Chance a frantic senior at top schools! Please help with a cherry on top!

<p>Please chance me for Early Decision at Penn CAS! WHat do you think...is it worth it? Or should I try ED for WASHU instead...i absolutely love both schools and would go to any of them if I had the chance, but it is true that I love Penn a tiny bit more than WASHU! </p>

<p>Here are my Stats: </p>

<p>Rank: 5/ 550 people (Very Competitive)
GPA: 4.7 (out of 4 due to weighting)
Class load: hardest possible no doubt!
ACT: 29 ( Just Retook this Saturday...hopefully i improved!) </p>

<p>ECs: </p>

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<p>Editor-in-chief of School Paper - first junior to become one in a long time, I am absolutely certain that the newspaper advisor will write me a first class recommendation. I am also the first EIC to serve for two years in a row! </p>

<p>Question: Our school paper won a national award from Columbia University (silver crown) during my time this year as EIC, is something I should mention? This award is not directed to me specifically but more to our entire paper. I think it's appealing as it is an award recognizing the top few papers internationally and is from Columbia itself. </p>

<p>Founder and manager of newspaper website </p>

<p>Awarded Outstanding web-designer by IU </p>

<p>Write for other community papers as well, including our cultural one.</p>

<p>Many essay competition awards; won 1st place in state for a newspaper article I wrote. That same article won 4th place nationally at another competition (which I will not list here for security reasons as you can easily look me up) </p>

<p>Wrote an inspirational children's book on meditation - this will be published internationally (on Amazon) in approx. three weeks and is also going to be available at many local bookstores throughout the state. (this is honestly and personally one of my most special accomplishments!) </p>

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<p>History Fair 3rd Place in State/Metro scholarship Winner/ National Qualifier (Alternate) </p>

<p>History Fair Executive Director's award for Superior History </p>

<p>Internship at congressman office summer before junior year </p>

<p>Attended Illini Girls State</p>

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<p>Founder/President of an Indian community service council for students (we help out at various community festivals, represent the youth, currently planning a cultural show and a trip abroad to India)
***Currently collaborating to make this an "international student" effort meaning students of all cultures create a joint effort. </p>

<p>State Cultural Pageant winner (first runner up) and miss talent </p>

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<p>500+ volunteer service hours through hospital volunteering (the usual lol), tutoring, after school enrichment program helping for younger children, etc. etc. </p>

<p>Math Honor Society President</p>

<p>Founder and manager of MHS website (to submit service hours, updates on events, etc) </p>

<p>National Honor Society </p>

<p>French Honor Society </p>

<p>DECA state winner</p>

<p>I have several other ECs but I feel that these are my main ones and the ones that I am most proud to be involved in! However, as you can see my goal was to essentially divide my interests in three areas: writing/publishing, Politics/History, Indian Culture. Then of course, this is all accompanied by the usual honor societies and community service. </p>

<p>Recommendations – My counselor especially told me I am her “top junior” and will receive a “stellar” recommendation, and I am certain that the same will apply to my Newspaper Advisor/English teacher who has seen megrow extensively since freshman year. Also, would it be advisable to receive some sort of letter confirming the legitimacy of my internship at the Congressman’s office? I don’t want to give off any sort of impression that it was received through connections and whatnot since it most certainly was not! </p>

<p>Schools:</p>

<p>ED UPENN or ED WASHU (i think this will depend on my ACT score, if it improves somewhat I'lll go for Penn otherwise, washu is defintely another top choice for me) </p>

<p>Other Schools:
Boston University
NYU
Emory
Vanderbilt
George Washington
Tufts
Case Western
UIUC (urbana)
U-MICH Ann Arbor</p>

<p>You certainly have an outstanding application with unique extracurriculars, especially getting a book published. For the paper btw, I suggest putting it down on your resume as a caption under your editor of chief. My only suggestion is definitely retake the ACT or even try the SAT, a 33 or 2200 would make your app outstanding.</p>

<p>As for your chances:
ED UPenn High Match/Low Reach (As is for everyone basically)
ED WashU Match</p>

<p>Boston University In
NYU Low Match
Emory Match
Vanderbilt Match
George Washington Low Match
Tufts Match (Remember to show plenty of Interest)
Case Western In
UIUC (urbana) In
U-MICH Ann Arbor In (If you apply EA)</p>

<p>Thanks! I am crossing my fingers for the ACT. I feel as though I did better than last time…but you really can’t tell until you recieve the score!</p>

<p>Also was considering to add one of these three: Columbia, Brown, or Northwestern…i guess i’ll see when I get my ACT score comes in whether or not to make these additions.</p>

<p>Bump please!!!</p>

<p>Other Opinions please??</p>

<p>Alright so my score improved one point =/ is this gonna make a major difference? It is now a 30…</p>

<p>the 29 to 30 won’t make a huge difference but it will definitely make one. starting with a 3 just makes it a prettier number, and maybe admissions officers think that way too.
it’s hard to know what a 4.7 weighted gpa really even means. do you get all A’s? colleges don’t only look at GPA, they look at the actual scores you get in each class. your tests may hold you back a little bit (ACT) but not enough to eliminate you. other than that, the rest of your application is outstanding really. you have a pretty decent shot.</p>

<p>let me know what you think my shot is?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/807434-chances-upenn-wharton-early-decision.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/807434-chances-upenn-wharton-early-decision.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Thanks! Yeah I know a one point difference isn’t stellar, but it is what it is I suppose…</p>

<p>And yeah, the 4.7 is almost all A’s…hence my class rank.</p>

<p>Hopefully my scores won’t eliminate me! I’ve already submitted and completed an interview today…so everything regarding this application is officially out of my hands!</p>