Chances of Wharton ED or HYP EA?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Currently deciding between applying ED to Wharton, EA to Yale, or EA to Harvard. It’s a stretch, but I’d be more than happy to get into any of the 3. However, since that ED is in the mix, I want to evaluate my chances.

Scores/courses:
ACT: 35
AP: US History (5), Micro (4), Stats (4), Chinese (4), Gov (5), Lang (5), Calc BC (5), Bio (4), Physics (4)
AP course load senior yr: Chem, Spanish, Lit, Psych
Other senior yr classes: Business management, product development, adv creative writing, multivariable calc
Sat Subject: US History (770), Math 2 (waiting on score, most likely 780)
GPA (unweighted): 4.00

ECs + Awards:
Siemens science competition regional finalist, currently competing for finalist
Garcia summer research program
Competitive dancer, 1st and 2nd place national awards for solos and duets
Policy debater, 2rd in state, national qualifier, varsity captain jr and sr year
Student Council, secretary then president
Interact Service Club, president
NHS, national merit scholar, ap scholar, princeton book award, the usual

Community service:
worked a lot with my local chinese community to put together cultural fairs, chinese new year celebrations, also taught chinese dance classes for 3 years at a chinese community center
spent 5 summers with a dance performance ensemble that’s raised 80k+ for local non-profits

Rec Letters:
My ap lang teacher’s letter is pretty extraordinary, expecting ap bio teacher’s to be good

Essays:
I’m from a small town and had to go to a non-competitive school with really weak activism (lol). since I spent years planning volunteer service events, common app essay is about taking responsibility of the power of an individual to mobilize and lead others, using a local environmental service event I started as the core example.
various supplemental essays are pretty good bc I could really talk about my involvement in dance volunteerism and in regrowing my school’s debate team from nothing to one of the top teams in state

Planned career:
business or biotech

oh, and i’d love any advice y’all have on where to early apply, because though i’m interested in business, i can’t say i’m 100%.

2

I think you need to be a Siemens national finalist to even have a shot at UPenn ED
But unfortunately that occurs a month after the ED deadline so I don’t think you stand a chance
Especially when you look at those kids from the west coast who just take 9 APs in a year and get all 5’s

3

I disagree with @Contravention . Your standardized test scores are in the top 25% of admitted students to UPenn and being from the west coast does not give you an advantage in admissions. Also, scores on AP tests are rarely considered and most students admitted do not take 9 APs in one year. You have a good chance, but nobody knows for sure.

4

@commielover it depends, did you do research on DNA? DNA is at the forefront of business and Wharton has a 87% acceptance rate for DNA researchers. If you did research on dental pulp stem cells, im sorry for you. Even if you got regional finalist. DNA without semifinalist > DPSC with finalist

5

^lmao this guy, one of those kids. But srsly tho to OP, go for it. Your ECs and scores look good enough already, so I don’t think there’s much more you can do in actually increasing your chances. If you’re not 100% on a major, I would recommend not applying to Penn since it’s hella preprofessional. At the same time, if you apply to Wharton, it would be easier to switch out should you choose to do so than to switch into a business field

6

OP, please don’t listen to @ docwhu (didn’t want to tag him and get into an argument). You have many fantastic options, and I think you would have a decent shot at any of the schools you listed as being interested in.
I think, if you are not 99.9% sure you want to attend Penn, I would apply EA to Harvard or Yale.

7

Troll detection on cc is pretty weak…

8

@docwhu I really hope you’re kidding.

@commielover Don’t apply ED unless UPenn is your absolute first choice and you’re financially stable to afford whatever price they make you pay. Otherwise, honestly, you’ve got what all other top applicants have, so just apply early to whichever school you genuinely love, RD to the rest, and hope and pray that admissions officers like you.

9

The overall Penn ED acceptance rate is around 23%. For Wharton, it’s probably somewhere between 15-20%.

  • Yale accepted about 18% SCEA [100-(53+29)]

http://news.yale.edu/2015/12/15/795-early-action-applicants-admitted-class-2020

  • Harvard accepted about 15% SCEA

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/12/first-admissions-to-class-of-20/

  • Princeton accepted 18.6% SCEA

https://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S45/02/99M42/index.xml?section=topstories

I would bet that the four are roughly equally difficult. Splitting hairs, Harvard is probably very slightly harder than Wharton/Princeton/Yale, which are about equally difficult.

10

Please ignore the troll above. You have a shot at these colleges if anyone does. ED will boost your chances, EA won’t. If you love Penn, definitely go ED.

11

^ curious as to why the word t r oll is censored??

12

I agree with @docwhu you’re competing with kids who have 7.0 gpas (like himself) and who have MIT as their safety. Your best bet is to ED to Stony Brook and hope to get in. I dont even think community colleges accept a 35 on the ACT. If you really want to have a chance you need to get a perfect score on the AIME and place in STS, but you are a team so GG M80. Also the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.

13

Sarcasm aside and re-focusing the discussion:

  1. Don't apply ED or SCEA anywhere unless it's your clear favorite and you can afford it.
  2. Wharton ED and HYP SCEA are probably roughly equally selective, with perhaps a slight, slight edge in difficulty to Harvard.