International Huntsman Program/Wharton ED Applicant

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Wassup fellow Quaker hopefuls, below are some of my stats. I put ED Huntsman program, but I feel a little giddy about it - afterall, it is probably the most competitive program at UPenn. Chance me and shower me, if constructive, in searing criticisms!</p>

<p>South Korean citizen living in Canada for the 8th Year</p>

<p>GPA Weighted: 4.1/4.1
GPA Unweigted: 3.9/4.0</p>

<p>Class Ranking: Top 10% - our school does deciles (100 students)</p>

<p>SAT I: (2330)
CR: 760
WR: 800, 12
MA: 770</p>

<p>SAT II:
Math IIC: 800
Chem: 770</p>

<p>APs:</p>

<p>AP Econ Micro: 5
AP Econ Macro: 5
AP Calculus AB: 5
AP Music Theory: 5 (aural: 5, non-aural: 5)
AP Psychology: 4
AP Chemistry: 4
AP English Language: 4
AP European History: 4</p>

<ul>
<li>Courses at University of British Columbia *</li>
</ul>

<p>PSYC 102 - social, clinical, developmental psyc: A-
PHIL 120 - intro to logical and critical thinking: B+
PSYC 308 - social psychology: A- (midterm mark)</p>

<p>Fall 2011/2012 Term course-load:</p>

<p>AP English Literature
AP Human Geography
AP French
AP Calculus BC
Spanish 12
UBC: Psyc 308 (term 1), ECON 225: Understanding Globalization (term 2)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Piano:</p>

<p>Royal Conservatory of Music – ARCT (Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto) Honors Diploma
Korean Heritage Cultural International Music Competition 2011 (14-24yrs) – First Place; $300.00 Scholarship from the General Consulate of Republic of Korea; $200.00 sponsorship from Tom Lee Music Store; Winners’ Solo Piano Concert (sponsored by TD Bank, +5000 people audience)
Seattle International Piano Competition 2011 (14-18yrs) - Alternate Finalist (ranked 8th place internationally)
Kiwanis National Class Music Festival (Diploma Class) – 3rd Place (2011)
Kiwanis Vancouver Music Festival (Diploma Class) – 1st Place (2011)
BC Conservatory of Music Festival (Diploma Class) – 1st Place (2011)
North Shore Music Festival (Senior Class) – Most Promising Young Artist Trophy (2009)
Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Youth Showcase Solo Piano Concert @ Athlete’s Village (selection by two evaluation phases: CD recording, then live audition)
School Orchestra – Piano Soloist (2009-2012)</p>

<p>Model United Nations:</p>

<p>Canada International Model United Nations 2012 – Founder and Secretary General
World Model United Nations 2012 – Assistant Chair of Economic and Financial Assembly
Canadian High Schools Model United Nations (CAHSMUN) 2011 – Undersecretary General of Committees
Connect Model United Nations 2011 – Chief of Staff; interviewed over fifty applicants for dais members; conducted training workshops on rules and procedures of MUN; wrote a comprehensive staff training package
Vancouver Model United Nations (VMUN) 2011 – Director of Economic and Social Council; created a research backgrounder on Universal Green Tax and Debt in Developing Countries; purveyed to all Specialized Agencies
BCMUN 2011 – Best Delegate @ Joint-Crisis International Monetary Fund; represented South Korea (ROK)
CAHSMUN 2010 – Best Delegate @ International Monetary Fund; represented USA
VMUN 2010 – Best Delegate @ Economic and Social Council; represented China (PRC)
CAHSMUN 2009 – Honorable Mentions @ International Monetary Fund; represented South Korea (ROK)
VMUN 2009 – Honorable Mentions @ World Bank; represented Ghana
NHSMUN 2009 – Participation as Head Delegate @ International Monetary Fund; represented Sri Lanka
Collingwood School MUN Club - Founder and Head Delegate (2009-2012)
Vancouver Education Post MUN Club - Coach (2011)</p>

<p>Debate/public speaking:</p>

<p>2011 Westerns Provincial Public Speaking Competition: Fifth Place Speaker
2010 British Columbia Independent School’s Debate Tournament Juniors (newman fisa): First Place Speaker
2010 British Columbia Debate Camp Tournament: Second Place Speaker</p>

