Hi all,
My son is going into senior year at a top school in the US. Did study abroad for a year in Spain (fluent in Spanish now) during junior year
SAT January - 1290. He is retaking in August (this weekend! Currently getting mid/high 1300s on practice tests) and possibly October.
SAT II’s - History 630 Biology 620 Spanish 700 (I have heard him speak Spanish & I know he is fluent. This score surprised him, me, everyone!). Will probably take Math 2 in October or November.
GPA unweighted - 3.48
GPA weighted - 3.6
+Solid extracurriculars
Neither I nor his father is legacy, but we do have solid connections at the school (however, we don’t want to rely on them).
What do you think his chances are? Do you have any other school suggestions? He likes medium sized in/near a big city. He would also prefer if the school was well-known. His counselor has created a list for him, but I just want to get a second (third, fourth, fifth…) opinion.
All advice is appreciated, thanks!
How is his class rank? GPA/SAT well below Penn’s Average.
@f2000sa School doesn’t rank students but the mean GPA for his grade is 3.49 while the median is 3.51. I should also note his school sends at least six (usually more) kids to Penn each year.
Bar any strong hooks, his academic should be at least top 10% of his class. Most admitted students are ranked among the best few in the class (5%).
@f2000sa so you’d say he has little to no shot?
According to Penn’s Common Data Set for 2016-2017:
GPA: 100% are in the top 25% of their class. 95% are in the top 10%.
90% have a GPA 3.75 or higher.
95% have a GPA of 3.50 or higher
98% have a GPA of 3.25 or higher
100% have a GPA of 3.00 of higher
And Penn’s 25-75% range for SAT scores is 1,380-1,570.
http://www.upenn.edu/ir/Common%20Data%20Set/UPenn%20Common%20Data%20Set%202016-17.pdf
GPA and scores are much too low for Penn. Try looking into schools below the top 40 or so. Top 30 schools are almost unquestionably out of reach.