I just applyed to University of Pennsylvania for ED today and I’m not sure what to expect. I’m white, from a middle class family in the midwest, and both of my parents went to college (not Penn), so I don’t think my background is going to help me much. However, I am number one in my class at a large school and have decent EC I think although most revolve around swim. Okay ACT but I did not take the SAT (I know I should have). I do have a college advisor and she believes that it will depend on my essays, which she has checked and approved. My school counselor and math teacher wrote strong letters of rec and my english teacher’s should be pretty good. I applied to Wharton to major in Finance btw.
Academics
GPA: 4.2 weighted / 3.98 unweighted
Class rank: 1/527
ACT: 33 composite
-9 AP courses total by graduation
Junior year: AP Lang (5), AP USH (4), AP Spanish (4), AP Physics 1 (3)
Senior year: AP Calc BC, AP Lit, AP Stats, AP Econ, AP Psych
Extracurriculars
Swim: varsity since freshman year, swam year round on club, team captain, 2x conference champion, teaches swim lessons and lifeguards, volunteers as manager for boys’ team (260 hours)
Environmental: reestablished school’s environmental club, co-authored grant request and received $500 for bird protection project
Spanish Tutor: tutored middle schoolers in spanish every wednesday second semester of junior year
Blogger: started food blog to share recipes, promotes vegetarianism
FBLA: 4th place at RLC
Freshman mentor: twice per week meets with freshman to help initiate them into hs (volunteer- 200 hours between junior and senior year)
I am also applying to Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, and Villanova (as well as a few safeties) RD. Are my chances any better for those?