<p>I am a female international student (U.S citizen though) that is interested in applying to Wharton next year.</p>
<p>The thing that worries me the most are my extracurriculars as i don't think they are strong by any means which is due to several factors. Such as the fact that i am a female student living in Saudi Arabia. This is a great disadvantage on my part as it vastly limits my opportunities out of school. And of the activities my school does offer there are no leadership roles in them (I attend a british school). The only leadership roles available to us are senior prefects, student council reps and house reps (Not my age group).</p>
<p>Will college take these factors in to condition when they are reviewing my application or will i get penalized for them? </p>
<p>My extracurriculars are as follows: </p>
<p>-2-4 years Basketball (1-2 year SAIKAC- National competition)
-2 Years senior prefect (Highest leader ship role you can achieve at my school for my Year group)
-Model UN (1-2 year)
-National Honor Society (will try for Leadership role)
-Volunteering (At Disabled Centre) - will aim for 100+ hours
-Work Experience (IDB a bank) - As i'd like to major in Finance/Accounting (I will shadow a chartered accountant for 1-2 weeks)
-Internship (Art)
-School Magazine (Editor in chief for 1 year), Contributor for 2 years
-Art Competition ( 5th place in a regional competition)</p>
<p>Given that you’re a female in Saudi, I don’t think they’re bad at all; they’re not going to be expecting you to be playing club soccer because that opportunity just doesn’t exist at least for women. Also I’d imagine a British school has something to do with this as well – as I find that all non-U.S. schools are more focused on grades/academics rather than ECs, though maybe that isn’t true.</p>
<p>Are there other EC opportunities available that you haven’t taken and what are they? If you’re reasonably confident that you’ve taken most opportunities afforded to you, you or your college counselor or ideally both – can speak to that in the application. It would be great if your college counselor could truthfully say that you have involved yourself and taken every leadership shot you could and these are just the options at your school and there isn’t too much more in the community. If he/she can’t/won’t say it – you can speak to it in a supplemental submission.</p>
<p>@aj725 I go to a British school and a lot of value is placed in ECs as means of developing new skills, relaxing and socializing. That being said, those ECs don’t matter much to UK universities unless they are related to your course.</p>
<p>Going back to the main question though, I agree. It would be unfair for Penn to penalize you for a lack of opportunities and I think that Penn as a school is capable of factoring it in when the adcom reviews you. Would your school let you start a club? It’s a very common occurrence in my school for most of our ECs are student generated and led and some of them even develop to major components of school life. My friend for example initiated a Red Cross Youth Council in my school and it developed from doing volunteer work to organizing the events themselves (blood drives, packing relief goods, etc.) It may be different in your school but there’s no harm in trying. Generally speaking, I think Penn looks for more than just involvement in an EC- your dedication and passion for it has to come across and that doesn’t necessarily mean just doing it for a long time.</p>