<p>Colleges are interested in accepting students into their program who seem to be focused on a specific goal. I think that you would be better off applying to a program where you show interest via EC’s, work, etc even if your grades aren’t phenomenal.</p>
<p>For example, let’s say you are a girl (I don’t know if you are or are not). Your EC’s involve debate, student government, and you’ve volunteered for a local state representative. It comes time to apply for college admission and your English and History grades are average. Because of this you decide to apply to engineering school because there are far fewer female candidates to compete against. The college reviewing your application will more than likely question your actions as you have shown little to no interest in an engineering career.</p>
<p>Penn’s ED acceptance rate is 30%. So not bad. </p>
<p>…yep, I think you’ll have a great chance if you boost your class rank up. the SAT doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a problem and perhaps you can explain your science calss grades in your app. I mean, diff equations as a sophomore? I’m only taking calc 2 as a junior and that’s the fastest track we have. XD</p>
<p>no! only apply ED if you wanna go so bad and can’t picture yourself anywhere else. DON’T use it as a strategy for admission, colleges can usually see through it and you risk getting yourself into a contract you’re only halfheartedly invested in. also you miss out on being able to choose in april. if penn is that school to you, if you visit and interview again and feel that way go for it. you’re still a qualified applicant. you can still go to a good school. as someone who lives near penn and has visited it (but didn’t apply, incidentally i have a 3.6 too), what stuck out the most for me was its intellectual environment. the city was a plus too. maybe consider prestigious schools such as emory, boston college, rice etc. as safer schools maybe look at BU, villanova, GWU, american.</p>
<p>From your known stats, applying ED to Cornell might be a better choice. UPenn is sometimes unpredictable with what they look for in applicants (learned this the hard way), even with Engineering, and they have arguably the most GPA-crazed admissions council among the Ivy League (or for any college, for that matter). Cornell, on the other hand, isn’t so GPA-intensive, and they’re ranked over Penn for engineering (the only areas where UPenn >> Cornell is Wharton + Dual Degree Programs, for engineering Cornell most often is the better of the two). But you seem to really like UPenn, so I’d say weigh the two against each other. Both do appreciate good EC’s (well, that’s true of all colleges), and yours match up with an engineering school, so they’re pretty close.</p>
<p>Add Michigan (50% acceptance rate) and Case Western and the Cooper Union to your list. There are lots of good fish in the sea. In my experience people like yourself will thrive at these and those listed by doonerak. I attended a second tier school with a lot of Ivy rejects. They were incredibly bright but they weren’t as well rounded as the Ivies like. Many went on to Ivies for grad school. Another really good place to look is the Olin College of Engineering. Any of these schools can take you anywhere you want to go.</p>
<p>Penn’s Common Data Set states it’s in the “very important” category. One student said she was admitted over 2 other students from her school who didn’t take AP or Honors in Fresh and Soph year, both students had counselor mark as “most rigorous”, same SAT as her, same uw GPA but different in course rigour. So I think it does count, but not sure how much, only Penn adcoms will able to decide that for sure.</p>
This is disheartening</p>