Chance a Junior for ED Wharton dual degree M&T

Chance Me / Match Me!
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1

Demographics

  • US Domestic
  • Northern California
  • Large High School
  • Asian Male

Intended Major(s)
Dual Degree Engineering/Business via M&T at Penn

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.95 (2 Bs)
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.7/5
  • Class Rank: Top 10% (All that is provided)
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 35 (Submitted), SAT 1530, both non superscored

Coursework
Freshman: AP Chinese (5), Hon English (A), Hon Precalc (A), Free

Sophmore: AP Physics 1 (5), AP Calc BC (5), AP World (4), AP Seminar (4), AP CSA (5), Hon Chem (A), Free

Junior: AP Physics C (Mechanics + E&M) (5), AP USH (5), AP Lang (4), AP CSA (4), AP Stats (5), AP Psych (5), AP Research (4), Free

Senior: AP Lit, AP Chem, AP Bio, AP Gov + Econ, Free

Awards
Scholastic Art and Writing Honorable Mention (3x)
Presidential Volunteer Service Award (3x)
AP Scholar with Distinction
Regional CIF Champion (Swimming)

Extracurriculars

  • Founded consumer electronics business (10, 11, 12 | 1-2 hours per day) My main extracurricular. Designed, marketed, and manufactured 3 products, grossing $300,000 in 1 year. Products were designed from scratch and I handled marketing, communication with manufacturers overseas, online sales, fulfillment, and customer service.
  • Co-Founded a non-profit (10, 11, 12 | 2 hours per week) My secondary extracurricular. Started this non-profit with friends in order to expose underrepresented communities in my city to new opportunities in STEM that they previously may not have been exposed to.
  • Swimming (9, 10, 11, 12 | 3 hours per day). My sport. I’ve been swimming since I was a young child and was varsity during 10, 11, and 12. Likely Captain senior year. A relay that I was on won during our regional CIF championships.
  • International Outreach (9, 10 | 2 weeks over summer) Went to China (9) and Costa Rica (10) to teach the rural children their English and introduce them to new subjects and experiences.
  • Other smaller things I also did semi-professional photography (made around $500), graphic design, other small clubs, some coding as well, put in the activities section.

Essays/LORs/Other
Haven’t finished them, but currently I could only say they’re 7/10 compared to some I’ve seen on internet.

For Letters of Rec:

  1. AP Physics, had him for 2 years and planning on keeping in touch senior year. I think we are close and he definetly wrote a good letter.
  2. AP CSA, was also very close with this teacher and friends with him. Had him for 2 years as well and will keep in touch senior year. However, I am worried that I do not have a humanities letter and it will affect my application adversely.

Cost Constraints / Budget
N/A

Schools

  • Safety: UC Davis, SDSU, Pepperdine, +TBD
  • Target: UMich, UCSD, Northeastern
  • Reach: (ED) UPenn Wharton M&T, MIT, Stanford, Northwestern

Thank you for chancing me and taking your time to do this!

2

It says you submitted your ACT but you’re a junior - so how did you apply?

If you mean this is where you’ll be applying - you know the UCs don’t look at your test and then your 9th grade GPA doesn’t count.

Michigan and Northeastern (unless you apply ED) are not targets; they are reaches.Your reaches are obviously reaches as you note. M&T is a small class - so any of these are too hard to know. You are great - but they have many more great applicants than they can deal with.

Your business is quite impressive - to the point that maybe if you grossed $300K on 2 hours a day, imagine if you just did this full time?

There was just another thread where a student got into UCSB (econ I think) but rejected at SDSU business - so that may even be just a match - although I agree with safety by the #s.

Good luck to you.

3

Hey! Thanks for your response. I am concerned because besides my business, my profile is pretty weak. I am also aware of the UCs and 9th grade GPA etc/test. Thanks for the advice and chancing again! I will revise my college list.

4

You only need to get in one school.

Working on a business two hours a day and having $300K in revenue in one year does not seem like having weak ECs to me.

In fact, it makes me wonder if college is the right path - I don’t know the business - but that’s really impressive.

So I was not saying your ECs are weak at all.

You had kids this year with stats not far off yours getting rejected or WL at Wisconsin, Maryland, UMASS - CS typically - but obviously many / most are getting in - because you can’t do much better than you have.

If you have a safety that you will 100% be excited about, then your list is fine because you only need one school.

