<p>I am a senior this year and am curious about some things. I know UPenn says that 94% of their accepted undergrads are in the the top 10% of their class and that 99% are in the top 20%. My gpa is currently 4.74 out of a 5.00 weighted scale (probably around 4.8-4.9 on an un-weighted scale). What bothers me is that I feel like this is a very competitive gpa. Despite this feeling my ranking is 66 out of a class of about 300. Does this mean that my school hands out A's, or is my particular class just really smart...? or maybe my grades are just not good.</p>
<p>My freshman year was the worst for me. I took two regular (non-honors) classes and got a B+ in one of them (A in the other), while getting a B in an honors course (the rest were all honors and I got A's). Sophomore year I took all honors and got A's except one B+. Finally my junior year I took 3 AP courses and 3 honors course and got A's in everything. </p>
<p>With my rank being that terrible, will Penn even look at me? SAT is 2080, I'm going to apply ED to SEAS, and I'm also a legacy.</p>
<p>I took AP Calc BC, AP Physics, and AP Statistics in my junior year.</p>
<p>Senior Year Course load is AP Gov, AP French, AP Economics, and AP Physics Electromagnetism. (everything else is honors)</p>
<p>It’s quite likely that 20+ students in your class are clustered very close together at 4.8-4.9 (unweighed). If so your rank is not as bad as it may sound. Best is to check out the stats of past graduates from your school who were accepted at Penn on Naviance.</p>
<p>Your SAT however may be an issue. It’s at the low end of accepted students. You should retake in October with the goal of bringing it up to the median of accepted students.</p>
<p>Thanks a bunch for the feedback. I actually just realized that my school does not show rank on the transcript so I’m not too worried. </p>
<p>However I am very precautious and worried about taking the SAT once again. I dont have good confidence that I can get it up anymore. Worse of all if I do worse, I’m afraid Penn will question how valid the 2080 was. Do you think my score is actually that bad? It’s about 50-60 points away from the median, I believe. </p>
<p>Also the average ED SAT score from an accepted student from my school to Penn is 2030. </p>
<p>Do you know exactly how much the legacy status helps?</p>
<p>Thanks again for your advice. Really appreciate it.</p>
<p>Legacy clearly helps. 2080 is a low score for Penn. Retake the test. Second guessing Penn’s admissions about how they would view the “validity” of one score over another is counter productive. They, and other colleges, will look with interest at all your scores. That some student in the past got in with a lower score than yours doesn’t really change anything. That student may have had stellar leadership/athletic/music etc. skills. Moreover Penn is becoming increasingly competitive from year to year. Take every opportunity you can to strengthen your application.</p>
<p>Oh sorry about the ambiguity, but I meant that according to Naviance, the average SAT of ALL ED accepted students into Penn since 2008 was 2030, which is strangely low in my opinion. </p>
<p>Aside from that I pretty much agree with you. Thanks for the time.</p>
<p>Penn has become increasingly selective from year to year, and as it has the average test scores of accepted candidates has increased significantly since 2008.</p>
<p>Your gpa and rank are very important factors in admissions. I don’t understand how your unweighted average is higher than your weighted.</p>
<p>Legacy helps but with admissions being as competitive as it is these days, it isn’t what it used to be. You have to be a very competitive applicant to begin with and then being a legacy will tip the scales slightly in your favor. You should double check about your class rank because it doesn’t seem right. Getting 2 B+'s and a B in three years of high school taking mostly honors and AP courses should not result in a ranking of 66 out of 300.</p>
<p>I agree that you should consider retaking the SAT I. Without knowing your SAT II’s and EC’s and just knowing your class rank and SAT I, I would say that you should have a solid back-up plan if you decide to apply to UPenn early. Best of luck, hope you get in!</p>
<p>Actually I made a typo. My unweighted gpa would be around 3.8-3.9, not 4.8-4.9, sorry for the confusion. As for my rank, I already double checked and it is right, so I’m not sure what to say. It’s alright though because I don’t think my school actually reports ranks.</p>
<p>I was one of the “dummies” when Penn was advertising that “90% of our incoming freshman were in the top 10% of their class*” where the * meant “excluding the football team”.</p>
<p>I was just below top 10%, but they listed # rank out of total number, so anyone with half a brain could see I was in the top 12%…</p>
<p>FWIW, my son’s class rank is terrible. Something like 30th percentile for kids with 4.0 GPA weighted. They give an extra 0.3 points for regular classes, so the class rank is messed up in favor of kids not taking honors or AP classes, plus no double-bump for AP classes. There are multiple students with 4.3 weighted GPAs in his school who never took one honors class.</p>
<p>Penn does superscore, so I would not worry about them throwing out your app if you retake and do worse.</p>
<p>Also, you don’t mention ECs, which matter a LOT for Penn more than most Ivies.</p>