Do you think this Moroccan stands a chance to get into UPenn?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

UPenn is definitely my top choice, and I am willing to apply early decision, but I think my GPA is my huge weakness.

So I am Moroccan, never spoken a word in english before 9th grade, and for that matter, I received a 3.4 in freshman year
Now I’m a senior, have a cumulative GPA of 3.61. When you look at my transcript, it’s clear that I’ve been improving over the years (I got 3.95 in my junior year) (Everything is unweighted). Though my schools offers one AP class, which I took, and got a 92/100 which is an A-. My Math grades never went below 99. It’s clear that my school is not challenging us, which will work against me I believe.

I took the SAT once, and got a 1400; 780 in math, and 620 in english. I’m giving it a second shot on October, and I’m aiming to increase my english score to 670.

I think that my strongest point is my job at a textile company. Here is what I put on my resume concerning this job:

Part-time Manager at Textile Mohamed Fil S.A.R.L (Late 2013-Present)

  • Created www.mohamedfil.com to facilitate stock management, easily record clients’
    commands and transactions (2016)
  • Redesigned the Business Process (2014)
  • Incorperated modern technology to increase efficiency (Security camercas,
    Inventory management software
  • These efforts helped recover from debt, and become a top-performing
    company, presumably known as the 3rd largest textile company in Morocco

In terms of EC, I was elected as tennis team captain by my coach and 30+ players, i was setting goals for my team, motivating them, and that resulted into winning two consecutive national tennis championships (2014-2015), i founded “WEBCLUB” and taught over 30 students over my junior year HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, and MySQL. Elected team captain of my debate club, won more than 15 national debate tournaments, qualified to go to nationals twice in a row to represent my country, qualified to go participate in two international tournaments in london, in which i ended up winning both tournaments. I started off as a member of a community service club, as I was continuously offering innovative solutions to improve the performance of the club, i ended up being elected secretary, and then vice president. talking about community service, in addition to the 100+ hours of helping my community, i also was visiting a specific orphanage every two weeks for more about 2 hours, i would have fun with the kids, i usually brought them surprises, and then we get to have lunch together.

we have this thing called amicitia honors society, which is identical to NHS, i’ve been part of that since its establishment in my junior year

Thank you guys for reading over my details, and I would like to thank you in advance for your opinion.

Thank you once again

2

I think you do! You are a very Wharton material, with practical business experience at your hand!

Especially the stocks part is actually quite cool!

Try to score in 1500s though for SAT

But good luck,

3

Are you a US citizen or a Permanent resident? If not, then your already poor odds (despite what high schooler @AreebaKausar1 says) become worse as international applicants are in the most competitive pool. Beyond this your GPA makes you a huge risk for a school as competitive as Penn. That being said, apply but expect rejection. You have achieved a lot and will have great options for college if you apply widely. Good luck.

(And you should not post the same question three separate times in 3 separate posts)

4

@AreebaKausar1 @T26E4 Thank you both for the thoughtful comments.

I sure will try my best in October to improve my SAT scores

I think it’s a good GPA, considering my first year learning english was in 9th grade. Do you think it’s worth dedicating the personal statement to address this experience so that I can strengthen my chances

I think that my strongest point is my business experience, which sets me apart/
Do you have any other advice for me to improve my chances?

5

The problem is that MANY applicants will have better than a “good” GPA.

6

@MaineLonghorn

You’re right, so should I dedicated my personal statement to address my low GPA?

7

You can try, but I think you should aim for more realistic schools.

8

I’m just a high school senior myself but I know for A FACT that that’s probably the worst thing you could do. You’re personal statement is not meant to be filled with “excuses”, it’s meant to say something meaningful about you!

9

What about this?
In my college essay, I will talk about my business experience. Maybe after they go through my info, that COULD leave a footprint, which could POSSIBLY influence the outcome. What do you think?

10

You should talk about a new aspect of yourself that they won’t be able to know by looking at other parts of your application. You don’t want to come off as one dimensional.

11

Business experience is not essential to Wharton. They rejected many students with very successfully business experience. On the other hand, many students with no B experience were accepted.