Chance a Junior for Wharton ED!

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>I am currently a Junior in high school in Massachusetts. I hope to major in finance or a business related field in college. My top college is definitely Upenn Wharton school but others I'm considering are Uchicago, Northwestern, MIT sloan, Duke, UVirginia, Dartmouth, Columbia. </p>

<p>Here are my stats as of April 10, 2011. (keep in mind I'm a junior and I plan on applying to Upenn-Wharton ED in the fall)</p>

<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 680 CR, 800 M, 770 W (2250) --- PLANNING on retaking in October.
[</em>] SAT II: 800 Chinese with Listening; Planning to take Biology E and Math II in May.
[<em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.87/4.0-- Weighted 8.87/9.0
[</em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 10% I'd say but school does not release official rankings.
[<em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): Have yet to take AP tests in Chinese, US History, Chemistry, and Biology.
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics, Calculus BC, AP Statistics, Honors English, Honors History.
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Varsity Swim Team (3 years), City Swim Team (2 years), YMCA club swim team (1 year), President of FBLA at my school.
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: Swim Instructor at YMCA, Cashier/Clerk at Stop&Shop.
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: Environmental Coalition, Sponsors & Operations Coordinator for citywide art contest (raised over $1000 to fund the event), Founder of Non-profit Organization that aims to spread musical awareness through public concerts and fundraising, City Day of Community Service (5 years).
[</em>] Summer Activities: Hopefully will make it to Leadership in Business World (LBW) summer program at Wharton this summer, Real Estate Company internship.
[<em>] Essays: Have not written yet. Probably will write about my summer experience or my business passion.
[</em>] Teacher Recommendation: Probably good.
[<em>] Counselor Rec: We don't get these.
[</em>] Additional Rec: Won't submit.
[li] Interview:Will having one of these for ED affect my chances?</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): MA
[</em>] Country (if international applicant):
[<em>] School Type: Public
[</em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] Income Bracket: 100-200k
[li] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Reflection[list]
[<em>] Strengths: GPA, hopefully will get 2300+ in October SAT, I spend a lot of time on my volunteer work ( I consider these EC's, am I right?) and they are all pretty much related to business.
[</em>] Weaknesses:SAT (but will retake in October), lack of Massive list of EC's. </p>

<p>General Comments: Will getting a 2300+ 2nd time on SAT be much better than having a current 2250?</p>

<p>What other things can I do to improve my chances/application? More extracurriculars? (This is tough as I live in a rural neighborhood without many of the programs available to more urban environments-- no famous competitions, programs, etc to take part in).</p>

2

<p>You have the scores and academics, but I would worry about standing out from other applicants. Cause I feel like there are another 2000 kids with profiles that look quite similar to yours. And at this point, i think the only place you can do that is the essay. i would caution you about writing your essay about your summer experience, it usually turns out pretty cliche. But it is possible to do, so don’t be too discouraged. </p>

<p>The thing with any of these “elite” schools is that so many people with almost the same history apply, so many kids have the 2300, the straight A’s, the varsity sport, and the internship. Its very difficult to break from those others, and I think that will be the challenge for you. But you seem smart, and you are already on this forum, so you kind of already have a head start. Just keep working hard.</p>

3

<p>Sorry but if your asian your not a urm</p>

4

<p>^ I don’t think he ever said he was a URM.</p>

<p>I think you have a great resume, OP, but I definitely agree with TheWikiMan. Essays are the only glimpse an admissions rep gets of your personality, so try to make sure that yours are great. Also, don’t be afraid of the “Additional Information” section of the Common App. (Once you’ve set up an account and logged in, you’ll see it if you click on the “Writing” tab in the left-hand navigation menu.) It’s the only part of the application that has absolutely no stipulations. You can attach an additional essay, an expanded activities resume, anything. Using that section could make your app stand out to a rep who, that day, has already read 48 folders from qualified applicants.</p>

<p>As for retaking the SATs, it definitely won’t hurt (especially because, as an Asian student, you are already at a slight disadvantage), but don’t put too much pressure on yourself to increase your score. You already have a good enough score to be in the running for admission. If I were you, though, I would definitely focus on SAT IIs. It seems like you might be a native Chinese speaker, in which case your Chinese SAT II score will be almost completely ignored. If you do speak Chinese fluently, you definitely need to submit two more subject tests with scores upwards of 700.</p>

<p>As for the interview, you really shouldn’t worry if you aren’t contacted for one. If you follow this link to the Penn student blog, Under the Button, and scroll down to the post titled “The (In)Significance of Facetime,” I think you’ll see that interviews play a pretty minor role in admissions.</p>

<p><a href=“http://underthebutton.com/page/5/[/url]”>http://underthebutton.com/page/5/&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>Also, OP, you might be interested in this thread: </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/1043240-official-decision-thread-penn-15-wharton.html?highlight=wharton+results[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/1043240-official-decision-thread-penn-15-wharton.html?highlight=wharton+results&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It’s a compilation of stats from this year’s CC Wharton EDers (rejected, deferred, and accepted). </p>

<p>Best of luck next year!</p>

5

<p>Thank you guys so much for the fast responses. </p>

<p>Indeed, the essay is a very important section of the application. I did not know about the additional section that allows me to describe my EC’s in more detail and a chance for an additional essay.</p>

<p>My question now is: are there other things I can do to strengthen my chances? I’ve read so many people who post on the Class of 2015 Thread with Tons and tons of Ec’s listed and I just wonder if that’s even humanly possible… How are they able to balance high scores with so many activities! I wish to be active as well, but I know that I will only have time to dedicate myself to several EC’s ~3-4 that I really care about.</p>