<p>How would you rank these items based on what Penn considers more or less important while admitting students?</p>
<li>GPA</li>
<li>Rank</li>
<li>Course Rigor</li>
<li>Extracurriculars</li>
<li>Essays</li>
<li>Recommendation Letters</li>
<li>Ethnicity/Race (I’m Indian. Woo.)</li>
<li>“well-roundedness” v. being really good at one particular thing</li>
<li>Leadership & Dedication</li>
<li>Early Decision v. Regular Decision</li>
</ol>
<p>Most colleges (including brown and dartmouth as you posted this on their forums too) are similar in that GPA/rank are one of the first things looked at. ECs usually come next. Then the rest are mashed together to complete the application. Essays have less importance than you think because colleges know its easy to cheat those. </p>
<p>I’d say race might actually come first and being Indian isn’t going to help you. You also forgot athlete status and legacy status.</p>
<p>ED is pretty big at Penn.</p>
<p>dang, race is that big of a deal? I don’t think Upenn has a cut off GPA or anything, right?</p>
<p>If you search around, you can find the Common Data Set for Penn which lists how important certain factors are in admissions.</p>
<p>how come standardized tests is conspicuously absent from that list</p>
<p>because I’m absent minded and completely forgot to put them on there.</p>
<p>The way I think of standardized tests is that they are just qualifiers. This is just a theory of mine based on what I have seen, but I think that it is more important what range you score in than your score itself. So even if you get a 2400 or 36 you may not receive special consideration for perfect scores, but you will be in the top range. I guess the SAT used to be an equalizer because it helped compare kids from different schools, but I think that while it does require some inate ability, much of it is just knowing how to take a test. These are just my thoughts.</p>
<p>God, I hope you are right.</p>
<p>hey, i will be going to a rather well known international IB school come this August, and im really interested in Penn,specifically Wharton…Problem with it is that the school while being rather prestigious doesnt really offer much opportunities to really display your passion for things like finance…will that affect you? yet, Penn recruits yearly on the school…</p>
<p>You don’t need to show any specific passion for finance or business. Think more broadly like leadership qualities and determination.</p>