Chance me - Penn ED Rising Senior

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
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School Type: Public (1000 students)
Location: New Jersey
Race/Gender: White, Female
Income bracket: Will not be applying for FA
Prospective Major: Astrophysics/Physics (CAS)

UW GPA: 95 (my school does 100 pt scale)
Weighted GPA: 104
Rank: School does not rank, but top 5%
ACT: 35C (36E, 36M, 34R, 33S)
SAT: 1550 (750E, 800M, 22/24W)
SAT II: Math II: 800, will be taking Physics in August

APs: Will have 12 AP courses completed by end of Senior Year
Sophomore year APs: AP Stats (5), I was one of two sophomores who took an AP class
Junior year APs: AP Calc AB, AP Physics 1, AP Macro, APUSH, AP Eng Lang
Senior year APs: AP Calc BC, AP Physics C (because school does not offer it, I am taking it online for class credit), AP US Gov, AP Comp Sci A, AP Spanish Lang, AP Eng Lit

Awards:
5th in the state/18th in the nation for a Girls Hackathon despite having no prior coding experience
Runner up Governor at Girls State (out of the top 400 girls in the state)
1st in region at a Math Competition at a local university
1st in school for various math competitions

ECs:
President/Founder of STEM Initiative program: Initiated STEM Program designed to give elementary and middle school students access to hands-on experiments in their communities at no cost; travels monthly to various schools and to the Boys and Girls Club; upwards of 15 student volunteers and 8+ experiments per program

President/Founder of Mu Alpha Theta: Started school chapter of Mu Alpha Theta, an organization designed to recognize excellence in Mathematics; does fundraisers and activities to involve students and community members

TEDx Speaker: Chosen as a student speaker; will be giving a talk on the importance of STEM education across all
income brackets and backgrounds as it relates to the theme, “Common Ground”

Student Panelist at local uni: One of three high school student panelists chosen to have an open panel discussion on Martin Luther King Jr. Day about socially and politically conscious issues such as the importance of free speech

Vice President Class Council: Student-elected position; manages fundraisers, pep rallies, Prom, and other school-wide functions; meets bi-monthly to discuss issues and plans for upcoming events

Cabinet Member Peer Mediation: Main correspondent of club; leads meetings and organizes fundraisers and events; peer mediates students multiple times a month on conflicts before they lead to disciplinary action or further issues

Math Tutor of Math/Computer Science Club: Tutored struggling students after school in all levels of math from Algebra 1 to Calculus; total of 80+ hours across three years

Generic ones: NHS member, FBLA member, Spanish NHS member, Distinguished Varsity Scholar, probably a NMSF (1490/1520), Media Club Public Relations Officer, did my school’s fall production once because why not, did two sports freshman year before I had surgery so I couldn’t return, other generic stuff that no one cares about yada yada yada

Summer activities:
Intern at NASA: 9% acceptance rate, only 40 students chosen, will be conducting research on/programming a satellite, free program

Girls State: one of two accepted from my school, advanced to the gubernatorial finals, participated in debates and speeches and whistle stop tour, peer election, very prestigious position, I will be writing my essay on this

Started a camp for my local Boys and Girls club: 4 day program, got funding from my school, will be doing hands-on STEM activities at no cost for the kids

Leadership Intern at a nationally recognized STEM camp: 40 volunteer hours, worked with kids 5 days a week on STEM activities

UPenn Precollege program: studied social sciences and activism, 2 week program

Harvard Precollege program: studied astrophysics, 2 week program

Hooks: Both parents went to Penn so I am a legacy applicant, my father is an alumni interviewer, and they both give considerable donations each year

I might be forgetting a few things but this is what I have so far! I have been to every Penn event possible to show my demonstrated interest, but I just wanted some advice from a stranger!

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Oh and if you guys could give me some other schools to apply to that would be great!!

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First I want to give you a “high five” on your accomplishment in HS. It certainly shows that you are very serious about your future college preparation. I have seen quite a few people with your background applying to several undergraduate physics/astrophysics such as Princeton , uchicago, mit, Harvard or penn. One thing you must remember once you step into this physics field at such high level research institutes, you will find yourself be surrounded by all people with or above your level. IMO, IPO finalists or medalists, high score AIM holders etc.will all be taking similar classes with you, my point is to suggest you to keep raising your mathematics skill to even higher level to prepare for your intended major no matter which U that you may end up.

Now your interests in astrophysics, or more formally called cosmology is an extremely exciting field, especially after a gigantic push by S. Hawking. If you don’t want to travel too far to some other states, then Steinhardt at Princeton is a big name in this field, he is the Einstein professor at Princeton and formally from PENN physics and if you ed penn this coming year and get in (I don’t see why not), you will find all the advance astrophysics/cosmology/string theory/ differential geometry famous professors at this University. Do some research and will see why I say this. Hope you will find the info useful, and keep up your math and physics work. Good luck to your journey.

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@soundfirst5 Thank you so much! Your response was very helpful!!! I will definitely do my research on Steinhardt. Thank you again for the insight.

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you have an amazing HS resume and Penn gives major preference to Legacies. I would see no reason that you would not be accepted, but think it is very important to apply ED. Good luck!

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@LvMyKids2 Yes, I will definitely be applying ED :slight_smile: Thank you

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Does anyone know any good safety schools for me? I’d appreciate something somewhere on the east coast. I just don’t know of any schools with good physics/astro programs aren’t super super selective!!

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Your exclusivity is on the east coast, and if Penn is the 0,0 in the unit circle of r=150 miles. the answer you are seeking is following:
1st runner up: 5pi/3 in the 4th quadrant w/ a big capital M
2nd runner up: pi/3 in the 1st quadrant w/a big R
3rd: 5pi/6 in the 2nd quadrant w/ a P

These are super fine state U but In no position to name their outstanding physics program in PENN ivy forum as safety, hope you are happy w/ that.

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bump because I’m still a little confused as to what ^^^ means and I need some good safety/match schools for physics to add that are in my range

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There are three schools of Physics that you can consider if in case you have some doubts on your admissions to the very top U. Uni. of Michigan, Uni of Maryland, and Penn State U are all excellent in physics. But if you limit the choices to east coast, then take Rutgers U to replace Michigan. But I still recommend you to try ed( or rd ) at PENN, some Penn physics undergraduates published papers with their supported professors and placed in very top physics programs for PhD.

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@soundfirst5 I still will be doing ED @ Penn, I just wanted some other schools to do RD incase I don’t get in ED, but thank you