<p>No. Indian-American is a form of Asian American, which is an ORM (Overrepresented Minority). Essentially, the bar is a bit higher for you to get in. URM’s are just Native Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics.</p>
<p>oh. crap. No, Iam not Native American, or AA, or Latino. </p>
<p>But here are my current weak points:</p>
<p>GPA- Absolutely KILLING ME right now! I need to raise this to at least a 3.5, maybe summer school and take some classes I have never taken?</p>
<p>ACT- This will be fixed this Saturday, I have taken practice tests and have been getting 34’s so I should get a 34-35 hopefully. </p>
<p>Strong Points:</p>
<p>Classes Taken- I have taken nothing but AP and Honors since Freshman Year so that should help.</p>
<p>EC- I have rather strong EC’s I would like to think, plus I have interships lined up for later this year, but not sure if that affects my EC or not…</p>
<p>Interview- Now, If I can get an interview I could explain my GPA dilemma…</p>
<p>College GPA- 4.0 from 2 colleges should count for something and I have something like 10-15 credit hours.</p>
<p>quick question, where do I find the wharton easy prompt? is it the why wharton I see on google?</p>
<p>There’s no why wharton, there’s why Penn.</p>
<p>You are an over represented minority, meaning it’s harder for you to get in.</p>
<p>I don’t know what list you’re looking at but UNO and Creighton are not top 20 b schools.</p>
<p>UVA and Notre Dame are not safeties for anyone.</p>
<p>Interviews at Penn are purely informational, they have a very slight impact on admissions and would not be the appropriate time for you to explain your sub par grades.</p>
<p>96% of Penn’s student body was in the top 10% of their high school class. Top 15% probably won’t cut it.</p>
<p>You have a lot to learn, buddy.</p>
<p>Wait, you have a 3.5 WEIGHTED and are Indian American (aka, Overrepresented Minority)? Unless you have an amazing Extra Curricular (which I have yet to see–ex. National Champion in __<strong><em>, State Champion in </em></strong>) and some sort of incredibly unique essay, I sincerely doubt you are getting in. I know you won some team awards, but the key is INDIVIDUAL awards----that way college admissions knows who to give the credit to. Of course, if you’re the MVP or State Defense Champion winner of Volleyball or something (ex. won a solo award on a team), that is fine. </p>
<p>Remember that the bar is set higher for Asian Americans as a whole. That means, a 34/35 ACT is just average, not spectacular. Asian American applicants are expected to have higher GPAs (weighted AND unweighted), higher scores, even more unique essays, and top of the notch letters of recommendations and extra-curriculars. Essentially, everything’s got to be stellar (with maybe 1 or 2 SMALL bumps in the road—ex. 1 B). I’m not trying to be harsh, but getting into any Ivy League school is more competitive then EVER before. </p>
<p>dfree124’s “You have a lot to learn, buddy.” is the most acute statement.</p>
<p>I don’t see the need to be so condescending. Yes this poster may not have the gpa to get into Penn, but even applicants who do have higher gpas probably won’t get in. That’s just how it is. You shouldn’t take it personally though. Just because you have a lower gpa and have not done as many things doesn’t mean you don’t have potential. Take everything as an opportunity to learn and don’t give up. You will eventually have success if you are resilient and persist regardless of what others think.
Really there is no need to rip this person to shreds. People at Penn are for the most part very down to earth and addressing someone in this manner will not make you popular here.</p>
<p>I won individual STATEWIDE and NATIONWIDE 6 years in a row. Team wise, we got podium finishes (2nd and 3rd) when I was a member, and 1st NATIONWIDE the last 4 years when I was leading. we also won state the last 6 years too.</p>
<p>That is probably my greatest EC.</p>
<p>I have a 3.3 U/W and a 3.4 W. My last semester I got a 3.5 U/W and a 4.0 W. Iam not even taking Weighting into consideration. That is why I listed 3.3 U/W.</p>
<p>I would say that my EC’s are pretty strong, my GPA is weak, my essay WILL NEED to be kickass, and letters of recon will also need to be VERY STRONG. </p>
<p>Iam just thinking who would be best for my letters… Any ideas? internship managers? principal?</p>
<p>No, no. I need to ripped to shreds to make sure I can patch up what I got to do.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You’re not being very clear. What did you win? </p>
<p>Regardless, you will not be admitted unless Penn thinks you can handle the work.</p>
<p>Well, every year Marketwatch has nationwide VSE event. (Virtual Stock Exchange). Its similar to SIFMA, but they have individual rankings as well. Anyways, All the winner were invited to Kansas City by the Fed, met the current chairman of the fed as well the secretary of treasury, and random members of congress.</p>
<p>School teams got plaques, individual winners got $10,000 Scholarships(over course of 4 years). So $2500 per college year.</p>
<p>Ah, congrats on your achievement. While that does look very good, it’s not necessarily as prestigious as some other national competitions such as the science olympiad, intel, AIME, etc.</p>
<p>Science Olympiad State Champion in 8th Grade, qualified for 7th but did not attend due to family reasons.</p>
<p>Another club I was in middle school was Wits Clash. Basically a general knowledge trivia competition scored 81,XXX points. Won State and podium finish in nationals, I might have the certificate somewhere, I will have to go dig around. I just found out one of my high school alumni, (2 years older than me). He destroyed me in Wits Clash both years he participated, but anyways, I found out he attends Harvard Business School. Apparently he had a 3.8 GPA and a 33 on ACT and got in from his essay and ECs. I remember him winning some school journalism award, he was a great writer, said he would help out with the essay part. Should come in handy. 