What will you do with your business while you’re in school? And how big can you grow it putting in full-time hours, etc.?

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Hey! Thanks for your input.

I understand your viewpoint, but grossing 300K doesn’t equal 300k profit. In addition, the business isn’t something I’m interested in doing full time, at least for now, because I can still run it healthily when I am in high school and will likely continue to run it into college. Growing it larger is risky and I would like to have some kind of concrete job experience in the field before furthering this business.

You mentioned my biggest fear - that my single good EC isn’t enough, because, besides this Business, which I believe to be a strong EC, my other stats and ECs are pretty average, or even below average for the schools that I want to go to. I also understand that Business/Econ is not a very ideal major for undergrads, and would actually like to go into Engineering if I don’t get into a good business program. I really enjoy physics and engineering, but as you can see I have almost no engineering ECs.

I was wondering, do you have any suggestions if I wanted to improve my profile, in terms of engineering?

Thanks so much

6

Grossing 300K is quite impressive. You are in HS. I imagine most business start ups never gross $300K…and as you know, many don’t make profits for years - but that’s super impressive.

You need to do things you enjoy - not things that are forced. So you have no physics and engineering, it doesn’t matter. My kid had a part time job at Kroger, band, and started an aviation club at school which consisted of - they took a tour of the airport tower. It fizzled quick.

Your starting a business and growing it to $300K in revenues is impactful, impressive and will take you a long way. Few, if any, are doing this…that’s my opinion.

You are working on a non profit and swimming - I mean, your ECs are fine.

If anything, they might wonder - how do you swim and work on a business - how do you find the time.

You are overthinking - I think.

You could have cured Cancer and your reaches are still reaches. It’s got little to do with you and more to do with the total pool that you arein.

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Your profile is fine. There is not much else you can do. Apply to schools that you would be happy to attend and have solid safeties (that you would also be happy to attend.) Your acceptances and/or rejections will not reflect on your character or ability to be successful.

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Thank you so much for the kind words. You definitely made me feel a bit less anxious. I think mainly because I am the first kid to apply to a US college in my entire family (I am the oldest sibling), and my parents have always put emphasis on going to a good school.

I enjoy physics a lot, It’s just that I struggle to find ECs that I enjoy that use my skills. Physics Olympiad, research etc. seems to boring and study-based for me. I enjoy actually applying my skills to a working product, as shown through my Business. I’m thinking about opening a Boba Shop in my local shopping center, but obviously that is going to be very difficult.

Regardless, thanks so much for your help!

9

Not sure what you mean by finding time - you swim every day and run a business for multiple hours a day. You have school and sleep.

Listen to what @2plustrio said. They said it more succintly.

10

The design, sale and marketing of products is most impressive. If you have a patent pending would be even more valuable. I think the AO’s will examine this very carefully. Make sure you don’t exaggerate anything and keep it simple to understand. Also, if you are selling each item for 1K and sold 300 it will be different than selling 300K.
You have excellent EC’s. So does everyone else applying. M&T is very difficult to get into so make solid safety lists so you can land somewhere that makes you happy.

11

I agree with the others about the strength of your profile and your chances of admission.

Has your family run the Net Price calculators to see what the colleges expect your family to contribute? Is your family willing and able to do so without taking out loans (beyond federal) while remaining on track for a financially sound retirement? (And with the proceeds from your business.) If that price is not affordable, your reach schools are impossible as they do not give merit aid.

12

Why do you want to go to college?

13

Hi, while this is not how much my product costs, how is selling 300 1K items different from selling 300k?

14

Please see above comment :slight_smile:

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Hi Austen, thanks for bringing this up. I have run a calculator for prices and me and my family will likely be able to afford all schools on this list.

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Well selling many products likely entails a different business model and plan. Selling a smaller amount of products a high cost likely means that your number of customers is smaller and your product margins might be different. Hard to tell without details. IMO, more products at a lower price is a better story. But again details matter.

17

Anyone, at any age, who can start a business and have $300k in revenues impresses me. A high schooler…off the charts…regardless of how many widgets that were sold.

I’m sure it will impress AOs. That doesn’t mean an admittance but it is impressive.

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Yes, this makes sense. My business sells medium to high cost products that a typical person would consider “Luxury” and the market is somewhat niche. I think the most impressive part from my point of view was the design and branding, which I believe is much harder when you’re selling a luxury product.

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