So I have a list of schools and some of them are so unrealistic but I’m a big believer in luck and " what if " so I don’t want to give up on the little chance I have. For example , I’m slightly on UPenns average GPA but way below their average SAT. I’m so certain that UPenn is the school for me but I know there’s a HIGH chance I won’t get it.
If you have the money to throw at them for the application fee, maybe go for it. But don’t count those as part of your balanced list of affordable safeties and matches.
The kids who get in at the far lower end of the stats distribution have a KILLER HOOK. Do you have a killer hook?
If it’s that important to you, and you have the money, then apply. Otherwise, you will be wondering…But don’t count on it. And @bodangles is right about keeping a real list.
Make sure you have matches and safeties on your list that you would like to attend and can afford. Do a bang up job I those applications so you are sure to have choices in the spring. Then apply away to reaches as your time & money permits.
As i just posted in another thread for another applicant who didn’t meet penn’s gpa/sat medians:
“I will never understand the advice of eliminating the schools that “you won’t get into based on your academic stats.” Once you get to these schools you realize that stats were only one part of the equation and that students who were seemingly unqualified from a GPA/SAT perspective took their chances and got in anyway. If you eliminate every school you aren’t qualified for based on stats then what’s the point of including ‘reach’ schools at all? Obviously your college list should be heavily skewed towards schools you can probably get into – but having one super-reach (which Penn is a super-reach for every applicant, including people with perfect SATs and GPAS), isn’t going to ruin the world…” “Apply to a range of schools - including super-reaches if the application fee won’t impose a financial hardship on you and your family-- there is no real downside to trying as long as you keep the application process in perspective.”
Follow your dreams assuming you have the financial resources to send in the app, but just keep in mind that it’s unlikely to yield an acceptance at a super-reach like Penn. But you never know- it could work out! Nobody on CC can tell you definitively that it won’t. You’d be surprised by how many kids at every ivy thought they had “no shot” because of a weak SAT or a weak GPA or a lack of extracurriculars, etc. etc. etc.
As nice as it is to keep hope alive, waiting for months and spending time and money to find out you got rejected feels terrible. I, personally, wouldn’t recommend applying to any school if you are “way below” their stats.
If you think you can improve your score, then I would suggest applying.
For most of these top schools, good stats keep you from being rejected and the other parts of the application get you in. You need both, not one or the other.
Another thing, about luck: I find the old adage “luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity” to be absolutely true. You cannot expect good luck to carry you.
“Luck” would play into this IF you had worthy stats. Penn gets enough apps from worthy applicants that they have to reject many who have high stats…and those that got chosen are lucky.
You seem to be operating on the idea that Penn accepts many worthy applicants and then just throws logic to the wind and also accepts some “unworthy” applicants just to make their day. No.
This is not literally a crapshoot.
Have you done the essays @classof2017345 ? The supplemental essays are KEY and you need to spend a lot of time on them. If you haven’t started them, why waste your time?
You asked for advice. You were given advice. Feel free to ignore it if you wish. It is your money and your application. But IMO barring a major hook (which you do not appear to have from other posts) a 1060 on the SAT makes Wharton an unrealistic option. Luck cannot get you into an Ivy level school if you are not otherwise academically qualified including standardized test scores. A highly qualified candidate can use some luck to get in as Penn gets many more qualified applicants than it can accept.
Posting threads like this is useless when you are also posting threads (now consolidated to one thread) where you say that you have to narrow the list of schools to about 8. How can you do that and keep high reach schools and maintain an adequate list of schools to make sure you end up somewhere good for you in the fall? The advice of someone like @PennCAS2014 only makes sense if there is no limit on the number of schools you can apply to. Once you make a resource scarce, you have to plan well and maximize the value of each resource. In this case the resource is the application itself. You can afford maybe one reach school, the other 7-9 should all be schools that are affordable (so as you have been told several times, eliminate any UC school) and matches to your stats. Simple as that.
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you have to narrow the list of schools to about 8.
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Oh good heavens! What is the purpose of this thread if you can only apply to about 8 schools?
Ok…if you insist on wasting time and money…apply to 5 of these stratosphere reaches, and then apply to 3 financial safeties (schools that you know will accept you AND you know FOR SURE that you have all costs covered).
By applying to 3 absolutely sure financial safeties, you’ll still have a choice come Spring. Otherwise, it could be off to a CC for you.
@mom2collegekids, OP is an international student. If he doesn’t come up with an affordable list, a cc probably won’t be an option either.
I knew a boy who got into Princeton with a 1900 on the old SAT. He was a star football player and African American, and he went to a well-regarded, top HS
“He was a star football player…” …super hook. That said, his score was pretty much at the bottom of what HYPS-like schools will accept even for star athletes.
None of this applies to the OP. He just thinks that somehow, when his app crosses the desks of HYPS Adcoms, fairy-dust will fall from the skies (or Samantha will twitch her nose), and suddenly they’ll move his app to the accepted pile.
Just.aint.gonna.happen
I’m actually a she* and I am the captain of my soccer team looking to get recruited.
Do you have top schools looking at you? What is being done in regards to recruitment?
A gazillion schools have a soccer team and each one has a captain. That’s no assurance of being recruited.
You’re a senior. If you were recruitable, the schools would know it by now. Athletes are often identified junior year.
My kid isn’t an athlete, so I know nothing about athletic recruiting, but if someone were going to be recruited as an athlete, wouldn’t that process have started well before October of senior year? And how common is it for colleges to recruit international students for athletics?
^^yes, and not common.