</p>
<p>BTW I was browsing Penn’s stats and the 75th percentile is a 34? so the top 25% students have a 34 or higher, correct? I have my ACT in 2 days and Iam looking to get a 34+, if not retry in April and this time, study my ass off. I also just signed up for the SAT in March and will signup for SAT Subjects. Any particular subjects I should take?</p>
<p>hey dfree,</p>
<p>do you got to penn or something? i’ve seen you comment on a majority of the threads on here. Anyways, how reliable is the stats profile? I see a lot of will apply… and I saw a rejected from someone with a 3.99 GPA and decent SAT scores?</p>
<p>I don’t attend but I consider myself to be somewhat knowledgable of Penn’s admissions. The stats profile is completely true. That said, many kids with stats that fit, and exceed the stats on the stats profile are rejected each year due to the sheer competitiveness of Penn admissions. Penn and other schools like it pride themselves on the fact that they reject valedictorians with great scores. Make sure you take Math II, then you can take 2 more subject tests of your choice.</p>
<p>Also, no one 2 years older than you (assuming 2 grades higher) can be in HBS. HBS is a graduate school, so you would need to complete 4 years of college first.</p>
<p>No not the guy that is 2 years older than me BUT his brother. Sorry if that came off the wrong way. Anthony (2 years older than me) is attending NYU Stern. His older brother finished at some college and he worked for Goldmans Sachs as an analyst/associate and went back for his masters at HBS.</p>
<p>“Really there is no need to rip this person to shreds. People at Penn are for the most part very down to earth and addressing someone in this manner will not make you popular here.” Poeme, I am not trying to attack him at all. I just want to make sure mokarney is aware of the incredibly competitive nature of Penn (and Ivy League) admissions.</p>
<p>Mokarney: Winning the national championship/statewide honors is VERY VERY good. Those items will have Penn Admissions (as well as other admissions) saying “Wow, this kid may be someone we want here at Penn!”. I’m just REALLY concerned about your GPA. Unless you have some sort of really good explanation (ex. Death in the family, unforeseen tragedy, etc.) of why it is so low, you may be out of luck. Best of luck to you; I am always willing to provide honest feedback (good and back) if you want it!</p>
<p>Just got my SAT scores from Dec 2011. I got a 800 on Math, 780 in Writing and a 790 in Reading. Total of 2370. That probably will help, right?</p>
<p>@mokarney: Now THAT is what I am talking about! That high score is what is expected of Asian American applicants (somewhat unfortunately, to be honest. I don’t think race should be used in admissions; rather, socioeconomic status (those who are disadvantaged economically deserve a leg up in admissions, as they have truly worked for it)). Very good!</p>
<p>Doesn’t matter once you get to 95th percentile. But good job. And don’t get hung up on the Asian/Asian-American stereotype, the college I teach at (not Penn) has a lot of Indians who fail and some Chinese too. Somehow people think that grades in HS don’t reflect ability to perform in college.</p>
<p>It matters more if you do sports, have several good (4 or 5) AP scores, and show leadership (school paper, camp counselor). A pure academic, especially if there are not many extracurriculars outside of math and science, may be rejected from Penn even if their academic stats put them in the top 5% academically. And frankly, the pure brainiacs would be happier at Princeton or MIT, both very theoretical compared to Penn.</p>
<p>Well, Iam in the top 25% for high school but Iam in the 10% percentile at UNO (University of Nebraska) and at Creighton University. Iam really not hing up on the stereotype at all since unless you asked me what my race was, you could not tell the difference, plus, when I was applying for my academy, I had a 3.0 GPA compared to straight 4.0’s yet I beat them out for 1 out of 13 spots against about 800-1000 students… mainly from my standardized test scores and extracurriculars and my course selections.</p>