I am a high school senior and I am interested in applying to UPenn. I want to know if I have a chance of getting in before I get too excited about it. I have a 3.97 gpa, have taken many dual enrollment and AP classes, lots of advanced math and science, I’m on the math team, and I’m the captain of the varsity tennis team. I also work a part time job. My ACT score was 34. My biggest concern is that I’m not involved in tons of extracurriculars/ volunteer work. I also have only taken 2 years of a language, which I stopped taking junior year because I absolutely hated it. Any advice from accepted students or parents of accepted students would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
The lack of a language will be tough to overcome. Schools actually like to see you take courses in areas you don’t like or aren’t great in as it shows you challenge yourself.
It’s not impossible for you to get in but with so many strong applicants to choose from your 2 years of language and lack of ECs will make it an uphill climb. If you have some sort of hook your chances would be improved.
I had a friend who was accepted (she didn’t end up attending though…) with relatively similar stats. Honestly, I would apply, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up (sorry, just being real) but you never know.
2 Years of Foreign Language will hurt you especially because it was a choice. Lack of ec’s will seal the deal in my opinion. It doesn’t really matter about your grades and test scores because thousands of applicants have those. I don’t think it’s a realistic option at all to be honest. I would remove it from your list.
This coming year I’m thinking about taking spanish again, Spanish 4. I’m also going to volunteer as a writing coach at my high school. Will any of this improve my chances, or should I just forget about it?
Nobody can safely say that your chances at Penn are anything above 10% because of the sheer number of qualified applicants that apply to Penn. Spanish will help as it satisfies the foreign language recommendations listed by Penn. Writing coach-depends on how involved you are.
Apply to Penn, you may never know what happens, but don’t get your hopes up for a school that rejects 9 out of 10 applicants.
Apply anyways, what do you have to lose but definitely pick up Spanish again and try to get involved in as many things as you can these year no matter how absurd. Good luck!
If you could take a third year of language in senior year, that would help. Having said that, my son was accepted to Penn, and in the end, he had only one semester of Italian taken at a community college. (Here in CA, it’s worth two years of high school) He originally was going to take a second semester, but he opted to take Animation II which conflicted with Italian 102, so he never did any more Italian. So, on his original transcripts, he had the second semester Italian, but on the final transcripts we sent to Penn, only one semester of Italian was on the final transcripts.
One thing to know-we’re homeschoolers and I was able to explain that my son had a hearing loss and surgery at the end of his sophomore year, then fitted for a hearing aid (unilateral) in his junior year. So, we just waited until his senior year to take f. language. I don’t know if that helped with his case. And remember, at Penn, if you’re in CAS, you’ll have to take f. language if you don’t test out of it. My son doesn’t like f. language, but knows he’ll need to take it. He’ll probably take Polish since that’s the most interesting language to him.
Anyhow, his SAT was 2230, gpa was 3.95/4.47 at the time of applying, but mid-semester, it dropped to 3.84/4.44. He had no AP exam scores, two SAT II scores over 700 and 39.5 community college units.
He had one main activity, cello, and some lesser activities (robotics, bowling, and a few little things like Hack-a-thon, STEM video game challenge, etc). However, his cello was a huge EC, doing stuff like professional cellist for plays, weddings, tons of community service (many fund raisers), solo work, high level chamber and orchestra, and more. And his robotics team was first in our city and went to super regionals.
I think the fact that he applied as a fine arts major (he submitted a music supplement and an animation supplement) helped get him accepted.
I think you need to go for it, take that extra year of Spanish, and then see what happens!