Should I even bother attempting to transfer to Wharton? (They only consider potential sophomores)
College: Bunker Hill Community College
College GPA: 4.00 (I am a freshman)
High School weighted GPA: 2.67
SAT: 1510(math 800)(English 710)
High School: Boston Latin School (Harvardmagnet school)
High School Freshman GPA: 0.97
High School Sophomore GPA: 2.97
High School Junior GPA: 3.34
High School Senior GPA: 3.40
Extra Information:
Personal Statement: How my father going missing in the 9th grade motivated me to start a Custom Mini Bike business in the 10th grade to support my single mother
Attended a renowned high school but did poorly in it
AP Macroeconomics test (5)
AP Microeconomics Test (5)
Single mother income under $65,000
100+ hours Volunteering
Harvard extension school Principles of Economics course completed with an A
Have a piece written about my small business in The Allston/Brighton TAB(small newspaper article)
Volunteered for Vice Principal
Internship at VHB
recommendation from math department head
Professor Research Assistant at BrandeisUniversity
Had a real estate internship in the summer
Have a Youtube channel for my small Business (StreetRiders Republic)
Business Leaders of tomorrow scholarship(don’t know if this matters)
Website for my small business where I sell products
Or, in lieu of separate introductory courses in micro and macroeconomics:
One semester of a combined introductory micro and macroeconomics course (ECON 010), which can be fulfilled by a course deemed to be equivalent to ECON 010.
We recommend that you satisfy Wharton’s foreign language requirement by the time you enroll at Penn. The requirement is equivalent to two semesters of college-level language courses and can be fulfilled by either completion of coursework or appropriate placement scores.
I saw your other posts. Don’t just go for random big names. Find the names that are right for you and ensure you don’t have only reaches. And schools you can afford. Good luck.
Present yourself as well as you can in your application and see how it goes. Your HS record is your Achilles heel. There will be many applicants with stellar HS and college records but nothing ventured, nothing gained. And this is the only year you can apply for Wharton.
Yes, you should give it your best shot and let the chips fall where they may. Your SAT score is outstanding and you pulled your high school GPA tremendously over the course of the four years (and your low GPA early on could be explained by your father having “gone missing”, which must have been awfully traumatizing). Also, you started a legitimate business (not some YouTube channel or such nonsense) in the tenth grade (!) to support your mom. You have a HELL of a nice story – good luck to you!
I can think of a bunch of colleges where you’ll have a heck of a story to tell (in addition to Wharton- but the odds there are low for EVERYONE). Bentley, Babson, Villanova, U Maryland- your personal story and your entrepreneurship might go further there than at Wharton where almost every single applicant has started a business of some kind.
Not to be discouraging- just encouraging you to take a look at a bunch of other colleges.
Good luck! Finance and Psych are a great combination, but you might also consider Behavioral Economics if you are looking at colleges without a business school. Hugs to you.
While I admire your drive and motivation in starting your own business, I am afraid that the Admissions Committee, all of whom either live in Philly or commute in, might not look so favorably upon the custom mini-bike business. They are not street legal, and are being ridden in planned mass meet-up invasions, taking over the streets of many cities, and have been associated with injuries to pedestrians, and worse.
I am Indian so I am not too sure if that makes it better or worse for me. But about the minibikes, I do not partake in any “meet-ups” or rideouts. I simply make the bikes from scratch and I do in fact make them street legal. These minibikes are mostly sold for drag racing in rural areas like New Hampshire where there are long drag strips. But you may be correct and I don’t know if this information(if mentioned somewhere in the application) would make it look better. Let me know what you think
Do you think I should mention what I said above somewhere in the application? I can’t help but worry about how I could be looked down upon by colleges for “contributing” to the ruckus going on in Philly.
I’m not expert. My point is I doubt others are. Maybe they are but I doubt. I was focus on the accomplishment and success, not justification. Others may disagree. It’s not an area I’m truly expert…but I think I’m objective. You’ll have to decide what’s right for you.
Indian isn’t URM at most schools. It is at Lehigh, though, and they have some great business programs as well as no-loan full-need-met aid for low-income students, so it might be worth an application if the NPC looks favorable for you.
Ok, I will take a look. Just wondering, I noticed that it is not an option to select your ethnicity on the common application. Would it be smarter to select “prefer not to answer” or does it not make a difference?
