COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING (Intended Major: Mechanical Engineering)
White male from a nationally ranked public school in PA:
3.97UW/4.16W GPA
1470 SAT (740/740 one sitting)
Currently awaiting Math II and Physics SATII scores
6 APs, 8 Honors
Rank 45/330
President of 2 clubs, manage a $30000 investment portfolio, lead a sponsorship program through FBLA that involves presenting to local businesses and eventually receiving total donations in the thousands. 2x FBLA regional champ/state qualifier, 1x state champ/national qualifier. Full EC list:
FBLA (pres)
Finance Club (pres)
Academic Team (varsity)
Student Council
Club Council
FIRST Robotics
Yearbook (academic editor)
NHS
German Activity Club (VP)
Took an after school leadership course that you had to apply in to. Taught by my head principal who also wrote a great LOR.
Essays: 1 was very good, other was just pretty good
LORs: 1 good, 1 great, 1 didn’t read
Also a question, will they just look at my prominent ECs (sponsorship fundraiser, investment portfolio) and wonder why I didn’t apply to Wharton and then just reject me?
For the record also applying to:
PSU Main (and Schreyer’s)
Pitt
Carnegie Mellon
Northwestern
Cornell
UMich
All for mechanical engineering
Thanks
If you didn’t tell me that you applied to engineering, I would’ve definitely guessed that you applied to Wharton or M&T.
I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Hopefully, the admissions officers won’t think that you are playing the system by applying to engineering with an intention to internally transfer to Wharton in the future.
I wrote my common app essay all about how engineering is a huge passion of mine, and I wrote my why penn essay to include a substantial amount of engineering information. I think it is objectively odd that someone with my ECs wants to go into engineering over business, but I also hope the admissions officers see it to be genuine because it is genuine.
As long as your essays address the possible confusion, I wouldn’t worry about it. In terms of your chances, your SAT score is probably a bit low for a typical white engineering student. Usually, you want around 1500~1520 to be in middle of the pack and have a decent chance. But perhaps, your “very good” essay can make up for it. Also, your SAT II scores will play an important role considering your intended major, so hopefully you did well on them. Ideally you want 780+ for those.
ALSO: I meant 740M 730R. Sorry
I think your SAT scores are low as is your weighted GPA. If you took so many APs - are they not weighted more heavily than a regular course - I would have expected that your weighted GPA would be/could be higher? What type of grades did you get in the AP classes? Your rank is also not that high for UPenn (13.6%). I think for Ivy and Ivy - type schools one has to go in with top notch stats, scores, rank etc and THEN write an amazing essay - USUALLY to be considered.
@LvMyKids2 most of my APs are this year and not yet factored in to my cumulative. My first quarter GPA was 4.64. I’m hoping my ECs set me apart from others and the ED acceptance rate boost is enough to get me in despite my low stats