Hey everyone! I know these are pretty silly and honestly nobody can really say what’ll happen on the 11th, but I thought it’d be a fun way to kill time. I applied ED to the College of Arts and Sciences, undecided (though I’m leaning toward an English major with a concentration in Creative Writing and a minor at Wharton).
Objective:
School: large, public, decently ranked but not superb
GPA: 3.92 unweighted, don’t know weighted but it’s definitely very high.
ACT: 34 (35 E, 36 R, 33 M, 33 S, 12 E)
SAT II’s: 760 Math, 680 Literature; kinda low, yeah, but I don’t think these matter too much anyway.
APs: Calc BC (5); English Lit (5); Euro (5)
Rank: school doesn’t rank, but top quarter at least
Senior Year Course Load: IB Stats HL2, AP Physics C: Mechanics, IB Spanish SL, IB English HL2, AP Art History, AP US History, AP Gov, Student Government
**I got straight A’s first quarter and sent them into Penn, so hopefully they’ll review that!
Awards: National Honors Society, High Honor Roll, Poetry Out Loud 2014 School-wide Winner, AP Scholar
Race/Ethnicity: Hispanic (White)
Gender: Male
Location: Utah (so, like, under-represented area maybe?)
Hooks: URM, LGBT(?), recruited by the Kelly Writers House (that’s my saving grace tbh)
Extracurriculars:
- Student Body Publicity Officer -- Responsible for running the school's social media accounts, running advertisements, making video announcements, coordinating public relations with the community, fundraising, etc. (Officer)
- Founded a club at my school that allows for open discussion between students about current events or controversial topics that would otherwise not get talked about (President and Founder).
- Published writer for a major news website (won't say which one for privacy reasons). I got paid $500 for a personal essay I wrote.
- Have participated in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) competition 3 years in a row, winning twice.
- Volunteer at the state natural history museum with over 130 hours working with kids ages 5-13 in summer camp and after school programs.
- Peer tutoring & paid babysitting
- Self-taught graphic designer, extremely proficient in Adobe products; submitted a portfolio.
- I'm also a member of the Multicultural Club, Spanish Club, and a few other things.
Subjective:
Essays were outstanding.
Common App: really heartfelt, wrote about my identity and connected it with moving schools in the middle of my sophomore year and how that affected how I viewed myself and my ethnicity.
Penn Supplement: again pretty heartfelt, could have been a little more provocative but it was very specific about what I plan to do on campus.
Recs: One from my Euro teacher. We spend a lot of time together and he’s the adviser to my club so it should be great. Other one from my Spanish teacher. Didn’t read it but she told me afterwards that she called me “one of the best students she’s ever had.” Counselor rec should be decent, although she has a lot of students so maybe it’s not too personal.
Interview: I had two: one unofficial one for the Kelly Writers House and then one official for the application. The KWH one lasted 2 hours and the lady and I were like best friends after it was over lol. The second, official one was really great, the guy said that I was extremely insightful and a very competitive applicant. I’d say like 9/10.
Special circumstances: I’ve moved around a lot in my life (across states and countries), and I addressed this in my essays. I’m currently attending my third high school and tenth school overall, which has made it difficult to participate consistently in extracurriculars. I addressed this briefly in my Why Penn essay, and I also let my interviewer know to address it in his report (because he asked me “is there anything you want to say to the admissions committee?”).
Okay, that’s it! I really hope the admissions committee takes into account the fact that I’ve moved around so much, because I know that my resume isn’t the best but it truly has been difficult to find stuff that I can do outside of school when I’m being relocated literally every year haha. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what my chances are! Thanks!