<p>I understand that ED is will raise my chances of admission like 15%, but possibly giving up other schools from the start is a lot to ask. What are my chances for RD for Wharton (and/or LSM program)?</p>
<p>Quick stats:</p>
<p>~~~~~~~~~~~
Academics:</p>
<p>~4.5 GPA (4.0 Unweighted)
Probably #1 in class of 600, but school doesn't rank
2400 SAT
800 Chem, 790 US History
US History (5), Chem (5), Bio (5), English Lang (5), Euro (5), Calc AB (5)</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:</p>
<p>Debate Club (Founder and Captain)
Mock Trial (Captain), were district champs last year
Newspaper (Editor-in-Chief)
Asian Culture Club (President)
Student Council (Secretary 10th grade)
Science Olympiad (9th and 10th grade)
Bboy Club
Tennis (JV 9th grade)
Violist (Principal at Temple Youth Chamber Orchestra)</p>
<p>Awards:</p>
<p>2-Time Finalist in US National Chemistry Olympiad (Top 20 students in country)
Rotary Speech Contest Winner
Other small local awards</p>
<p>Volunteer:</p>
<p>Minimal (40 hrs at most at elderly residence)</p>
<p>Work:</p>
<p>Intern at UPenn cancer research lab currently
Intern at chemistry lab in Shanghai for a summer
Waitor at sushi and hibachi place for a summer
SAT tutor currently</p>
<p>Misc:</p>
<p>I am an asian male and rising senior. My school is a 1800-student public high school. Relatively new and higher middle-income, but not established (nobody's ever gone to Harvard, one person a year generally gets into UPenn). I live in Pennsylvania.
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<p>Considering the fact that I live in PA and have interned at UPenn, if I do not apply there early decision, will they waitlist/reject me regular decision? What are my chances for RD admission? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I dont think they would waitlist you if you apply RD lol.
Considering legacy and you’re lower volunteering service, I guess you could improve on those fronts and apply RD. You will also get more time to work at Penn which I guess will leave them with a good impression.</p>
<p>Your stats can’t get any better, but EC-wise you look like more of an LSM/CAS than LSM/Wharton–if you choose to apply to LSM you’ll have to choose your fallback single degree school, so it depends how confident you are and what your plans are going forward. LSM is a tiny program with high dropout rates and a brutal workload–pre-med and Wharton are ostensibly the two most competitive/curved programs at Penn–so think carefully about your chances of admission, the likelihood you’ll stick with it, and your plans going forward. (my roommate’s in LSM and wants to become a public health policy power player, so it works well). If you make it clear in your application why you’d be a good fit for Wharton, then you stand a chance at getting in–but looking purely at what you’ve posted, it isn’t really obvious you want to do business. As for CAS, your ECs do look like a good fit!</p>
<p>Just to shadow the previous poster, LSM has something very specific they’re looking for. You need to be able to explain what you find so fascinating about the combination of sciences and business. Your record is decidedly focused on sciences with nothing in business-related areas (or anything you could really tease into being business-related). Students do get into Wharton without much business-related experiences, but LSM is different as it is incredibly competitive.</p>
<p>Now to answer your other question: the 15% difference you see in acceptance rates is deceiving. That extra 15% is basically hooked applicants such as URMs, legacies, and athletes. I had your same idea that that extra 15% would help me, but I fell into none of those three categories…I got deferred. Now some unhooked applicants DO get in, but they must be extraordinary, and to be perfectly honest, there is nothing truly stand-out on your application…your Chemistry Olympiad is getting there, but you would need to be part of an Intel or Siemens competition honestly. If you wanna go to Penn, there’s nothing to lose–you either get in and are set, or you don’t and you get to test the waters with other schools. But do not let that 15% increase from RD to ED fool you. It may (making this number up) help you an extra 1 or 2 percent, but definitely no where near what the numbers suggest.</p>
<p>Thank you everybody for your replies. Just some additional information. I am very much interested in business and somebody hope to be an entreprenaur (though I realize my record doesn’t really reflect it). I am also currently working on a business I’ve started, but it’s really only in the beginning stages. The business idea is based off an idea I got from chemistry olympiad; I hope to turn this into an essay. Two questions: 1. Does my business have to be a success in order to write on application? 2. In light of this information, are my chances for LSM/Wharton?</p>
<p>@axc: so the usnco wouldn’t count as a hook then? my goal was originally internationals this year, but that didn’t work out and i just kind of hoped… but yeah.</p>
<p>it’s a great thing to have on your record, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not like intel or siemens. to answer your questions, your business doesn’t have to be a success, you just need to learn something significant from it (hopefully failure always teaches people something). i’d personally recommend doing LSM/CAS. sure you stand a better chance at cas than wharton, but mainly because i’m not into the whole pre-professional attitude taken toward undergrad education. LSM is an amazing opportunity, but if you cant get that, i think youre best fulfilling your med school reqs (if you plan to go to med school that is) or majoring in a science b/c that’s what you seem apt to do, and then spend time giving yourself a thorough liberal arts background…most people give liberal arts the short end of the stick, but there are a fair amount of humanities majors that adapt to a business world, but you don’t necessarily see the same adaptability among business folk. a humanities background really teaches you how to learn and gives you the tools to excel in an immense amount of areas. but im sure most at penn would disagree considering we do have such a pre-professional vibe about us (and certainly in wharton). but if that’s what you feel is best for you do your thing, to each his own</p>
<p>Your business doesn’t have to be a success; that said, it would look far better if it were. But like I said before, you really need to take your future plans into account. If you want to become a doctor, then LSM/CAS. If you want to become a buisnessman, LSM/Wharton. If you can make clear your desires to be in Wharton and demonstrate why, then you have a shot.</p>
<p>Though I would argue the perceived inflexibility of a Wharton degree has more to do with the life plans/aspirations of Wharton students–it’s not like the only thing you can do with a Wharton degree is work on Wall Street. That’s just what most Wharton kids do in fact want. You can go into any industry with a business degree, because, as much as humanities are a part of everyday life, so is business. Granted you’d likely end up on the business/finance end of the industry, but to some people (like me) that’s a really attractive prospect.</p>