<p>Volunteer Work:</p>

<p>Sunny Kim Taekwondo, Black Belt Third-Degree Instructor (2009-2012); + 350 hours
Piano performances at senior facility centres, hospitals, orphanages, covenant houses (2009-2012); + 150 hours
Collingwood School Art Magazine Writer (2010-2012); Editor-in-chief (2011-2012)
Collingwood School Varsity Badminton Team; (2009-2012); MVP & Captain (2009-2010)
Collingwood AP Economics Teacher Assistant (2011-2012)</p>

<p>Miscellaneous:</p>

<p>Freelance Writer (Published opinion articles on Vancouver Observer, Espresso Press) – Harmonized Sales Tax: I say NO to “YES” (2011), Death of Dictatorship, Dove of Democracy (2011), Disillusioned Capitalism (2011)</p>

<p>Speaker and Volunteer at Occupy Vancouver – participated at eight General Assemblies, camped two nights at Vancouver Art Gallery, stood up for what is moral and just.</p>

<p>Avid Social Networker: Facebook (1150 friends), Twitter, Google +; 5 Gmail accounts (3 MUN webmails and 2 personal mails); as distances become relatively meaningless in correlation with the advancement technology, social networking is becoming, and rightly so, the most prominent form of communication. With Facebook, not only do I keep contacts with friends from over 10 countries, I use it to orchestrate CAIMUN, express my support on Occupy Vancouver Facebook page, blog my notes on different political issues, and video-chat with Dad living in Korea. </p>

<p>Rec: from English teacher (27yrs experience as head of department), socials teacher (24yrs experience as head of department), counselor</p>

<p>All amazing with counselor's recommendation being "the most unique letter he has ever written in his career," talking about how I ran away from home to experience being homeless, how I wrote inflammatory letters to Dean of academics regarding corruption in education, ect.</p>

<p>WorldMUN - I am the first high school student to be involved in this exclusive post-secondary MUN (due to my complete luck of being a UBC student through concurrent studies)</p>

<p>CAIMUN - provincially incorporated, received $3000.00 seed funding from academic institutions, marketing to +500 schools around the globe, first international high school MUN conference in Canada</p>

<p>My extracurriculars could seem quite interesting. One thing about my application is that I am academically curious and passionate, but I haven't attained fantastic marks like other applicants (my 4's in APs pierce my heart with those four sided prongs).</p>

<p>I know that Huntsman is the most competitive program in its own category. There's no such thing like it. Applicants who get in are I heard, crazy amazing.</p>

<p>Huntsman is my dream school (hence ED).</p>

<p>If there are any other Huntsman applicants, let's get in contact! :) When decision time comes by, we can suffer or bathe in glory together!</p>

<p>Thanks guys and best of luck to you. Quakers 2016 baby!</p>

2

<p>I’ve read quite a few chance threads, and your ECs truly stand out imo. You have yourself quite a solid application, from standardized test scores to GPA to activities. (I think your few 4s on some APs are of no concern whatsoever.) Also, reading your thread, I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume you’ve written good essays.</p>

<p>As per chances, I will say this: you seem to be exactly what a program like Huntsman is/should be looking for, but not much is known about their admissions (how many matriculate into each class?) For both Wharton and CAS (Huntsman doubles up with the college, right?) I would give a very good chance, but for Huntsman I can only dare to have “positive feelings.”</p>

3

<p>what’s your target area?</p>

4

<p>I chose Korean as my target language. It’s my native language and thus did not take any SAT II. However, I noted I will be continuing French and take up on Chinese when I get to UPenn.</p>

5

<p>As a Penn alumni, I believe you chance of being admitted to the Huntsman program is slim. Your descriptions if your ECs demonstrate your true pretentious nature. Your claim that you started the first international MUN in Canada is totally false, and it also greatly offends me. I was one of the founding members of the first Canadian International MUN in Ottawa. Self-aggrandizement to the point of falsifying information will get you nowhere.</p>

6

<p>I was rather disappointed with your response because it completely misses the point.</p>

<p>I am terribly sorry my descriptions of the ECs demonstrate a “true pretentious nature.”</p>

<p>But here I will tell you why your description is not only rude, but unapologetically erroneous.</p>

