Hello College Confidential Community,
As this is my first post and the website is still relatively new, I apologize if I am posting the discussion in the wrong section. I was born in Latin America, although I come from an asian family, and I am currently enrolled in one of the most prestigious schools in Latin America. I am also a junior and International Baccalaureate diploma contestant. I would like to ask what are my chances to get into Wharton, UPenn, as well as what I, as an international student, could do to better such chances.
My GPA is as follows:
9th grade: 92
10th grade: 92
11th grade (current): 97
(Listed in Honor Roll Awards as Alpha for all three years)
(Contestant for three different diploma’s simultaneously)
My current classes include:
IB HL English Language and Literature
IB HL Economics
IB HL *** Language
IB SL Mathematics
IB SL Biology
IB Theory of Knowledge
IB *** Social Studies
Multimedia and the Art of Film
Digital Music Composition
Extracurricalars:
Leader and Founder of local investment club
Leader and Founder of local programming club
Leader of entrepreneural club
Group leader for sucessful national NGO
Leader in alumni leadership programmer
Member of community service used to build and paint houses for the less fortunate
Leader, Chair, and award winning of highschool MUN
Leader and Chair of middleschool MUN
Varsity Volleyball player
Member of Global Issues Network
I plan on taking the SAT this May, and received a prospective 2000. I am currently taking lessons, however, to make the 2000 score go to at least 2200, and hopefully 2300. I understand my grades are not magnificent, especially considering my freshmen and sophmore year. I am, however, continuosly aiming towards increasing my grade. As college applications are approaching, I would like to ask what I could do better my chances of getting accepted to Wharton. What are my current chances? Considering I am an international student, there aren’t many national awards or competitions I could participate in my country, as opposed to American applicants that seem to have several awards in their hands. Have any of you encountered this obstacle before? It seems too that many applicants have created their own companies in highschool. Would doing that help my chances? Please keep in mind that entrepreneurship has always been my passion, and Wharton my goal. Also, what is Wharton’s perspective in regards to international students?
Thank you all so much for taking your time to read this and for trying to help. It really means a lot.
Thanks,
A confused, misguided, and ambitious highschool student.
Wharton is the most competitive undergraduate bus. school
Your GPA is not competitive enough, even less your SAT
Your ECs are fairly generic even considering you are an international student. Lots of prospective business major students do their own businesses or launch their enterprise.
Can you pay 60k+ per year by the way?
If you don’t need scholarship, I would recommend Indiana University-Bloomington, UT Austin, UCLA, NYU, University of Alabama, Babson College or Bentley University. These schools have good business program. Unfortunately, your credentials are not enough for top schools at all.
I think that your credentials seem pretty great! However, 2000 on the SAT won’t cut it- I’d recommend getting 2150. Of course, it’s hard because it’s an Ivy League, but your ECs seem pretty good to me (leader of NGO, founder of clubs: all this seems great because it shows leadership potential) and you have branched out a bit as well which shows. I think as long as your essays are decent and you have a high SAT score, you should be a competitive applicant (try the ACT as well, it’s a lot more scoring for some students). Good luck!
Now, make a reasonable list of colleges - Babson, Bentley, Bryant, McKenna, Stern, Ross (UMichigan), Smeal (Penn State), Northeastern, UMaryland, Tulane, Minnesota Carlson, Cal Poly SLO Orfalea…
The above includes reaches, matches, and safeties.
@MYOS1634 I’m not sure that Penn State would be a good choice for the OP seeing as though he/she is an international student (unless he/she does not need aid).
@TheKode Don’t worry about not having many national awards/competitions. I too initially had this concern as my country didn’t have any olympiads, or major science fairs, etc. You should note however, that there are only 5 slots for awards/honors on the commonapp. And this may be anecdotal, but I have a friend who got into Stanford with what I believe was just 1 national award last year. Remember, you’re competing first and foremost with your fellow countrymen, so you need to find a way to prove that you are one of the best in the nation. If your country does not have many competitions, then you would neither be be penalized nor disadvantaged for not having many awards/competition titles. Remember, several of the top schools have admissions representatives for several regions of the world where it is their job to know about the various systems in the countries that applicants hail from. Thus, they know what kind of opportunities are available to you and what to expect from a competitive applicant from your country/region. So they wouldn’t be comparing you to someone from Massachusetts or New York, for example, because they know that each set of students has different resources available to them.
That being said, your profile does look competitive thus far, as suggested just try to get your SAT score to 2100+ (preferably with a 700 in each category) so that your scores can fall within the middle 50% of the schools you are applying to. Good luck!
