I have worked very hard at school my entire life. I know that my freshman year average is pretty low for Ivy League schools with my GPA at a 3.72. I transferred from a competitive public school in Pennsylvania to a VERY competitive private catholic school in Pennsylvania. My first semester I took Spanish and earned an A at the public school and I earned an A in Chinese for my second semester at the private. Unfortunately I have taken no honors courses for my freshman year, but luckily will be taking Chinese 2 Honors (asked the teacher to start the course), Algebra 2 Honors, Honors Bio, English Honors, and AP World History. I have legacy at Penn, and was featured many times as a child in the Penn Gazette as a child with my face painted for football games. I want to apply Early Decision as it has been my dream since a VERY early age. I am going to do Cross Country next year and plan to do it for the remaining three years of my high school career. I also want to pick up the trumpet. I want to be an orthopedic surgeon when I grow so I am planning on doing around 100 volunteer hours at a local hospital. Next summer I am going to be doing the BioMedical Research Camp at Penn. I also will be doing a 4 Week Medical Camp at Stanford. I also have 25 service hours for my freshman year, and 50 hours from a summer service trip to Puerto Rico in 8th grade, and a trip to Costa Rica for service in 7th grade. I go to a nursing home during the school year and play bingo with the nuns that are there. I also go to a after school program in a less fortunate area than us. I believe very strongly in service and giving back. I believe the acceptance rate for ED Legacy is really high and understand the opportunity I am presented with. I understand that Penn is a reach for anyone and that I also have no standardized tests, but I just want to know where you guys think I stand. Really appreciate the help and have a great day!
if it your dream school, you will regret not giving yourself the best possibility to get in.
I think that in the vast majority of cases students come up with an idea what their “dream” school is without fully understand or considering what it would be like to be a student at that school, versus being student at other different schools.
I would encourage you to continue to work hard in school and do as well as you can. I would also encourage you to consider a wide range of universities and colleges, and to think about what you want in a school. Do you want a big school or a small school? Do you want a school which is going to require you to do 40 hours a week of homework after spending time in classes? What do you want to study? What can you and your parents afford? How far from home do you want to be? Also, if you want to seriously consider graduate school or medical school then when the time comes you should try to find an undergraduate program which you can graduate from without any debt.
There are thousands of universities and colleges in the US. Please seriously consider a range of schools. If you keep working hard in school then you can find a good fit for you. Whether it will be at Penn is probably not possible to know at this point.
Agree completely with @DadTwoGirls. The students I have seen most hurt in the college admission process are ones who pin their hopes on one hyper-competitive “dream school.” These schools, including Penn, have acceptance rates well under 10% and must be viewed as reaches. Applying ED with legacy increases the odds a bit for sure, but you absolutely cannot count on an acceptance. I saw an article a while back that said about 40% of legacy ED applicants were accepted. BUT that still means that more than half of this group, which I imagine is highly self-selected, will get in. http://www.thedp.com/article/2015/11/editorial-early-decision-shouldnt-be-the-only-decision
It is great to work hard, do your best, and aim high. Certainly give Penn a shot ED. But at the same time you need to open your horizons and recognize that there are tons of amazing colleges and universities out there that can give you an amazing 4 year experience and get you where you want to go in life.
FWIW I went to Penn and loved it, but neither of my kids even applied – and they both ended up at their perfect college.