<p>My son is very interested in Penn's premed program. Here is his profile:
Academics: ACT 33 (M:36/35, E: 34/29, S: 35/34, R: 28/35) super score 35
GPA: 4.31
SAT II Math 800 Bio 790
Junior courses: AP Bio, AP EnvSci, AP Psych, AP Lit.
Hon. Math and Hon. Spanish. All As
Senior courses: AP Stats, AP CalcBC, AP Chem, AP Spanish
and another AP( but forgot the name)
Other than some school tutoring on math and Spanish plus some weekend volunteering work at the local food pantry. Most of his spare time is spent on club and varsity swimming. Made the state final as junior. likely will make junior national next season but it might be too late for consideration. Nor sure whether he can be recruited by Penn as a swimmer given his current best times. Does he stand a chance for regular decision or the only way is to go for ED? Thanks.</p>
<p>I made it RD with very similar stats. He stands a chance with RD but if he really wants in he should apply ED. Much better chance there.</p>
<p>@thej0ker that is certainly very encouraging. I am wondering whether the GPA is looked at along with the high school by the AOs. The large public school he goes to is considered good in our midwest state but not exactly Ivy feeder school. Normally around 1% of the graduate go to east coast Ivies. Naviance data shows that past admitted students from the school typically have higher GPAs.</p>
<p>In that case a lot will also depend on how competitive his high school class is. A given Ivy will tend not to accept more than one from the class. Is he top of his class? Is he a URM? And if not, is there anyone else near top of the class who is a URM and is applying to Penn? I know it sounds kind of rotten to think of it this way, but it really is the reality of it.</p>
<p>@thej0ker, the high school abandon the ranking system a few years back. Out of the class of 700-800 students I am pretty sure he is not within the top 1%. Nor is he URM, on contrary it is more like ORM for being an Asian male in the eyes of AOs. I know odds are probably against him in many aspects.</p>
<p>Early decision would be his best bet if he is certain that is where he wants to go and you are willing to pay the $$ or feel confident about aid. I think it is very true that the most important information is how well known the HS is so they can gauge whether the curriculum is sufficiently rigorous and how your son stacks up to others from his region. How many apply from his school? As the parent of a URM student in a high minority area, I think that it really seems more school/region dependent. A high performing URM in the context of our HS is nothing special so URM status does not seem to give a boost here. I actually think that my D’s committment to volunteer work and expressed interest in the “civic ivy” was what set her apart from the probable 12 or so applicants from her HS, including other high performing URM students. I think URM status helps far more at large state schools where they are underrepresented. Penn claims over 50% of students are ethnic/racial minorities, including student who self identify as asian.</p>
<p>Based on my personal experience (as far as my high school class’ admissions went) as well as data from studies on the matter, URM status also plays a very good amount of influence on Ivy League admissions. However, I do agree that its effect is lessened when attending a school with many URMs (though I would hate to be an ORM applying from there, haha). Bottom line is I would recommend applying ED.</p>
<p>Cliffhanger your son’s school sounds very much like my son’s. He will be a freshman at Wharton this year. We are also at a midwest public high school (north of Chicago) where about 1-3% of the class go east coast and around 1% go to the ivys. The question I had about your son is where does he stand relative to the other kids in his class and how does his academic rigour compare to the best kids at the school? IS his 4.31 on a 4 point scale with additional scores for honors/APs? What GPA do the top kids have? We estimate that my son was in the top 3% of his class (our school also eliminated rank). We think that the academic rigour of his class schedule was an important factor in his getting admitted. HIs board scores also were similar to your sons.</p>