Chances at Penn RD

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Race: Asian-American (Indian male, born and raised in US)
Location: Orlando, FL
Applying to: Wharton School of Business</p>

<p>Academic Index) 236/240 which is a 9. </p>

<p>GPA) UW: 4.00 W: 4.904</p>

<p>Rank) 1 (may slip to 2 only in midyear report) out of 702, this includes both IB program students, and non-IB students. My school is very large, about 3500-4000 students, is a C school, and located in a large suburbian area (btw, Orlando is virtually all suburbs). There is a large minority population (mostly Hispanics). </p>

<p>Curriculum) All but two are weighted classes. Rest are all pre-IB, IB, or honors classes. Full IB diploma program. By time of graduation:
4 years of IB Spanish
1 year of IB Biology, 2 years of IB Physics, 1 year of Honors Chemistry
Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Pre-calculus, IB Math Methods (the higher track of junior year math, Calculus AB), AP Statistics, and IB Math HL (toughest public school math class in county)
2 years of pre-IB World History (including AP WH test), 2 years of IB History of Americas
4 years of IB English
1 year of IB TOK
1 year of unweighted business class, 1 year of unweighted French
1 year of IB ITGS SL (computer class)
Possibly 1 year of AP Comp Science A (online)</p>

<p>Tests) SAT: M: 780, V: 760 (1540 total)
New SAt: 2300+ (expected)
Math IIC: 800
Physics: 800
Writing: 790
Spanish: 770
PSAT: 221 (should get National Merit Semi-finalist by time of application)
AP’s: World History 5, Calculus AB 5, Physics C: Mechanics 5, English Language 4
IB’s: Physics SL 7, ITGS SL 6 </p>

<p>EC’s) By time of graduation:
4 years of Math Club: historian, and president (hopefully), many competitions, tournaments, some awards, selected to represent school in elite teams, etc. This is my “passion”
3 years of active role in Spanish Honor Society
2 years of Best Buddies
2 years of QuizBowl team member (nearly 5-6 hours a week)
Founder of a new sport/club: table tennis, first of its kind in county: this is a very popular club at my school.</p>

<p>Volunteering at a place that gives a week of fun for terminally ill children for about 130 hours over about a year. If it helps to be known, I was not allowed to volunteer there alone until I turned 16, which I did not turn until early Junior year, unlike most people. </p>

<p>Selected to attend Boys State, a free (admission is merit-based) program to learn about state government and leadership, meet the governor, etc.</p>

<p>Recognitions: Winner of Rensselaer medal (math/science 60000$ scholarship award for one student in school)</p>

<p>2 or 3 team honors/trophies in math competitions</p>

<p>National Merit semi-finalist (most likely, state cutoff is 214)</p>

<p>AP Scholar w/ honor distinction</p>

<p>Selection to Boys State</p>

<p>Excellent teacher recommendations from English teacher (my club sponsor also), Math teacher (math is my hook/passion), etc.</p>

<p>Essay: I will probably write about my passion for math, table tennis, or about my leadership experience at the Boys State program. </p>

<p>Additional Info) My family would qualify for minimal financial aid, according to Princeton’s site. I basically speak only English at home, but can understand an Indian language.</p>

2

<p>You'll be just fine. You have stats similar to those that got into Penn from my own IB school. Keep it up, and make sure to write interesting essays</p>

3

<p>Why RD? If you're sure about business, you really can't beat Wharton...lots of people with scores and grades very similar to yours will be applying ED, and it'll be harder to stand out and sell yourself if you apply regular.</p>

4

<p>thats exactly what I told my dad, but he is forcing me to apply EA to Harvard. I told him that I dont care where else I get accepted to, as long as I can go to Wharton, but he insists on the slight advantage of EA (also being able to apply RD to other schools).</p>

