I am hesitant to post... (UPENN ED 2016) I chance back

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I have been watching this site for a while now and have been hesitant to post. But after seeing the even lower acceptance rates, I figured I might as well see what some of you think. Basically I just want to go to Penn (NOT wharton). I will apply ED and hope for the best. Other schools in case I don't get in --</p>

<p>Penn (NOT wharton)
Stanford
WashU in Stl
Rice
Chicago
Columbia/Cornell (will apply to one)</p>

<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2320 (W780, CR740, M800)
SAT I superscore: 2320 (just took it once)
SAT II: Chemistry (780), Math II (800)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.95/4.0
Weighted GPA: I dont know, about 4.4-ish
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school does not rank.
(I go to a very competitive but small school -- we send around 4 kids to Ivies every year out of 50 in a graduating class).
AP (place score in parentheses): AP Euro (5), AP Physics (5), AP Calc AB (5)
Current APs - Ap USH, Ap calc BC, AP Chem (i expect 5s on Chem and USH and a 4 on calc)
Senior Year Course Load: Multivariable Calc, AP English Language, AP Computer Science, AP Bio, AP Art History, Research Science
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
*none -- but I am an AIME qualifier, though i doubt i did well enough to make USAMO</p>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): </p>

<p>Economics/Finance:
-President of Economics Club, Founder of Economics Lecture Series
-This is hard to explain -- basically I worked for a summer and put the money that I earned, along with some of my friends, into an online account where we trade options. Our partnership has a defined trading strategy combining a strategy to increase leverage - buying barely in the money calls - with a strategy to hedge our risk, using 3 to 4 dollar vertical spreads to define risk. This is all so that we can effectively use our limited capital (3k to start) most effectively. It has been going surprisingly well, our strategy has worked beautifully and we are up over 10%. I am the director of Market Research and I developed the strategy.
-Summer Internship at a local business (10th grade summer - discovered I did not like business, and that I really liked finance)
-Will be working for a financial services company this summer</p>

<p>Photography:
-My photography has won many awards (small) like county fair stuff, and local library competitions. It was published in the school literary magazine (not that impressive considering there are only 200 students in my high school)
-I will be senior editor of this literary magazine next year, it just recently won 1st place in its category from Columbia Press. It is well respected. I designed the cover for last year's edition and my cover design won 2nd place from Columbia.
-Last summer I volunteered at a local organization that taught youth photo classes to underprivileged kids and I also assisted a professional photographer teach an adult photo class.
-This summer I will be teaching a youth photo class by myself, as my proposal was just recently accepted.</p>

<p>Math:
-Basically I just do a lot of math competitions
-Captain of the NYCIML team
-Member of the regional ARML team
-Mandelbrot/school math league/AIME qualifier/others</p>

<p>That is basically it, i do some volunteering and community service but I doubt that I will mention that because it is not very meaningful to me. </p>

<p>Please give me some honest feedback. I AM NOT APPLYING TO WHARTON, unless you guys tell me that I have a legitimate chance there, which I seriously doubt. Thanks in advance and btw I chance back.</p>

2

<p>bump mates? anything?</p>

3

<p>So you’re into Finance but you don’t want to go to Wharton? If you’re showing strong business acumen as shown with your Finance Ec’s, why not apply to Wharton? You have a strong SAT score too along with other interesting bits across all facets of your application.</p>

4

<p>^^^^
he seems like a really well rounded kid. I completely understand his reasoning: don’t go too narrow and get too career focused. Save that for grad school.</p>

<p>and yes you have an excellent chance. ya seem like a smart bro</p>

5

<p>@ boniver, Wharton is great, no one car argue with that. I agree with pdawggy that it would really cause you to narrow your focus, but if I got into Wharton I’m not sure I would mind seeing as how I really do love finance. My question is, do I really have a legitimate enough shot at Wharton to warrant my application? I know for a fact that most kids who go to wharton have started their own business, have products at wallmart, or some other crazy business accolade. I haven’t done these things because, to be honest, I am really not that interested in owning a business. I am much more interested in the markets, and trading stocks and derivatives. I think that this might hinder my chances to Wharton. Thoughts?</p>

6

<p>

note true. you have a great shot imo. I’d put it at about 40%. However, I would give you a 60% chance at CAS, so it’s kind of a subjective decision.</p>

7

<p>You have a pretty good chance at UPenn CAS–better than most. It might look a bit weird that you’re not applying to Wharton, but then again, CAS is where all the econ majors are, so maybe not that much.</p>

8

<p>thanks guys so much - i know i am bumping a pretty old thread now – but I wanted to know how much one non-stellar recommendation would hurt my chances – basically I think the only really good rec will come from my english teacher who really really likes me. The other teaches think that my work ethic is average – and I assume that if asked, they will respond that it is like 3/5 or so. Because there is no homework in my AP Chem class (i will probably ask my Chem teacher to write my other rec) the “work” done for class is all self motivated - I have gotten great grades all year and understood all of the concepts without doing hours of practice problems. I do the work needed to understand at the highest level, but don’t go above and beyond. Will this seriously affect my chances? I know that they (penn/wharton) weight recs heavily but will everyone accepted to Penn be the one or two kids in the class who go home and do three hours of homework and then come to class the next day with lots of questions to ask, or is it okay (not ideal but not detrimental) to have a teacher say that your work ethic is average?</p>

9

<p>If you do ED at Penn, it looks liked you’d have a pretty good chance of getting in (Penn is much more lenient with ED kids). gpa/sats okay, and ECs are decent with a focus/passion.</p>