Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Applying to Wharton school most likely </p>

<p>gpa: 3.9 something unweighted, 4.07 weighted (my school does .5 for AP and 94-100 A, 90-93 B+ etc)
basically all A's but a B+ freshman year in debate and a B+ junior year in honors physics</p>

<p>classes:
sr: ap english lit, ap comp gov't, ap calc bc, ap stat, ap french lang, human anatomy, finance
jr: ap english lang, ap us history, honors physics, honors precalc, french 4, business mgmt, marketing 2
soph: ap world history, honors english, honors alg 2, chem, french 3, marketing, gym
fresh: honors english, honors geometry, honors bio, honors world history, debate, french 2, gym</p>

<p>sat:
R 670, M 650, W 800 (2120)
R 650, M 700, W 780 (2130)
(taking act in sept and hoping for 34)
sat 2:
world history 780, Math II 680 (retaking, hopefully getting 750)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
1. FBLA (CEO)
2. DECA (Financial director)
3. Model UN (VP)
4. National French Honor Society (officer)
5. Amnesty International (Pres)
6. French Club
7. Young Democrats (VP)
8. NHS
9. Varsity Tennis
10. Varsity Math Team
Honors and Awards
1. Governor’s school summer program for humanities
2. DECA 3rd place at districts
3. FBLA competition 2nd place regionals
4. French excellence award
5. National French Exam 13th in nation
6. Algebra 2 Academic Excellence and Improvement
7. National Merit Commended Scholar
8. Honor Roll
9. AP Scholar (on track)
10. Math team 4th Place
11. AP English Academic Excellence
12. Governor’s award (on track)
Community Service
1. Children’s Academy volunteer
2. Library volunteer
3. Students Against Global Abuse
4. Invisible Children charity fundraising
5. Barack Obama campaign volunteer
Employment
1. Intern at marketing department
2. Potbelly Sandwich Works certified trainer
3. Political canvass for VA State Senator and Barack Obama
4. Hostess</p>

<p>PM me for my common app essay</p>

<p>asian girl, applying ED</p>

2

<p>It is most interesting that I see you have many rigourous courses and extra-curriculars that are devoted to maths but neither your SAT scores (for maths specifically) can be called satisfactory. The average (by Ivy standards) test scores and your amazingly high GPA brings me to question how your school awards marks and where it places amongst other high schools. As for activities outside of school, people with worse extra-curriculars have been accepted and people with better extra-curriculars have been rejected. Unless you can show that you really learned something unique from one of the activities, I do not see them as overly helpful to your application package, which is significantly marred by your standarized test results.</p>

<p>I whole-heartedly suggest you to apply to the College. Wharton is almost certainly asking for too much. Hopefully you have good essays in store for Penn. Wish you best of luck.</p>

<p>P.S. feel free to PM me if you wish to discuss the matter further</p>

3

<p>Easy on the EC’s… I know it may look better to have 30 things listed, but in your case “less is more”. Alot of of those EC’s are commonplace anyways, so only put the most impressive and unique ones. Quite honestly, 3rd place in Deca districts merits little to nothing. Same goes for NHS and French Club.</p>

<p>To be completely honest, College Confidential has seen apps like yours hundreds of times. I say quality should be more important than quantity. By mentioning things that are rather unimpressive and petty, you make your impressive things look worse.</p>

<p>Note: Why do you need to mention Honor Roll if you already told us you are a 3.9 student? Students usually make honor roll with a 3.5 or better…</p>

4

<p>Yeah, that’s basically the response I was predicting. </p>

<p>As to my grades, I go to a school in Fairfax County in Northern VA. It is one of the top school systems in the nation. I was actually just talking to my friend about how my transcript makes it seem like I’m good at math but only because I try sooooooooooo hard to get A’s in my math classes.</p>

5

<p>ya, i agree with AminAS bout the ecs
i got in class '13, but for my ecs, i pretty much only concentrated on 2-3 for bout 3-4 yrs each
don’t string urself out too much, concentrate on either ur strengths, or the clubs u like the most and stick with those, start spreading out too much and penn will start thinking that u just want to load ur app</p>

6

<p>yeah, gord10 got it right on. As for the scores, your composite is absolutely fine. What is out of whack is your math score. You absolutely need an 800 on a math IIc and an 800ish on your SAT reasoning (SAT reasoning is permissively lower because it’s curve isn’t as strong and the questions are often stupid logic than concrete knowledge).</p>

<p>Get a Barron’s book and go through it twice. I mean it --TWICE. That gives you a 99.99% chance of an 800. Good luck!</p>

7

<p>Relatively little awards, Low EC, Low SAT and SAT 2 (especially compared to Wharton applicants), Asian, and female.
Chances are you have average chance of getting in: lower than getting into harvard chances. Honestly, Harvard is easier to get into than Wharton. Look up accept rates.</p>

<p>Wharton is in the majority, males. I believe the male to female ratio is 55:45. Being Asian does not help case. </p>

<p>“National French Exam 13th in nation” I will assume you are talking about 87th percentile? It does not report who is first in the nation and so on and so forth.</p>

<p>Id strongly recommend against applying ED because you will be wasting it.
Just my humble opinion. I may be biased because a friend of mine got 2340 SAT, 2400 on 3 SAT II’s, made it to FBLA nationals, with amazing rec and Val status got deferred—> reject. From what i can tell from his character and inteligence, i believe he had amazing essays too. He was white too.</p>

