (Volunteer). Around 70 hours from a camp I worked at (volunteer).</p>

<p>I think my essays are pretty strong and have some solid recommendations coming from APUSH and AP Calc AB teachers.</p>

<p>I am interested in Engineering and Sciences, but not certain if I would want to go into this field. I live in NYC but wouldn't mind going across the nation for college.</p>

<p>I want a school that isn't completely rural, has really nice facilities (the beauty of an IVY), students are generally happy people, I want to have a life in college, but definitely have great academics.</p>

<p>Here are my top schools: UPenn, Cornell, Yale, Dartmouth, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, UCLA, Boston University, Boston College, Cooper Union, Swarthmore, Bucknell, Northwestern, Bowdoin, Brown, and Columbia.</p>

<p>I would love UPenn so much. Do I have a chance there or any of my top schools? Should I focus on improving my SAT? What are some schools that would fit me?</p>

2

<p>BU seems to be your best bet at this stage; at least half of the universities on this list are reaches for everyone.</p>

<p>BU: Safety
Bucknell: Match
CMU: High match
UCLA: High match (OOS)/Match (in-state)
BC: High match
NYU: Low match (CAS/Steinhardt)/Match (Stern)</p>

3

<p>Do you think i could help myself by getting the sat up about 100 points? And thanks for replying</p>

4

<p>Penn ED = reach (10-33% shot at admission ED). Penn fills half the class ED, and so it is understandable you would consider doing this at Penn. But I would think long and hard about using your ED at Penn as it is still a long shot. </p>

<p>Biggest issues for Penn will likely be (1) verbal SATs (somewhat compensated for by first generation status), (2) SAT II’s ok but not great, (3) class rank (Penn typically likes top 2% and, although your school does not rank, if it is a prominent one in NYC, Penn will likely be familiar with it and have a pretty good idea where a 97 puts you in the class), and (4) no Physics C or B/C Calc senior year (AP Stats and Physics B viewed as easy way out) and no AP English. Of the four, I think the biggest issue at Penn will be your curriculum and why a gifted math student is not taking the toughest possible math/science courses or challenging himself with AP English. </p>

<p>But on the plus side, you have really nice and time-consuming ECs that make your academic record more impressive and you have achieved leadership positions in a variety of areas so by no means are you out of it, even at Penn. You look like the classic wait list candidate in the ED round – a candidate with intangibles the admissions office really likes but that they do not want to accept right off the bat).</p>

<p>As for the others:</p>

<p>Yale, Cooper Union, and Columbia = high reaches (less than 10%); </p>

<p>Dartmouth, Brown, Swarthmore, Northwestern, and Cornell = reaches (assume RD applications); </p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon = low reach (50/50% or so – this low due to your math curriculum, but given your interest in eng’g and science this is where I would think about using the ED); </p>

<p>Bowdoin = low reach (due to verbal); not an eng;g school; </p>

<p>Boston College (not an eng’g school), NYU, Bucknell (the other school I would consider using ED on as it has a very fine eng’g program at an LAC, which seems to interest you), UCLA, and Boston University = matches (2/3’s to 90% shot at admissions there). </p>

<p>Other ideas for math/engineering – Lehigh, G. Tech, Purdue (safety but excellent eng’g program), Syracuse, Pitt, and RPI.</p>