<p>GPA: 3.7 unweighted, top 10% at prep school
SAT I: 800M, 750CR, 800W
SAT II: 800Math IIC, 790 Chemistry, 750 Physics
AP tests: US History 5, Art 2D Design 4, English Lit/Comp 5</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Violin (numerous statewide awards)
President of Environmental Action Committee
Asst. Teacher at Math School
Photography Editor of Yearbook
Editor of literary art magazine
Science Bowl Team founder
Knowledge Masters Team
Tutoring/Big Sister Mentorship Program</p>
<p>Summer:
Volunteer at Dana Farber
Medical Internship at MGH
Classes in Shanghai
Trip to Germany
Office jobs at Umass Medical School and camera company</p>
<p>Other: Sent supplemental music materials and supp. rec</p>
<p>HEY, i don't think that's very fair. I'd think that the people on this board would know well enough that SATs aren't nearly as important as grades, and that's what I'm more concerned about. 3.7 is lower than the average accepted student's GPA at Penn, and SAT's can't make up for lapses in your transcript. By the way I only took the SAT once.</p>
<p>I think college admissions is a lot harder than some people realize, especially for certain groups, Asians included. I mean there are probably a lot of Asian girls out there with close to perfect SAT scores, and I'm more interested in does it seem like I have anything to differentiate myself from them.</p>
<p>I'm just asking opinions, there's no bragging here.</p>
<p>uhh no bragging?
chances posts by great applicants just seem like you're searching for us to all say "yeah, you'll definitely get in! you're the best", etc, etc.</p>
<p>You want to ask for opinions...sure. How about you do it on the forum that's actually designed for you to do so? This is the Penn thread where we talk about Penn, not whether poster X could get into Penn. If you post your icky chances thread here (gag), 5 days before ED results, understand that there will be retribution.</p>
<p>If I were asian and worried that that specifically would affect my life in such a way that I would find it necessary to annoy a bunch of on-edge ED applicants, I wouldn't play violin. Definitely wouldn't work at a camera shop, either. Also would probably make an effort to have CR scores to match my math scores.</p>
<p>u think ne1 on this board has ne idea how an admissions committee works? we, who r freakin out at our own chances and wondering how things work over there... how the hell do you expect ne1 to even tell you if you have a "slim chance" (though yes, you do have a chance)? understand something... CHANCES THREADS ARE WORTHLESS. NO1 CAN TELL YOU IF YOU R GOING TO GET IN OR NOT... THERE ARE PLENTY OF PEOPLE WITH PERFECT SATS AND PERFECT GPAS WHO GET REJECTED. WE HAVE NO FREAKIN CLUE. </p>
<p>people like you **** me off and make me ashamed to be asian... o im near perfect in most everything, do i stand a slim chance? ugh...</p>
<p>and if youre gonna make retarded threads do it in the forum that says "retarded threads(what are my chances) here! dont do it right before decisions with kids on edge... </p>
<p>i dont mean to sound harsh... oh, wait, i do. now go away</p>
<p>aww cmon guys cut the op some slack. i understand that there is a lot of tension now that decisions are comin out soon, but try not to worry. if it was meant to be, it was meant to be :)</p>
<p>and to the OP, my GPA is somewhere between 3.6-3.7 UW, and around 5.2 out of 6.0 weighted, and i applied ED to penn. honestly, im not worried about my GPA, because i conveyed a reason for the dip very well in my essays (hopefully enough so that the adcom realizes that i have changed after seeing my error). ill say this to you, if you can give a honest answer as to why your gpa is low, and provide PROOF that you are now at the top of your class with no plans for ever dipping your GPA so low again, i think the adcom will understand. just focus on conveying who you are, and not who you think that adcom wants to see. be honest, be yourself :) thats the best advice i can give. </p>
<p>anyways, ky9742, we're not this mean - we're just on the edge. We do hear back in five days!</p>
<p>Being asian puts you at a disadvantage. Honestly, I can say that although you probably look fantastic on paper, but almost everyone else has the same as you. Like me. I also play the violin, I'm an Asian female, editor in chief of lit mag like you, decent sats, president of a couple clubs, founded some too... You should know by now that you can't change your resume. It's ****ing senior year! Chances threads don't help you. Would you honestly change your mind and not apply to Penn if a couple of strangers online told you not to? Please. Spare yourself the time and humiliation.</p>
<p>yeah OP, forgive them their snarkiness. we're just freaking out about our own decisions.
i suggest you find something (ANYthing) to set u apart from the millions of asian female violin players out there. once you do that, youll be fine.
and we have no idea abt ur chances. we wish we did but then we wudnt be spazzing abt college like this ourselves, now would we?</p>
<p>1/2 the applicants who got accepted last year had a 700 or higher on each SAT section. 1/2 the class had lower. This is fact. So quit worrying about stats</p>
<p>The 1/2 that had lower would include recruited athletes, URMs, children of major donors, etc. If you broke it down to say Asian girls that were below 700, I doubt you'd find many.</p>
<p>The problem is not that the OP's scores or grades are too low. They ain't, even though she ohmigod slipped and didn't get all A+s in every single class as she is feeling (totally unnecessarily) guilty about right now. Her scores are plenty good enough and if she gets rejected it won't be because she had a 3.7 and they would have taken her if it were a 3.9. In fact she probably should have spent less time studying. And not filled up that extra time with more violin practice. Shown some kind of rebellious spirit that didn't fit so well to the stereotype - be a rapper instead of a violin player. It seems wrong that you should be punished for being too good, but right now there are tons of applicants with the same identical profile and they can't take all of them - they don't want to fill up the whole class with Asian girls with 800 math scores who play the violin.</p>
<p>An orchestra is a good analogy - you can't have an orchestra with only violin players. So what ends up happening is that if you have 40 auditioning for 10 violin seats 30 will be rejected even if they are all good violin players. But if only 1 person shows up for tuba, that person will get in even if they are not great. That explains how you can get rejected with 2350 when other people get in with 2100. </p>
<p>So how do they pick between the OP and the 5 other Asian girls who have the same profile? Not on grades or scores - at some point it becomes clear that someone would get good grades if they went to Penn and the OP passed that point a long time ago. So how can they pick? To some extent it is random- they have to take a certain % of high scorers just to keep their numbers up and if Penn doesn't take her the odds are some other top school will. But they are looking for something that doesn't show on a score - leadership ability (whatever that means) , a hint of future greatness, a sob story about overcoming hardship, some "hook" that will put her over the top. I think the OP realizes that she doesn't really seem to have that special hook so she's just gonna have to take her chances (which are pretty good anyway). She'll know in a few days.</p>