Chance Me, Please: Wharton, NYU-Stern (Among others)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Prerequisite Information: I’m a Junior, I want to study economics/finance

SAT I: 2300
ACT: Not Taken
SAT II: US History (780), Chemistry (770), World History (800)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.5
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Unranked
AP (expected score in parentheses): AP English (5), AP Chemistry (3), APUSH (5), AP Microeconomics (Self-Taught, 4), will take AP Biology, AP Macroeconomics, AP English Lit. and AP Statistics Senior Year
Major Awards: American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) High School Essay Competition Honorable Mention, National Catholic Forensics League National Qualifier

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Politics Club (President), Student Body Representative, National Speech and Debate (3 years, 2x Tournament winner, National Qualifier), Saxophonist (4 years)
Job/Work Experience:Intern at a small Hedge Fund in Utah (over the summer) , Intern at Law firm in Egypt (1 month)
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteer at Kidney Transplant Hospital in Egypt (1 month)
Summer Activities: Yale Young Global Scholars (YYGS)
Essays: REALLY Good in general

Other

State (if domestic applicant): Utah
School Type: College Preparatory Private School (rated hardest in the state)
Ethnicity: African American
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: $50,000-$150,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM, First-Generation, Parents were refugees, spent first 2 years of high school in Egypt, I’m a Day Trader for my Parents.

I have also gained an internship at Goldman Sachs for this upcoming summer, so I won’t be headed to the Hedge Fund and will instead intern with Sachs.

Colleges: UPenn-Wharton, Harvard, Princeton, NYU-Stern, Columbia, Swarthmore, Boston University-Questrom,

Notes: I know my GPA is low, but do the other tenets of my application cover for it or am I done for?

2

I think your chances are very high for all the schools you’re looking at. Your scores are great, but your GPA is the only drawback. Also, if you’re planning on majoring in finance make sure you take Math II as a subject test. I know Wharton requires that.

3

@Cbow17, how bad is the GPA Drawback?

4

3.5 is very low for Penn, Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia. I don’t know about admissions to Stern specifically, but it’s probably low for Stern also. Acceptances with a 3.5 aren’t unheard of at these schools, but they’re quite rare for students without major hooks (first gen or URM, IMO, provide only slight bonuses in admissions). Have you started looking at matches and safeties? If so, what are they?

5

High school student interning @ GS?
50-150k income but at college prep high school?
Fishy…

But if it is true, I would say you would have a really good chance of getting into at least one of your reaches.

Your ECs are kinda scattered though, so maybe try to emphasize one in your essays

6

@deeznuts the GS interview was through personal connections with people I know at GS. And as for my school, my father’s workplace pays for my high school and the first 4 years of my college education in full.

7

@usualhopeful – if I can bump that up to a 3.6, will it still be too low?

8

It will still be low, and admission will still be very unlikely, but of course it helps.