Chance Me UPenn ED/Yale/Brown/Princeton/etc... Will Chance Back!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, everyone! I’m a junior and am trying to figure out how I should approach the college process – I want to apply to Penn ED because of KWH, and I’ve been in touch with people there. Chance me ED/RD Penn, SCEA/RD Yale & RD Princeton, Brown, Harvard, Boston University, SUNY Geneseo, Emory, Georgetown, Vassar, Wellesley

I may end up declaring a second major, but will apply to schools as an English major.
White middle-class female from NY.

[ *] SAT I (breakdown): Will take in March
[ *] ACT (breakdown): 33 [(36 E, 35 R, 33 M… 27 S :’( )–> I totally messed up the last passage on science because I didn’t get the concept and freaked out. I know I should 100% be able to move that section up to mid-high 30’s, since that’s what I got on all of the timed online tests. I know Penn does superscore. My major-related scores are obviously much better, but I’m definitely retaking in April & (re)doing every official science test I can find.]
If, worst case scenario, I couldn’t bring up my composite to a 34, how badly would this hurt my chances?
[ *] SAT II: Am planning to take Math 2, US & perhaps one other in June. I plan to get high 700’s/800 on both.
[ *] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0 – I’ve only seen my weighted GPA, but my lowest grade is a 96, so I’m assuming that’s a 4.0
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A, but should be in the top few in a class of ~250, if not at the top
[ *] AP’s: AP World (5), AP Lang (current), AP Calc (current), AP Spanish (current), APUSH (current), AP Lit (next year), AP Macro (next year), AP Micro (next year), AP Stat (next year), AP US Govt (next year)
[ *] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): 2016 Scholastic Writing Awards National Gold Medalist (2017 nationals aren’t announced yet, but I’ve won 4 total Gold Keys & like 7 Silvers, I think… but I’ll probably only list Gold on app), other creative writing awards & publications

[ /list][ b]Subjective:**
[ *] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses):
[Sorry to keep a lot of these vague to keep my identity safe… trust the prestige evaluations I give]

  1. Editor-in-Chief & Programme Director of an international youth writing and art magazine. I manage 35+ staff members from California to Singapore – the publication receives submissions from over twenty-five countries and thirty US states. I will also be speaking at a writing festival in Singapore through the publication.
  2. Prose Reader at [Mid-Prestigious Literary Journal]: evaluate prose submissions for publication (both magazine issues & literary competition entries), as well as solicit writers for submission.
  3. Business Development at [Prestigious Journal]: Solicited professional writers for submission and mentors to participate in their summer mentorship program, which I participated in as a freshman.
  4. Teen Intern at the Guggenheim Museum: Work with museum supervisors to assist in child art studio and tours through the education department. Coordinate educational activities under the season’s featured artist (previous examples being Moholy-Nagy and Agnes Martin.)
  5. Fiction Mentor for [Name Redacted] Online Writing Workshop: Taught two sessions of workshops for young writers, coordinating prose lectures, facilitating peer mentorship activities, and providing feedback on their work.
  6. Political Activism: Worked on a Democrat state senate campaign last summer. Also write for various political publications, including The Progressive Teen (High School Democrats of America.)
  7. Founding Editor-in-Chief of School Newspaper: Oversee staff of over thirty students, manage budget issues, supervise newspaper layout, and publish student articles.
  8. Debate Team Captain, Assistant Coach, Summer Debate Camp Counselor: Supervise school debate team, assisting in research and debate strategy. Ranked in the top 10 speakers in New York State in my division (2016.) Coached a beginner policy debate lab (taught debate fundamentals, prepared lesson plans, and planned student rounds.) I also volunteer to judge debate rounds at monthly tournaments.
  9. National English Honor Society (Organization President): Coordinated tutoring sessions and book drives to promote peer collaboration, as well as writing projects for members (creating school posters, compiling book lists and submitting to competitions.)
  10. Head of Yearbook Writing Department: Oversee the writing staff and the publication of all written articles for senior yearbook.

[Can you guys tell I like to write?]

[ *] Job/Work Experience: If this means paid, then N/A
[ *] Volunteer/Community service: Guggenheim, debate, etc
[ *] Summer Activities: I have taken classes at the Gotham Young Writers Workshop & Skidmore College. I’m not 100% sure yet what I’m doing this summer, but I’m applying to a bunch of writing programs & internships, so it will likely be various activities to further develop my writing interest.
[ *] Essays: Planning to write a more poetic “place of solace” bookish type essay about my relationship with reading. The essay I’m thinking about would be strongly based off a Scholastic personal essay that won a Gold Key this year, so I know I can write the piece well.
[ *] Teacher Recommendations: I am planning to get recommendations from my AP English & APUSH teachers, which should be strong.
[ *] Additional Rec: If I apply Penn ED, then I will get one from a writing alum. For other schools, I’m not sure I will submit one… I’d need to see how this summer goes.
[ *] Supplementary Material: I wrote a literature research paper about the nature of time in Nabokov’s work for MIT Inspire. If I get finalist for my research, I may provide an abstract, but otherwise likely nothing

2

you seem like a well rounded student who is very involved with the community and has many extracurriculars under their belt. You have plenty of time to focus on your standardized test scores, I could see you having lots of success In getting accepted to the ivies. Harvard and Yale are really some of the more selective schools but I still think you would put up a good fight for admissions. I wish you the best of luck in your college endeavors!

3

Thank you! Best of luck to you as well. :slight_smile:

4

actually a whole lot of people (including myself) have a 4.0 unweighted… even at my school (ncssm) there are several others as well…

@op- you are a very strong candidate and i think you’ve got a real good chance to get accepted to most of these schools. yale, harvard, and princeton are probably toss-ups and penn leans accept i’d say

best of luck!

