Do I have what it takes to get into Penn?

<p>I visited Penn last week and it's officially my number one college. I want to be an orthropedic spine surgeon on the future and need to go to a great school. </p>

<p>Grades:
I've had a 4.0 weighted GPA since freshman year.
I'm ranked at number 14 out of 276.
I've taken as many honors classes as my school has offered. I'm taking all honors and one AP class this coming year.
I will be taking the SAT this year but on the PSAT I received about an 1800 without studying. </p>

<p>EC:
Track and field for one year so far
Member of the Beta Omega chapter of the National Honor Society
Key club
Academy of Finance
Environmental Club
French Club
Life is Good Club
Played piano since I was 7 years old.
Piano teacher for the past year </p>

<p>I wasn't planning on applying until the beginning of senior year. Do I have what it takes?</p>

<p>well you will need WAY above an 1800 for upenn. like you will need atleast a 2200 to be somewhere in the middle of the pack. 1800 won’t cut it. GPA is phenomenal and decent ecs. you will need killer essays and you should be a pretty good candidate. It’s a crap-shoot as they say but at least you would definitely have a shot.</p>

<p>What is your unweighted GPA?</p>

<p>Thank you! Yeah I’ve been studying a lot lately for the SATs. Hopefully I can end up with at least a 2000</p>

<p>oh wait, i thought it was unweighted… nevermind then lol</p>

<p>Unweighted is around a 4.1 or 4.2</p>

<p>but you still have a shot! just work hard senior year</p>

<p>how can your unweighted be higher than your weighted?//</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

<p>Wait sorry I’m confused about the whole weighted/unweighted thing lol</p>

<p>I am sort of confused, what is the grading scale your school uses?</p>

<p>Unweighted is your GPA without additional weight or points for AP and honors classes, weighted has those factored in. For example I have a 3.8 unweighted, but I take a lot of honors/AP classes so my weighted is 4.4. Does this help?</p>

<p>My school does not actually base it on a 4.0 scale. I had to convert the weighted GPA they gave me into what it is on the scale. They don’t tell me what my unweighted GPA is…</p>

<p>Can you give us the scale your school uses (one of us might be able to convert it more accurately)? Also do you take a lot of honors and AP classes and if so do you know how they are weighted?</p>

<p>Yes, thank you. However I’m not sure what my unweighted GPA is. I will have to find that out.</p>

<p>At my school a 93-100 is considered an A. Each honors class gets an extra 7 points which is added to your class rank. Without the extra points my GPA for last year was a 98.5 which I believe would be a 4.0? I’m sorry if I’m confusing you guys…</p>

<p>Assuming they recognize that conversion (which I see no reason why they would not) yes you would have a 4.0 for the year. What was your grades freshman year?</p>

<p>I ended the year with an average of like a 96.2 I believe. My weighted for both years is a 96.5.</p>

<p>How is your weighted lower then your unweighted for one year and so close the other year (I am sorry your grade system is sort of weird)?</p>

<p>No, I’m sorry lol. I got it down now. So for freshman year my unweighted was a 96.2 but my weighted was a 95.6. For sophomore year my unweighted was a 98.5 this causing my weighted to go up to a 96.5. Does that make sense?</p>