Chances of getting into UPenn?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi everyone,
I was wondering what my chances are of getting into UPenn as a legacy admission candidate applying early decision. My dad went to Wharton and was a first generation college student.

Gender: female
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Religion: Catholic
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Recommendations: getting my recommendation letters from 3 of my AP teachers (calc, bio, psycho) as well as my counselor
Major: Biological Basis of Behavior- a combination between Psych, bio and neuroscience. Passed AP bio as a sophomore with a 3 and psych last year with a 5
GPA: unweighted 3.8, weighted around 4.15-4.3
10 AP: (sophomore year) Biology, European History, (Junior year) Calc AB, Psychology, Environmental science, English Language, and currently as a senior taking Computer science, Physics, English Literature, and Statistics. Around 12 honors classes in addition to this and online classes I decided to take on my own.
ACT score: 29 (which I know is very low, but I got a 31 on math, 35 on reading, and 10 on the writing out of 12)
Also I’m taking the ACT’s one last time (and actually studying) and sending them in right away before even receiving my scores as well as waiting to hear what I got on the SAT I took a few weeks ago.
Top 20% of my class at an extremely hard private school, already have many kids accepted to the Ivys through sports, probably over 70 AP scholars out of the 246 kids in my class, easily the smartest class in my school’s history etc.
NHS
AP Scholar
tutoring
Part of pre-med and bowling club
I’ve worked two jobs, one at a restaurant, and currently working at a clothing store
I’ve been completely dedicated to lacrosse for the last 6 years or so; I’ve played and lettered in lacrosse at my high school freshmen, sophomore and junior year so far, am a captain this year as a senior and received an honor as an academic all american last year as a junior. I’ve also played in a competition travel league my freshmen, sophomore and junior year, as well as fall ball league each year of high school that I’m currently a captain of as well.
I played soccer my freshmen and sophomore year and tennis my junior year. As well as organizing an intramural soccer team this year as a senior, which i’m the captain of.

In addition to this I have around 110 hours of community service through volunteering as a camp counselor as well as working with a foundation called Rescue Rovers and fostering dogs.
Also I recently just started working with a new foundation called Youth Linc. This year I plan to fulfill 80 service hours through them as well as go on an international trip to either Peru or Madagascar.

Let me know what you think! Thanks

2

Being Legacy will help. Applying ED will help as well.

As of right now, the 29 is a bit too low. It seems like you’re involved in sports, do you have a chance at being a recruited athlete (I don’t know if the deadline passed).

Top 20% class rank will hurt you as well. Are the people who got into Ivies due to sports above or below you?

Since you’re at a private school, the school counselor would probably offer much better predictions than I or the people at this forum can.

3

Ok thank you! I actually just looked at their website and the last testing dates they’ll take are the oct ACT and nov SAT so I have two more shots to get most test scores up. Thank god. How do you think my chances would be if I ended up getting around a 32 for ACT or 2100 for SAT?

4

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5

Your chances raise some with a 32, but it’s still an uphill battle coupled with a 3.8. Legacy/ED will help some, but it’s not a magic pill. My guess is that the essays will have to be killer for you, since they still reject 60% of Legacy/ED applicants every year.

6

You’re very much on the fence, and if not for the legacy feature it would be very uphill. You’ll need at least a 32-33 to legitimately offset your low class rank and test scores.

7

Your ACT needs to be within the normal range for Penn, but if you get a good score on your SAT you should be fine, assuming your essays are good. Honestly, class rank (in my opinion) is not that important, as many schools (including mine) do not have class rankings. Your stats are good, so don’t worry about your class rank, it is one of the least important parts of your application.