Chance me for UPenn's M&T, other Ivies

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi CC! I was thinking of applying ED to UPenn’s Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology. Feel free to comment your own Chance Me links and I’ll be sure to chance you back!

My list of schools:
UPenn (M&T, single-degree choice Wharton) ED
Every other Ivy + Stanford RD

General info:
Korean-Canadian male, middle class, rising senior at a small public school
GPA: My school doesn’t do GPA, but my average is 96.2% (86% and up is an A in my area)
Class rank: 1/300 (no ranks, but I got top student last year)

Intended major: Business + Engineering (Business first; computer science for engineering)
SAT: 2320 Superscore (730 CR, 800 M, 790 W)
SAT IIs: Math IIC (800), Korean with Listening (790 I’m fluent; is this even worth reporting?), World History (770), US History (670, NOT submitting), taking Physics in October
APs: None, since I’m in IB
Major Awards: Duke of Ed Gold Scholar (will receive in September), Top Student Award

Courses:
I am taking IB, which determines my course load for both Junior and Senior years.
IB English Literature HL
IB Spanish SL (took May exam end of Jr. year, got a 7)
IB Biology HL (in retrospect I should’ve taken Physics)
IB Economics SL
IB Math HL
IB Film HL
Since I need physics to apply to M&T, I’m also taking Physics 11 and 12 online and taking the SAT Physics exam in October. Since it’s online, I hope to finish both courses before the Nov. 1st deadline.

ECs:

Student Council (9-12)
9: Member
10: Grade 10 Representative
11: Cabinet Member
12: Class President

Model UN (9-12)
9: Delegate (won a couple awards)
10: Secretariat at one of three high school run hotel conferences in Western Canada (USG Marketing)
11: Secretariat again (but higher position as Deputy Secretary-General)
12: Secretary General of hotel conference

Business Conference (10-12)
10: Marketing Director of brand new student-run business conference
11: Co-Chair (highest executive position) of business conference (grew to 2nd biggest conference in province)
12: Advisory board member

Programming and Web Design (9-12)
9: Began programming and learning basics of web design
10: Created Model UN timing software with friend, used in all major hotel conferences in province + cooperation with Ivy-level MUNs in progress (e.g. HarvardMUN, ILMUN, etc.) Already used in ~10 countries around the world
11: Co-founded social networking site which acted as a Reddit alternative; ~2k people registered, ~100 active daily, currently expanding by developing mobile app and recruiting angel investors; built website for school’s Student Council
12: Web designer for a startup being launched soon by a current M&T student (met through M&TSI)

Non-Profit (10-12)
9-11: Executive at federally registered non-profit (with presence all over North America, including a bunch of Ivies)
12: President of Canadian branch of non-profit (arguably the most active branch)

Debate (9-12)
9: Regionals 1st place teams, provincial qualifier
10: Provincial qualifier
11-12: Coach for debate team

Band (9-12)
Percussionist, Tenor Saxophonist
9-12: Concert + Jazz Band, spent a month at a youth symphony orchestra and performed once (but quit right after because I had no time)

Film (9-12)
A huge passion of mine; took film classes in school as electives before IB, and now taking Film HL as my Group 6 option
Won a couple awards, including district film festivals, and one hosted by national television news network for best narrative

Math Competition Club (9-12)
9: Co-founded club at school
10-12: President of club, never went really far on the competitions themselves but I won a school champion medal once!

Sports:
I lift 3 times a week! I did Track and Field for two years and made it to districts, but I feel like weightlifting gives a better, more accurate image of who I am, since I did T&F more or less superficially.

Thank you so much for reading this! Like I said earlier, just comment your own Chance Me links and I’ll be sure to chance you back :slight_smile:

2

I think your stats and EC’s are definitely extremely competitive!!! The fact that you are EDing M&T will probably help, and I think you will get into Wharton at least if not M&T. (M&T is ridiculously hard to get into as I’m sure you know). However, all of the schools on your lists are reaches (maybe low reaches for someone like you).

Have you considered any safeties/matches??

3

Thanks for the quick reply! I’ve considered some universities back here in Canada, but most of them have a much later application deadline than the states (I think you START your application around January), so I’ll probably consider them once I hear back from my ED decision. Maybe UC league as well? :smiley:

4

IB Math HL that takes nerves! Great EC’s, impressive course load and nice Tests/GPA stats. I’d say you will get in Dartmouth or Cornell IMO. The rest are reaches. However, in the case of Penn, you have a higher chance getting in there than the rest because of the ED but be sure to depict yourself at their campus when writing your essay, unless you go with a wacky essay choice! (Could work :p)

(Chancing you back!)

5

Buuump!

6

@uhhhhhhhhhh, congratulations on your accomplishments. You are a strong applicant, though M&T is a tough one, with an acceptance rate comparable to MIT (about 8%).