8

<p>CC’er the only way that happened is if the essays were laconic. Your scores and stats give you a “qualified” status. Your essays get you in.</p>

9

<p>Thanks for the advice necrophiliac. Yeah I never went through the Barron’s but I heard it’s amazing. I am definitely retaking it and hoping for a better score. </p>

<p>I am taking the ACT and aiming for at least a 33, but hopefully 34 (I’ve heard it’s much easier from all the kids at my school. Plus I’m gonna study my ass off for it this summer).</p>

<p>Yeah that was a long list of extracurriculars. I mean they’re basically everything I’ve done in high school. Most have been for at least 3 years. But should I cut some out of my application and just focus on the ones I’m really into?</p>

10

<p>Oh and I’ve decided to apply to CAS since my chances at Wharton are next to nothing.</p>

11

<p>apply to Wharton. Everyone’s chances are next to nothing. Your risk management should be other schools, not cutting your dreams down in this one. </p>

<p>And yes, certainly cut the “filler” out of your application and only focus on what counts for you.</p>

12

<p>I’m not against Wharton or anything (I actually have a interest in going) but I also have something that is opposing me to go. But I’m going to share this.</p>

<p>You have to know one thing, you are getting a BBA, a Bachelors of Business Administration. It doesn’t seem so worth it to spend your undergrad to get a BBA when you can go to Wharton for grad and get a MBA (something more superior and takes less time). I mean I have this feeling that with a BBA, your undergrad years is somewhat “wasted” because if you get a MBA, then the BBA is worthless. Like I would think that if you major in something related to business, like econ or sociology at UPenn (I think it is better at U of C–said to be one of the best school for econ and sociology in the world pretty much IMO) and then go to Wharton for MBA, it is totally worth it because you not only understand the world of business, you get to experience the world from different prespective. It is like a Biomedical Engineer going to medical school opposed to a biology student going. The BME student will have knowledge that include biology but also about cutting edge technology that the biology student doesn’t know so it gives the BME student a edge when it comes to jobs because not only will he know just as much about the human body as the bio student does, he knows how to use the technology in different beneficial ways.
This is just my opinion</p>

13

<p>that’s a nice theory except you don’t get a BBA. You get a BS. BS in economics that is :P</p>

<p>So you are getting a “liberal art degree” but with a more technical aspect (much like engineers are bachelors of engineering science). THIS is very valuable for any career or grad school. Also, getting into a top MBA program is easier out of wharton than elsewhere.</p>

14

<p>umm, my Val friend was hands down the smartest, more flavorful kid i know. I will put money where my mouth (or fingers in this case) is that he wrote some of the best App essays known to man. Infact, one of his starting sentence was; “At eight years old, I was a murderer.” Played out amazing, no generalizations.</p>

15

<p>What would be my chances if I do get a 33-34 on my ACT (and thus don’t send in any of my SAT scores)? And if I retake the SAT Math 2 and get high 700s? </p>

<p>Should I just do that or retake my SAT reasoning test too?</p>

16

<p>To stephaniie13:</p>

<p>Retake either ACT or SAT I, but not both. Retake SAT II Math.</p>

<p>Potential applicants for this coming school year should <em>really</em> be putting pen to paper by now (i.e. physically – not mentally – working on your essays).</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

17

<p>Thank you. I have been working on my essays. </p>

<p>So if I send in my ACT scores, I don’t have to send in my SAT scores right?</p>

18

<p>“that’s a nice theory except you don’t get a BBA. You get a BS. BS in economics that is :P”
–Yes you are right</p>

<p>So you are getting a “liberal art degree” but with a more technical aspect (much like engineers are bachelors of engineering science). THIS is very valuable for any career or grad school. Also, getting into a top MBA program is easier out of wharton than elsewhere.
–It is easier out of Wharton but that pretty much puts your undergrad years (4 years) to a extreme inferior level. I mean no one will care about a BBA if you have a MBA. Look at it this way, would you rather have a person who got a BS in biology and a MS in Bioengineering or a BS in Bioengineering and then a MS in Bioengineering. I would choose the BS in bio and MS in BME because that person has a wider perspective of the science world. Not only will that person who about altering cells that person will know about the specific molecular function of the cell and what specific biochem and chem function that occurs throughout the life time, something taught past the intro level classes of Bio that Bioengineering students take. This knowledge will help improve his/her job. The BS BioE and MS BioE person will just know about altering cells, not exactly the specific function and biochemistry of the cells.</p>

<p>Also you have to know that Econ at U of C is one of the best in the world, if not the best. MBA schools don’t accept BBA students. In fact over 3/4 of their applicants are not BBA because there are few schools that even have BBA and those that do have a small amount of students. So having a Econ Degree at U of C surely does not put you at a significant inferior level than a BBA at Wharton (although it does a little bit). </p>

<p>"So if I send in my ACT scores, I don’t have to send in my SAT scores right? "
I would recommend you to retake the SAT I because that does not match your ACT really (as in like I believe you can do much better on the SAT I than your score right now). Also I would recommend you to send both, only because it looks better that you are not trying to hide anything from admissions. And especially if you send in your SAT II, you want to also send SAT I. Just my opinion, but from what I heard, schools like to see both ACT and SAT, not just one or the other.</p>

19

<p>well a BS in economics out of Wharton is some respects is equal to an MBA. So it’s a cost-cutting degree. (MBA’s tend to have higher salaries because they have job experience). </p>

<p>A liberal art degree more or less forces you into grad school; Wharton’s BS in econ gives you flexibility.</p>