5

<p>but why bother to apply to harvard if you would rather go to wharton?</p>

6

<p>yeah. </p>

<p>also
"Essay: I will probably write about my passion for math, table tennis, or about my leadership experience at the Boys State program."
as long as your essays can reveal something about your personality that will make you stand out. otherwise they're redundant because it's obvious you are passionate about those three things. or, well, at least were involved w/ them... essays are really important to help you stand out. if you can talk about your passion for those things in a manner that reveals stuff about you that they can't gather off of the app and which will make the adcom want you, then sure, go for it.</p>

7

<p>the thing is my dad believes I will get in to most, if not all, the schools I apply (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, MIT, Duke, Wash. U, Penn, etc.) after talking to other parents of kids who went to some of those schools, and wants to be able to compare financial packages and "bargain". I think I have a good shot a Penn and Columbia, but not so much at Harvard. I've tried to convince him about EA to Penn, but he refuses.</p>

8

<p>That is a dangerous assumption but I think you will get in to most. Schools like Yale, Harvard, MIT, Penn, etc, could still reject you. You have amazing scores and academics but your ECs and essays might be things that bring you down when they compare you against the other applicants in those regards. You have a great shot but don't assume anything.</p>

9

<p>if you want Wharton then ED is the way to go. See HAR and Yale do not have that program. seems like your dad is hung up on har/yale and thinks penn to back stop you. in my area with a newsrank school in top 100, top student with your credentials applied rd she got Har, Stanford, Brown, JHU but got waitlisted at penn and rejected by columbia.there lot of pressure during RD at penn since 47% of the class is done at ED.</p>

10

<p>question for u. how many kid went to har, Yale pton and penn from your school in 2005?</p>

11

<p>1 harvard, 1-2 yale, no one even applied to Princeton, and 2 penn. This is what I vaguely remember my gc telling me. It was a weaker batch. Usually, my school has about 4-5 people that get some combo of acceptances to HYPMS, Penn, and other top 7 or 8 schools.</p>

12

<p>u have to be a top 5 student to have shot at HYPP and SF/MIT.
If you are top 5 then do EA or ED if you have clear preference for one school. Since this is not a feeder school, outcome in not predictable. if not, do RD and take chance with back up CMU/NW/Cornell</p>

13

<p>back up....Northwestern and Cornell...is that a joke. Those schools could easily reject him as well...probably is low...but they are not "back-ups" for anyone. These schools reject close to 40-50 percent of those with 1400+ sat scores. Carnegie Mellon is not in the same peer group with Nwestern and Cornell. It is more like JHU, Chicago, NWestern, and Cornell.</p>

14

<p>Academically you are sound, but extracurricularly, you don't conspicuously stand out as other Harvard/Yale/Wharton applicants to. Your admission to these top schools will most likely depend on the quality of your recs and essays. If you really want Penn do ED</p>

15

<p>yeah.. true story, baba. i got into wharton but was w/l-ed at cornell</p>

<p>and washu will probably waitlist you, thinking you're overqualified, which is what they did to most people w/ really high scores this year... heh.</p>

16

<p>Yea I got into Wharton '09 but was waitlisted at Columbia and Dartmouth, and rejected by Cornell! The admissions game is highly unpredictable...apply ED to Penn if you really want it!</p>

17

<p>Why can't you do EA Harvard and ED PENN at the same time? The ED rules only say you can't apply <em>ED</em> to more than one school. But EA is NOT ED...</p>

18

<p>You can't apply Harvard EA and Penn ED because Harvard has a Single Choice Early Action policy meaning you can apply early only to Harvard and nowhere else, regardless if it is ED or EA. You can, however, apply to as many schools RD even if you're accepted to Harvard EA. However, under a binding ED agreement, you cannot apply RD anywhere if you are accepted.</p>

19

<p>I think most EA is single-choice, which is basically ED but not binding</p>

20

<p>you guys should know that baba is the most unreliable person on this board. And this is not a slur at all. It's a trend that everyone has been noticing. I'm just pointing it out.</p>

<p>(i don't want the administrator to block me again)</p>