A couple of quick thoughts:

  • I think the Duke of Edinburgh Gold is a great way of documenting your combination of athletics, arts and service. It shows sustained commitment to these activities, and because the award requires documented hours of participation, there is no doubt about the time you have put in. I think this (or the U.S. Congressional Award) are great ways for kids who are doing these kind of activities to document their time and get recognized for their efforts.
  • I think your film interest is a great thing to highlight to give yourself a different twist from most M&T applicants. It would also make you stand out from the majority of Asian STEM applicants. Again, having done IB HL Film documents your hours devoted to this activity. Are you going to submit any of your shorts for an arts supplement? That could be an interesting twist for an M&T applicant. In addition, your film interest overlaps to some extent with your web design and digital media interests. Penn as a really interesting interdisciplinary major in Digital Design:

http://www.seas.upenn.edu/undergraduate/degrees/maj-digitalmedia.php

See also:

http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/node/3426

I’ve never heard of anyone combining this with M&T and don’t even know if it’s feasible, but if this were something that interested you it would give your application a really unique twist, and you would end up with an almost unparalleled combination of skills. This would also be something that you could probably do at no other place than Penn, and it would take advantage of some of the strongest interdisciplinary programs that the University has to offer.

Depending on how you position yourself, you could really stand out. MIT with the Media Lab might also be a good fit for combining your film and digital media background with engineering, though without the Wharton dual degree emphasis.

7

@uhhhhhhhhhh i think highlighting that you’re fluent in korean is definitely an advantage and like expecial said have you considered any target schools? i think the uc system would be great for you. You have a great chance for Cal and UCLA!

8

@renaissancedad, thank you for the insightful information! From what I know, M&T basically allows you to choose which type of major for both business and engineering; perhaps DMD could be my choice for the engineering side? It’s strange because while I was at M&TSI, they explored all the different disciplines of engineering an M&T student could partake in, but DMD wasn’t explicitly mentioned as one of them.

Also, DMD is something I haven’t really considered up until now – I was originally thinking of doing computer science as my engineering major – but now that you mention how it all ties in with my ECs, that is definitely something I’ll now have to reconsider!

As for the film supplement, do you think it would be too risky? I’m not sure if my films are as good as the other art supplements they probably receive, like paintings and such (which I’m sure are probably astounding). But then again, I’ve never heard of someone submitting a film before. Who knows?

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@binbin2093 The Korean thing definitely makes sense. I honestly haven’t looked into many other schools other than Penn (I reaaaaally want to go there), but I think the UC league would definitely be something I’ll look into and apply to when RD season arrives. Thanks for the advice!

10

You have a good chance wherever you apply. However, you said your list is only Ivies and Stanford. You should really add a safety school or two just in case. Your current list is very risky

11

@virsha24 you’re right, I think I’ll be applying to the UC league as well. Do you think they would be considered matches by my stats? There are also universities back in Canada, which would definitely be safeties for me.

12

Bumperino

13

what state do you live in?

14

I’m from Canada!

15

@virsha24 do you think that’ll lower my chances significantly? M&T’s website indicates that 12 people in the current grad class is international, and they list 12 countries… i.e., only one person from Canada.

16

tbh I don’t really know, but I don’t think it should. The problem is UCs don’t really give much financial aid to people not from California

17

Ahh yeah… Nice thing about Penn is that they have need-blind finaid for Canada and Mexico too :smiley:

18

buuuuump

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@uhhhhhhhhhh, the DMD program is an interdisciplinary program between SEAS and the Annenberg School of Communication and the School of Design, even though the degree is a BSE from SEAS, so technically you would be spanning 3 schools if you combined it with M&T. I don’t know if it’s logistically feasible, or if anyone has done it before, but it would give your application a very unique slant, and there would probably be tremendous career opportunities for someone with a combined background from both programs. DMD grads are already in high demand, and apparently earn more coming out than Wharton grads:

http://technical.ly/philly/2010/03/24/stopping-braindrain-at-penns-digital-media-design-program/

This would be something to discuss with M&T and find out if it is feasible. You have strong qualifications, but I think that anything that makes you stand out from most business + engineering applicants is good, and your film + digital media background gives you a very different twist. I’ve never encountered an applicant with that precise combination of skills, and it’s a good combination to have. This might also be something to discuss with your friend who is a current M&T student.

As for an arts supplement, that would highlight your film background and again distinguish you. I doubt very many M&T applicants are capable of submitting an arts supplement. Whether you are depends on the caliber of your film production, but since you mentioned in the OP that you had submitted to some film festivals and won some awards, I assume that you have some portfolio-worthy material.

I also think your language background is a plus. Korean may come “free” to you because of your background, but you also have a 7 in IB Spanish. Fluency or near-fluency in 3 languages is another good skill to have.

Edit: I see that there is currently a Penn M&T sophomore named Stephanie Zhu who is combining Digital Media Design with Finance and Marketing, so it’s definitely a doable combination. You might consider getting in touch with her if you are interested.

http://www.upenn.edu/fisher/stephanie-zhu-mt17
http://pennume.com/board/

The M&T website also lists Digital Media Design as one of the allowable SEAS majors for the program:

http://www.upenn.edu/fisher/explore/curriculum-two-degrees

It has apparently been done before, and discussed on CC:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/1397284-jerome-fisher-digital-media-design.html

A lot depends on how much this interests you vs. doing straight computer science + business, but it does tie in to your web and film interests, and it would be a really cool combination that would stand out.

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Here’s some profiles of 3 recent M&T + DMD graduates:

https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/in/jasonrudin
https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/in/lillianychou
https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/pub/emily-foong/28/192/66b

These people might be worth contacting if this is something that potentially interests you.