<p>Gender: Male
Location: Iowa
Will apply for financial aid: Yes</p>
<p>Academics:</p>
<p>GPA - Unweighted: 3.8
GPA - Weighted: I'm never told (assuming it's probably over a 4.0 though)
Class Rank: top 10%
Will be applying to college of letters and science for Biology/molecular biology major.</p>
<p>Scores:</p>
<p>ACT: 30</p>
<p>Leadership positions: </p>
<p>Four years of track
Student Council officer
National Forensics for Speech and Debate (historian for high school team)
Won the Silvercord Award for 400 hours of volunteer service by volunteering at the hospitol, working at the local animal shelter, working as a TA for several Biology courses, and I have tutored students who are disadvantaged at science.
National Honor Society
Junior and Senior Class Cabinet
A science summer camp (would they actually care about that?)
Having a job at Target
Worked for the science club
Working for an internship senior year (school will not allow students to internship any other year).</p>
<p>On a side note, as the title says, I am applying to the University of Pennsylvania ED. Also, I will probably apply to Duke and Cornell as well (and including some safety schools). Anyway, what are my chances for all of the schools mentioned? I might be doing a campus tour of the University of Pennsylvania this winter or summer, and I REALLY want to get into this university. I would be happy if anybody gave me any extra advice on getting in. Thank you.</p>
<p>I think Duke, Penn, and Cornell are all super reaches. Your GPA and SATs are low for those schools, to have a shot you probably need to take the SAT or raise the ACT to a 34 to compensate for the GPA. Hate to say it, but you should probably aim lower.</p>
<p>Prepare like hell for the SAT and/or ACT, kill it/them, and make up for your GPA. Your GPA is nothing terrible, but it is kinda set in stone at this point.</p>
<p>Having or surpassing the average GPA doesn’t tell much about your admission prospect. The same goes for the standardized tests. Only because most of the applicants already have high GPA and test scores to begin with. Candidates with 4.00 UW GPA and 2400 SAT can and have been routinely rejected from the school. What is really the key factor to get into top-tier schools like UPenn is your EC’s and Essays. Having said that, you have neither near perfect scores nor stellar EC’s. I’m not saying it’s impossible to get in, but with the information you’ve provided with me, it seems improbable. Get more “safety schools” and take SAT subject tests because you are indeed required to take them, and take the ACT again if you want to have a higher chance. Also, write an outstanding, knocking-you-off-your-chair essay.</p>
<p>I suppose you would have a good chance, but you realize ED is for first choice? If you’re just going to apply to whatever Ivy League would be the easiest to get into as ED, you’re obviously not looking at what colleges have to offer. Penn and Cornell are very different, and it’s a shallow move to just apply early to wherever you have the best chance…</p>
<p>Well, accusations aside, I’m just trying to figure out which college has the best research available for me. Being these are both ivy league schools, research is probably going to be abundant, but I’ve always heard how great Cornell is with research.</p>
) but really?</p>