could i be accepted?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

Hey I’m a junior in high school and I’ll be applying to college soon. I was hoping one of you could help me understand my chances of getting into schools like UPenn, Dartmouth, Columbia and Cornell. I would also appreciate if y’all can tell me where I can strengthen my application and raise my chances to get into my dream schools. Sorry if this is too long I simply wanted to be as specific as possible

My unweighted GPA: 3.85
My weighted GPA: 4.07

New PSAT: 1230. (Oops, I was one of the first people to take it so none of my teachers or mentors new how to prep for it.)

ACT: 30 Composite; 35 English, 32 Reading, 26 Math, 26 Science

Please note that I took the test without a calculator, which is why I have such a miserable Math score. No worries, I;m taking the next one.

APs:
• AP Human Geography (5)
• AP World History (4)
• AP Calculus BC
• AP Physics 1
• AP US History

My AP World teacher was voted to be one of the most challenging teachers in my state.

Next years APs:

• AP Gov and AP Macro
• AP Computer Science
• AP Statistics
• Multi-variable Calculus (it’s a post-AP Calc BC class with more rigor but no AP Exam)
• AP Language and Comp.

The rest of my classes are part of the Gifted Program. My county has a special program that provides classes ranked above Honors for “intellectually gifted” students. They’re called AP prep classes because they have the same intensity but they don’t have any sort of curve at all which usually results in lower GPAs and ranks

Extra-Curricular activities:

Sports:
• High School Lacrosse
• Club soccer
• Black belt in Tae Kwon Do (World Tae Kwon Do Federation)
• Tennis
• Swimming

Clubs:
• FBLA
• German Club
• Student Government
• Math National Honor Society
• National English Honor Society
• National Social Studies Honor Society

Leadership:
• FBLA Officer
• Lacrosse Captain
• Peer Leader

Peer Leaders are students who dedicate an entire class period everyday for a year to mentoring middle and elementary school students, helping them prepare for high school. We also help new student adjust to life at our school and peer mediate if necessary. One must go through a rigorous application and interview process to be accepted into the program.

Awards/Achievements:
• Scholar Athlete 2015-16
• Scholar Athlete 2016-17
• Academic Letter 2014-15
• Academic letter 2015-16
• Academic Letter 2016-17
• National German Exam Gold Medalist (outs me in the top 5% of all German students in the US)
• Top ten in Accounting 1 (FBLA) in the state 2015-16
• Top 3 in Accounting 1 (FBLA) in the region 2015-16
• Top 3 in Personal Finance (FBLA) in the region 2016-17
• Top 3 in Personal Finance (FBLA) in the state 2016-17
• First place in Banking and Financial Systems (FBLA) in the region 2016-17
• Top 3 in Banking and Financial Systems (FBLA) in the state 2016-17 (Team)
• Top 3 in Banking and Financial Systems (FBLA) in the state 2016-17 (Individual)
• National Competitor (FBLA) 2016-2017
• National AP Scholar (Guaranteed)
• The Mogul Award (Presented to me at Georgia Tech for creating the best brand for myself and my start up)

Summer Activities:
• Entrepreneurship Program hosted at Georgia Tech
• Summer College at Cornell University (3 Credits) ( -A, 3.7 GPA; received a recommendation letter from the professor due to fact that I was able to get an A grade in his class.)
• Internship as an analyst at a bank
• Shadowing the Senior VP of the same bank
• Lacrosse Camps/Clinics

Misc.
• Avid writer: I am currently in the process of writing a novel
• Artist: My work has been displayed at multiple art shows (I have certificates to prove it)
• Musician: I’ve played the guitar for the past 3 years
• I manage a portfolio of stocks for myself and my family with considerable funds
• I am also fluent in three different languages and I’ve completed my third year of German, which will be my fourth language.

Demographics:
• Asian American male
• Middle class family
• Immigrant
• First person in my family to go to an American college.

My goal is to make it to Wharton, which is why I have focused on and have taken classes like:

• Introduction to Business and Technology
• Accounting 1
• Financial Literacy

Weaknesses: GPA and Class rank
Strengths: Academic achievements, ECs and summer activities.

I would appreciate any and all feedback. Thank you for your time.

2

Your stat are rather low for Penn and the other ivies. GPA is not bad, slightly below the Penn average (3.93 last year), but still good. Your ACT and class rank are rather low though.

Your ECs look good. But you really need to increase your test scores. As an asana with these scores you have close to zero chance.

Also if you got a first choice you could apply ED to that choice to increase your chances.

3

@Penn95 thanks! My PSAT score is actually outdated it has actually increased to a 1350 now, however, I’m not sending them regardless. The ACT is low because I had to take the math test without a calculator. I believe I can achieve a score past a 33 next time. You may have noticed that I’m quite far along the math course and am actually good at it if I have my calculator lmao. Once that math score goes up, my composite score should increase past Penn’s middle 50% percentile score of 32.

4

@bankingnfinance yes i think you should focus on getting the score up. if you manage that you will have decent chances. As I said especially as an asian applicant you cannot afford to have lower than average scores. The competition is extra fierce.

5

Thanks a lot for your feed back! @Penn95