How was I not at least deferred (at Wharton)?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>So, I got rejected at Wharton ED today, and I was ****ED!!!</p>

<p>-GA resident, male
-Ethnicity: mixed Hispanic (Spanish) and Asian (Filipino)
-UW GPA: 3.94ish
-Weighted GPA: 4.14
-school doesn't rank, but I got an award for being the junior with the highest weighted GPA, meaning I'm a would-be valedictorian.</p>

<p>SAT I's
Math: 800
CR: 730
Writing:710</p>

<p>SAT II's
Math II: 800
Chem: 720
U.S. History: 710</p>

<p>AP scores:
US Gov and Politics: 5
APUSH: 5
AP Chem: 5
AP Eng. Lang: 5</p>

<p>Senior Load
1. AP Calculus BC
2. AP Statistics (is it true stats is not really math, but is more like reading?)
3. AP Biology
4. AP Physics C
5. H British Literature
6. Economics (I wish my school offered AP.)</p>

<p>-school doesn't offer honors classes, but mentions "due to the rigorous curriculum of the school, no classes are designated as honors" in school description.</p>

<p>My only B's have been graphic design freshman year, AP Gov last year(will a 5 on the exam atone for this), and a mandatory composition class at our school this summer? I got straight A's junior year.</p>

<p>-will mention Math, Economics, and Chemistry respectively as my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice majors. I want to be an investment banker or hedge fund manager when I grow up.</p>

<p>EC's:</p>

<p>Boy Scouts
-Eagle Scout (just did my board of review). My project was building benches, pressure-washing old ones, and putting sealant.
-Senior Patrol Leader during 10th grade, Patrol Leader during 9th
-broke a national record for hiking. I hiked the Bartram Trail (100 miles/5 days, has a lot of elevation): honored by Governor Sonny Purdue and national head of boy scouts for this feat
-LOTS of community service projects
-raised money for inner-city kids to buy scout uniforms
-Philmont Summer 2010-completed trek 34, the hardest trek Philmont has to offer (Only 5 crews this entire summer out of the 1000+ that come to Philmont did trek 34).</p>

<p>Tennis (all 4 years)
-private lesons
-varsity tennis</p>

<p>Academic Quiz Bowl team (10-12)</p>

<p>I founded and am president of our school's food critic club. We go to restaurants about once a month and write critiques about them, which are published in the school newspaper. I'm trying to see if we can get published in the Zagat Survey.</p>

<p>Trumpet
-Superior Rating (9,10,11) at Solo Ensemble Festival
-Community Jazz Band (9-12)
-GISA all-select band member (11th grade) (top band members of private schools in GA)
-played for church on Sundays
-invited to play at school's open house 10th grade</p>

<p>Piano for 11 years
-invited to play at several concerts</p>

<p>Duke TIP summer program (summers after 9th and 10th grade, I respectively studied macroecon. and robotics)</p>

<p>Academic Awards:
-Georgia Certificate of Merit
-Phi Beta Kappa Award (given to Junior with the highest weighted GPA in class)
-National Merit Semifinalist</p>

2

<p>honestly, these threads have been making me feel better. flat-out rejection as well. I’m shocked, seeing that you’re half hispanic. time to start your other apps</p>

3

<p>It seems UPenn was impossible to get into this year. So many kids with high GPAs and high SATs got rejected or deferred. I think it was the most difficult and unpredictable ED admissions process. You will get into a great college with those great statistics, no worries.</p>

4

<p>and my parents and I worked SUPER hard to make sure my common app essay and my penn supplement essay were VERY strong. How was I rejected? My APUSH teacher even told me that in his teacher rec, he mentioned the time I came to school during the middle of the day when I was sick and gave an important presentation that counted for a fairly large part of my grade.</p>

5

<p>Worst comes to worst, I’ve already gotten into my safeties, which were UGA and GATech. GA Tech has a top 15 management school, and is a great place to be.</p>

6

<p>haloshots, did you do CAS or Wharton?</p>

7

<p>^ wharton. I’m really confused by these decisions</p>

8

<p>Come on, how is showing up to school sick to give an important APUSH presentation not impressive?</p>

9

<p>The guy who did my interview also was somebody who I knew from Boy Scouts when I first started in 6th grade. I thought this would be an omen that I would be accepted, but I guess not.</p>

10

<p>Sorry man, none of us can answer this question though. Only the admissions officers know. I suppose nothing stood out in their eyes.</p>

11

<p>Lol that’s wild. And also concerning to me considering I have similar scores / ECs (heavy scouts / music stuff)
hm. That really stinks that you didn’t get deferred but I’m sure another great university will take you with open arms.</p>

12

<p>and I even mentioned how much being a senior patrol leader and executing my eagle project would help me in my future management goals :(. and I also mentioned how starting a food critique club at Penn (if one already wasn’t made) was ideal in Philly because of the wide range of ethnic cuisines there. Schools like cultural diversity stuff, don’t they? I thought they might have believed that starting a food critic club would be a big hit on campus, but apparently it wasn’t enough to convince the adcoms that I was a great applicant.<br>
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sorry if I sound like a sore loser with my venting</p>

13

<p>All I can say is if you sounded this self-gratifying on your college app, then I would have denied you too.</p>

14

<p>Penn already has a group dedicated to food critics. It’s called Penn Appetit. [Penn</a> Appetit](<a href=“http://www.dolphin.upenn.edu/pappetit/]Penn”>http://www.dolphin.upenn.edu/pappetit/)
If you did more research you could have mentioned that in your “Why Penn?”</p>

15

<p>You say “and my parents and I worked SUPER hard to make sure my common app essay and my penn supplement essay were VERY strong”. The admissions officers want to hear your creativity and unique perspective, not something your parents approve of. Usually parents will want you to write something self serving, which is not the aim of the essay. You already have the rest of your application to show that.</p>

16

<p>Well, I made sure MY voice was evident in both of them.</p>

17

<p>Wow man. i feel for you. college applications are just scary now. its like playing roulette. sickening…I don’t even know what to say. all of these ivy results have got me really depressed about my applications. it seems that maybe 5% of CC’ers who post stats I can tell are shoe-ins. then 15% who are accepted I’m just like “***?” then another 25% or so I can tell it was their ECs that got them in. finally, over 50% of acceptances are really similar to students who got waitlisted and rejected. meh, i’m just rambling. CC makes me depressed about how much time I’ve wasted when I see how much some kids have done with their meager 18 years on earth</p>

18

<p>Dude check out my stats… I got flat-out rejected by Wharton too… I’m completely devastated and have absolutely no idea what happened.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/dartmouth-college/1023102-chance-canadian-rd.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/dartmouth-college/1023102-chance-canadian-rd.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It seems that ‘one of the most promising Canadians on CC to apply this year’ failed to live up to the expectation miserably.</p>

19

<p>based on what I saw from my angle, it seems school taking a new direction. we’re no longer recruiting for talent. we’re now recruiting for $$$. We’re going after princeton/yale/harvard in prestige and we need more funding to do it.</p>

20

<p>I think your weighted GPA was a factor, along with the fact that Wharton wants to see some sort of business-related extracurriculars. However, I still think that your application is great, but there are just too many good applicants applying.</p>