5

I’m pretty sure a 4.0 is not impossible, or even uncommon for Ivies… My transcript says lowest class is a 96, so that’s what it is. I did get one 85 in gym, but that’s not counted towards my average, and I don’t think the ad-coms would care much. Does that make me seem more human to you?

6

@admiral12 : Yes, I know HYP are toss-ups for everyone, but at least I have a chance. Good luck to you too!

7

ED/RD Penn - I’d guess that you get in here ED, so none of the others here would dome into the equation, BUT on the nontrivial chance that you don’t…

SCEA/RD Yale & RD Princeton, Harvard - Probably a rejection just because these schools are stupid
Brown - Around 50/50 RD

Boston University, SUNY Geneseo, Emory, Georgetown, Vassar, Wellesley

Probably accept at all of these.

You’re clearly passionate about writing, and have the stats to back it up. Hopefully things work out for you. Take a look back at my post to see how you feel about the “story” I tried to tell? Good luck.

8

@writergirl0316 thanks!!! yeah unless you’re getting like Siemens finalist and placing at like IBO ICO and IPO you’re really not gonna be “guaranteed” admission at HYPSM but you’ve got a good chance

also back to the 4.0 thing i’m pretty sure there’s a reason kids these days do so many extracurriculars for HYPSM schools and that’s cuz 4.0 is like the “norm”

9

@Lehnsherr I just meant that it seems like you have a lot of interests and it’s great that you tailored your essays to the schools, but I think you might want to emphasize a single passion so your application’s “story” is cohesive. I.e. Are you a debater who does Parkinson’s research? A researcher who plays soccer? Through what lens do you want the ad-com to view your application?

I hope that makes sense! Best of look to you :slight_smile:

10

@admiral12 Agreed. I’m not sure why that poster seems so angry.

11

Gulp, I meant *luck, not look. Autocorrect!

12

I’d say that your chances are certainly better than most at all of your schools. Not a guarantee of course, but I think you’ll end up somewhere great!

13

@morgantmw Here’s to hoping that you’re right! How much do you think the ACT (33 -> 34, or staying the same, for example) affects my chances? Is there anything else you think I should do to improve my app?

14

@yonceonhismouth

15

ED/RD Penn, SCEA/RD Yale & RD Princeton, Brown, Harvard, Boston University, SUNY Geneseo, Emory, Georgetown, Vassar, Wellesley

I think you have a better shot SCEA at Yale than ED at Penn, because of your incredible ECs- I think Yale will like your emphasis on writing.

SCEA Yale- Accept (RD maybe a waitlist)
ED Penn- deferral (RD same, waitlist)

Princeton- reject
Brown- accept because of the writing
Harvard-reject
BU- accept
Geneseo- accept
Emory- accept
Georgetown- accept/waitlist
Vassar- accept
Wellesley- accept/waitlist

Except for the Ivies, I think you have a pretty good shot at all the schools on your list.

16

@yonceonhismouth Really? I thought Penn would be much more likely because of the Kelly Writers House… could you explain a bit more why you think Yale would like my writing more than Penn?

Thank you! :slight_smile:

17

While obviously all of the successful applicants to the Ivies are intellectual, from my time on both campuses (I’ve spent a summer at both Yale and Penn) I felt that Penn was a little more action-intellectual, while Yale was more deep-thinking and analytical intellectual. While I don’t doubt that you’d be successful at either, in my personal opinion, I think your journalism and commitment to writing would appeal more to Yale- it’s student “type” just feels more like you, from what I gather in your post.

18

@yonceonhismouth Hm, I’ll take that into consideration. Thanks again!

19

Contrary to what some other posters have said, you seem to be a very pointed/lopsided applicant – which isn’t a bad thing. Your ECs mostly all revolve around writing, and you have some spectacular and interesting activities!

I’m really interested in writing too, but, unfortunately, I didn’t centralize my app around it since I write almost constantly independently. I have had an internship with my newspaper and have written articles for it (for community of 20K). I also mentioned that I’m senior editor of the yearbook (hopefully they’ll get that I’m language editor since I put it under “writing” on the common app). I’m also currently writing a fiction novel and recently finished a short story, but other than that, I haven’t had those opportunities like you! I also do a bunch of other stuff (I’m much more of a well rounded applicant) so I chose not to focus my app on writing. I’m writing this long winded paragraph just to note that we have pretty similar interests haha.

I would be wary of writing your essay about reading because it could venture into the land of clichés and triteness, but you seem like a talented writer nonetheless.

SCEA Yale- accept/defer (but more likely accept)
ED Penn- defer

Princeton- reject
Brown- accept/waitlist (Brown’s admissions are so quirky and unpredictable, evidenced by my chance me post lol)
Harvard-reject
BU- accept
Geneseo- accept
Emory- accept
Georgetown- waitlist (TBH you don’t seem like a great fit)
Vassar- accept
Wellesley- accept

If I were you, I would add some more writing-friendly colleges to the list like WashU, Pomona, and maybe JHU. Good luck!

20

@ap012199 :

Sorry for the ambiguity about my essay, but I don’t think it was too cliche, just hard to explain – it was also about Matilda and rebellion. :slight_smile: But about my extracurriculars, I can talk to you more about them if you PM me! I have little to no extracurricular opportunities for writing at my school, so I head pretty much everything there. All of the literary journal stuff is done entirely online. Maybe it’s too late for your app, but there’s tons of opportunities to get involved!

Like I asked above, I’d like to hear your rationale on why you think I’m more likely get into Yale than Penn early. I know Penn has a much higher ED % & I have the possibility of recruitment there, but now that two of you said the same thing, I’m really curious. Also, are Princeton/Harvard considered less writer-friendly than Yale? People seem more optimistic about my chances at Yale than the other two.

Thanks so much!