Chance me please

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>With Upenn and Carnegie mellon as my top two choices for school, i'd really like if you could not only be very honest and upfront but also give suggestions as to how i can improve my chances. I do what i love with passion despite constant setbacks, if that counts for anything</p>

<p>Applying to Upenn's and CMU's respective business schools</p>

<p>Uncompetitive high school in North Jersey
Top 10% out of around 400
GPA (on a 4.0 scale) 3.7-3.8
SAT: 1900*
Math: 680
Reading: 610
Writing: 610
SAT Chemistry - 800
SAT Math 2 - 680** (curiously the same as my SAT math reasoning score)
SAT Lit - 610**</p>

<p>AP's taken Junior Year
Chemistry - A (most likely a 4 or 5)
Lang& comp- B+ (most likely a 4)</p>

<p>AP's enrolled for Senior Year
Statistics
Calculus
Lit& comp
U.S Gov</p>

<p>Self Studying AP's
Macro & Micro Economics
Comparative Gov
Psychology</p>

<p>All other classes taken in high school are Honors classes</p>

<p>Activities:
Community service - Volunteering at local hospital for month, many few-hour volunteering activities facilitated by clubs i am involved with (totaling upto about 100 hours, doing more this summer)</p>

<p>Looking long and hard for a job to carry me from now till november, if i can't find one soon, i will be training underclassmen throughout the fall for my highschool swim team</p>

<p>Starting a JSA at my highschool this year
National Honor Society
Swim team 4 years (Going to be named captain this year 99%)
Rowing Team 3 years
R.E.A.C.H. (peer to peer group) 3 years
Consumer bowl 3 years
Club Swim team 1 year
E.R.A.S.E 2 years
International Festival - tables for 2 years</p>

<p>Honors:
National Merit Nomination, the only one in my school to receive it in the past few years
Academic excellence 2 years</p>

<p>Misc:</p>

<p>Nike Summer Swim camp 2011
Lead For Diversity summer camp 2011
6 years of annual, week-long summer youth retreat at my temple in upstate new york (atheist, but i go for the quiet)
People to People Ambassador to Aus, NZ, and Fiji, 3 weeks summer '08
National Youth Leadership Conference summer 2012</p>

<p>Great Rec's from 2 teachers and 1 coach
Experienced enough in writing with good essay topics to have very good essays</p>

<ul>
<li>SAT reasoning test was taken with 2 hours of sleep and killer headache, aiming for 2200+ in october</li>
</ul>

<p>** Absolutely no prep for Math 2 and Lit subject tests, aiming for 750+ in both</p>

<p>Please be honest, maybe giving some reccomendations to having a stronger app</p>

2

<p>It’ll be pretty tough for you to get into Penn. Your GPA is a little low, though it can be managed. You’ll definitely want to retake the SAT as well as the Subject Tests; aim for 2200+, as you said, on the SAT, and 750+ on each of the Subject Tests. You’ll pretty much only get one shot at each, since I think there are only two testing dates before application time. Consider taking the ACT; it generally has more straightforward questions than the SAT does, though it has tougher time constraints. Your extracurriculars, while not bad at all, appear a little unfocused. Come up with one or two interests - preferably unique ones - that define you and are represented by your activities, and make them the centerpieces of your application. Consider writing an essay about an interest. At this point, you’re beyond being one of the 4.0/36/2400 kids, so you have to make yourself stand out in other ways. Penn will be somewhat of a reach for you, but I’ve seen less overtly qualified students make it into similar-caliber schools before. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>Thank you! Great advice, i’ll be sure to follow through with everything</p>

4

<p>definitely a reach. Boost those scores a lot, my SAT was 2200+ and my subject tests were 700+ except one (lit)…Show a passion and beef up your ECs a lot.</p>