Chance a Junior for Drexel, Lehigh, UPenn, Pitt, CMU, etc.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Alright so let's see how this goes....</p>

<p>I am a half-hour drive from Philadelphia and I go to Conestoga High School (3rd in PA, 279th national, according to USNews, if that helps...)</p>

<p>I was born in Egypt (oh and I'm a guy, in case I forgot to mention), lived there for four years. Both of my parents attended college there (not sure if that would make me a first-generation student, so clarification would be greatly appreciated).</p>

<p>And now on to the numbers...
Current GPA (UW): 3.58
GPA (Weighted): 4.5ish
SAT: 1880 (600 CR, 590 Writing, 690 Math, I definitely plan on retaking this, probably going to break 2000 on the next one)
PSAT: 191 (68 CR, 60 Writing, 63 Math)
Our school doesn't have a ranking system, but if I had to guess I would say I'm top 15-25%</p>

<p>Coursework
9th: All Honors Classes (World Cultures, World Literature, Biology, Geometry + Finite, French 3)
10th: AP Chem, All Honors (Euro, American Lit, Algebra 2 BC, French 4)
11th: AP Psychology, AP French 4, AP Environmental Science, the rest Honors (US History, Lang and Comp, Math Analysis AB)
Expected 12th: AP Physics, AP Calc AB, AP Computer Science, AP French 5, AP US Gov't (and Comparative Gov't), Honors European Literature
Total: 9 APs</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities
Marching Band (9th, 10th, 11th, expected 12th)
Volunteer at YMCA (9th, I would have kept going but the program was discontinued)
Computer Science Club (10th)
Hospital Volunteer (11th, expected 12th)
Model UN (10th, 11th, expected 12th)
Concert Band (9th, 10th, 11th, expected 12th)
I will be doing a research program in biomedical engineering at Drexel this summer
I also am going to start an Arabic Culture Club next year (it's under review, fingers crossed!)</p>

<p>UPenn is my dream school (also my dad works there, so would that give me any help in admissions? I also intend on doing an interview there)</p>

<p>So after all this, chance me for...
UPenn (definitely applying ED)
Drexel
Pitt
Carnegie Mellon
Lehigh
Cornell
University of Illinois
Temple
Penn State</p>

<p>Feel free to ask me for any extra information (I was in a rush writing this) and also feel free to suggest some other schools I could go to with said credentials. I would also be open to any suggestions for improvement of my application</p>

<p>Thank you!!!</p>

2

<p>UPenn: High Reach unless you can drastically raise your UW GPA and SAT but ED will def help
Drexel: Low Match
Pitt: Safety
CMU: Low Reach
Lehigh: High Match/Low Reach (only because of size)
Cornell: Reach
UIUC: Safety
Temple: Low Match
Penn State: Safety</p>

<p>This is all given that you raise the 590 because that can def hurt you tons</p>

<p>Chance me back?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1486066-chance-wharton-ug.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1486066-chance-wharton-ug.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Could you quickly explain your criteria for reach and match, etc. I’m new here sorry :(</p>

4

<p>And I can definitely raise that writing score. I’ve normally been getting in the 630-670 range on writing. That should be an anomaly more than anything</p>

5

<p>With respect to the ease of admittance likelihood, it goes…
safety
low match
match
high match
low reach
reach
high reach</p>

<p>Safety= high chance of getting in
High Reach= <5% of getting in</p>

6

<p>Here’s actual Common Data Set admission information followed by Princeton’s Review’s Admission Selectivity Rating. </p>

<p>I’d highly recommend comparing your scores to a university’s actual common data set numbers over relying subjective or ill-informed opinion.</p>

<p>SAT Critical Reading+Math, 25th - 75th percentile
Penn: 1350-1540
Carnegie Mellon: 1320-1520
Cornell: 1310-1520
Illinois: 1230-1440
Lehigh: 1200-1400
Pitt: 1170-1340
Drexel: 1120-1320
Penn State: 1090-1300
Temple: 1010-1210</p>

<p>Top 10% of High School Class
Penn: 94%
Cornell: 91%
Carnegie Mellon: 76%
Lehigh: 64%
Illinois: 52%
Pitt: 52%
Penn State: 44.8%
Drexel: 34%
Temple: 18%</p>

<p>Average GPA
Penn: 3.9
Pitt: 3.9
Carnegie Mellon: 3.69
Drexel: 3.6
Penn State: 3.54
Temple: 3.41
Cornell: n/a
Illinois: n/a
Lehigh: n/a</p>

<p>*Princeton Review Selectivity Rating<a href="higher%20is%20more%20competitive">/b</a>
Penn: 99
Cornell: 98
Carnegie Mellon: 97
Lehigh: 96
Pitt: 93
Penn State: 92
Drexel: 89
Illinois: 87
Temple: 82</p>

<ul>
<li>This rating is determined by several institutionally reported factors, including: the class rank, average standardized test scores, and average high school GPA of entering freshmen; the percentage of students who hail from out-of-state; and the percentage of applicants accepted. This rating is given on a scale of 60–99.</li>
</ul>

7

<p>That’s actually very helpful. Now looking at, say, the SAT scores of UPenn, if I get a score within that range, should I have a chance? Because looking at some of the replies it seems like the consensus is that getting in will be unlikely</p>

8

<p>So a trend I noticed is that all of my schools are either safeties or relatively high reaches. Could anyone suggest a college that would be more of a match?</p>

9

<p>Having an SAT score in the range of Penn would definitely help you out, and it would definitely improve your chances a lot of places, which goes without saying. Also, having a club that you founded would help you out a lot, because it would add to the leadership that you have. It’s good to see that you have a lot of volunteering in your resume, though.</p>

<p>As far as matches, maybe a school like Boston University. They have a fairly high acceptance rate, but still take students with stats that are usually just a little bit higher than yours. </p>

<p>Chance back?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1485051-chance-high-stats-average-ecs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1485051-chance-high-stats-average-ecs.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

10

<p>Remember these things are on a bell curve…they aren’t necessarily cutoffs. But if your scores falls just inside the 25th percentile range, you’re going to need to be pretty strong other portions of your applications or have unique hooks to be competitive with the 70% of students that out performed you on the standardized tests. It’s a balance.</p>

<p>BTW, I did a postdoc and taught at Penn. I would recommend you take a look at Pitt since you match pretty well and is a similar type of school as least as far as its urban setting and having its biomedical research, med school and hospitals right on campus (particularly if you are interested in biomedical engineering as you suggested, since Pitt has an excellent program in that). In fact, I know of a nephew of a Penn department chair who turned down Penn to attend Pitt (I think for bioengineering) and absolutely loved it.</p>

11

<p>Your dad works at UPenn, gg , enjoy your free ride!</p>