Chance me for UPenn Engineering/Others?!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
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<p>I know I'm not the top student, but what's the point in not trying?</p>

<p>I think my top schools are reaches but they are UPenn, Cornell, Yale, Princeton, Brown, and I plan to send out an application to Stanford as well. Also applying to Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Penn State, and Northeastern.</p>

<p>White Male, First generation college student
Class Rank: Top Decile (no exact rank) in a public school in MA
SAT: 2120 800 math, 690 CR, 630 writing (hopefully more schools look at SAT like Cornell, Math/CR which is a 1490)
SAT II: 800 Math 2, 720 USH, 700 Math I, taking Chemistry in January
ACT: 34 Composite 34 math, 34 science, 33 english, 36 reading</p>

<p>Do any of the Ivy’s superscore? My SAT’s and ACT’s alone aren’t very strong, but with an 800 Math and 36 Reading it should help my application.</p>

<p>Varsity athlete in both football and baseball
Executive board of NHS; created school's first community service fair (attended by hundreds of students)
100+ hours of community service at various events and specifically at local children's museum over 2 year+ span
Math Club/Chess Club
Spent last summer in a research lab at UConn experimenting with BioNanomaterials
School recipient of numerous community service/leadership awards, as well as Cornell Book Award
AP Scholar/ NMSQT commended</p>

<p>I am applying to enginering and specifically the chemical engineering programs.</p>

<p>Also, school allows students to only take AP's junior and senior years. I took 3 jr year, USH, Stats, and English Language. 4,5,4. This year, I take Calc AB, Chemistry, Government, and Spanish Language. School does not carry Calc BC. All of my other classes are honors level.</p>

<p>My school’s GPA system is so volatile so that I won’t even bother giving my GPA, but the unweighted is about 4.0. Both my unweighted and weighted GPA’s have significantly increased each year of highschool, even as my classes have become more difficult.</p>

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<p>The Ivy’s def superscore (I took the SAT’s twice, neither of which were amazing. but superscored, it was considerably higher. I ended up getting into Columbia early decision). but imo, your SAT’s (even with the superscore) and SAT II’s (except your Math II) are a bit borderline. Your ACT’s are pretty strong though. Plus, the fact that you’re a first generation college student will help you. Remember though, the state you’re a from will play a role in admissions (for example, it’s easier for west coast kids to get into a school like stanford than east coast kids). overall, assuming your gpa is up there, I’d say you prob have a good chance at the schools you’re looking at. I think you can get into Cornell though, because your stats are def higher than some of the kids from my school who got into Cornell.</p>

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<p>I’d say mid reach. You have great SAT scores which while not the best are well within the middle 50% for a Penn applicant. Your great subject test scores along with your very solid ACT score will really help as well. It would be helpful to know your exact rank and GPA but from what you have said (top 10% and close to 4.0) it seems like you are right on track. The only thing that concerns me is your EC’s. The volunteer service is good as is the math club and chess club, but you have fewer than most applicants I have seen on threads like this. That shouldn’t be a problem considering the passion you show for each (varsity member, executive board, research, ect.) but be aware that there will be many students who have similar activities with others as well. Your major is competitive so that may work against you but you never know. It sounds like you are a good applicant and I wish you the best of luck no matter where you go. Of your reach schools I would say Cornell and Brown are you best shots with the others not too far behind. </p>

<p>Mind chancing me back on my thread??</p>

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<p>everybody on this forum seems to make the SAT’s as the deal breaker…they aren’t. A 1800 might kill you, but a 2120 is a perfectly respectable score. Its very difficult to chance because we can’t see your essays which are extremely important, and we just don’t know what goes on in that room where they make their decisions.</p>

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<p>[ quote] The volunteer service is good as is the math club and chess club, but you have fewer than most applicants I have seen on threads like this. [ /quote]</p>

<p>You measure EC’s in terms of QUALITY, and not QUANTITY. Sure, quantity is great, providing that the quality doesn’t suffer. Admission officers don’t need someone who is only “ok” at 71 different things, they are more interested in people who are vested and do a few things very well.</p>

<p>I think the Op’s list is already quite exhaustive, and as long as he shows passion and interest in what he does, he’ll be fine.</p>

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<p>Something happened to the quote button ><</p>

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<p>If you read under that I did qualify the previous remark </p>

<p>“That shouldn’t be a problem considering the passion you show for each (varsity member, executive board, research, ect.) but be aware that there will be many students who have similar activities with others as well.”</p>

<p>I do realize that quality over quantity is usually good, I was merely stating that his list seems like the average applicant, rather than the student who has those same activities and positions plus others. I think the OP has a great list of EC’s and his quality seems above par, I only wanted to let him know what I have seen on other threads.</p>