<p>Merely stating “Korean Heritage Cultural International Music Competition 2011 (14-24yrs) – First Place” isn’t going to describe anything. Instead, it would arouse suspicion to the admissions officer, because any international competition should be legitimately explained (hence scholarships, performances…)</p>

<p>I believe your word choice of pretense is not only ostensibly wrong, but articulates a cursory glance at my ECs. My ECs demonstrate a true passion in those areas, whether it be piano and MUN. They describe an intense concentration in those areas, which must be explained through common app and additional information. If you believe that details with substance are pretensious, you would force others to write “Vancouver 2010 Olympics Piano Soloist,” and leave the admissions officer in complete quandry.</p>

<p>It’s quite unfortunate you see my passions mere pretenses. And before you throw the word pretense at those descriptions, I would rather think a UPenn alumni would re-think before using such word, analyzing if that word will inflict a personal anger/pain at someone. It’s like saying, “hey, your essay shows your truly pretentious character,” upon a 30 second glance when that someone has spent hours and hours honestly describing his personal toils.</p>

<p>I advise you to think before using the word ‘pretense’ at someone. I know that the Internet provides a veil of anonymity you can cowardice behind, but as said, it’s cowardly.</p>

<p>Second, as a founding member of the Canadian International Model UN, you must feel bitter of your organization’s recent problems. Unfortunately, CANIMUN had cancelled its conferences for two years now due to lack of funding and a lopsided competition with WorldMUN 2012 (which, to remind you, I am part of).</p>

<p>Most importantly, I advise you to read my ECs carefully: I said, “first international high school MUN conference in Canada,” not your ‘first international MUN conference in Canada’: there is a big difference, a difference that if you miss it, one can seem like an illiterate fool. Therefore, your “self-aggrandizement to the point of falsifying information will get you nowhere,” is not only rude, but hypocritically, “falsifying information to the point you will get nowhere.”</p>

<p>Rather, said description of CAIMUN is very unsubstantiated. So I will elaborate here: it is sponsored by the federal government of Canada, and also the Multiculturalism department in Canada. It is partnered with the British Columbia Provincial Government, the District of Vancouver, the Rotary Club, and the Republic of Korea Embassy. It is quite well-funded for a start-up non-profit organization; needless to say, there won’t be any lack of funding that will obligate a cancellation of a conference.</p>

<p>Quote from an interview I had with Chosun-ilbo, a mainstream newspaper based in South Korea:</p>

<p>‘In my hopes of mirroring reality, I have introduced to CAIMUN facets of politics and diplomacy unfound in most MUN conferences around the globe. Rather than merely a la-vie-en-rose simulation of the UN, CAIMUN emulates only the reality, however undecorated and unflattering. Transforming routine position papers to press releases and diplomatic cables, and integrating Wikileaks and investigative journalism into committee sessions, I have used innovations to help students explore the fathoms of foreign affairs and shed light upon what festers under the pretty facade of politics.’</p>

<p>After years of MUN, CAIMUN is the culmination of my passion. I’ve spent 3 hours every day with over 60 secretariats and staffs, and my commitment will continue no matter what.</p>

<p>I hope I have clarified some of your concerns that made you think I am unfit for my dream school. Also, I hope I am not as pretentious as you think. I hope I have alleviated your anger at my 'falsifying of information."</p>

<p>Lastly, I hope you have a great day.</p>

7

<p>Let me rephrase my previous comment. I think your musical accomplishments are remarkable, but your descriptions of your MUN experience is somewhat questionable. You stated that you created the first high school international MUN, with over 60 secretariat and staff. Strange, my son’s friends living in BC tells me otherwise. If you want your “undecorated and unflattering” MUN to look realistic, you should consider updating your website ([Canada</a> International MUN](<a href=“http://www.caimun.ca%5DCanada”>http://www.caimun.ca), correct?)</p>

<p>Anyways, I shouldn’t speculate on rumors, and I should apologize for my faux-pas of commenting after only giving your post a cursory glance. However, I will verify with the organizations that you are receiving funding from and forward my findings to the Admissions Office.</p>

<p>At the end of the day, such trifles shouldn’t diminish your chances.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.soma.on.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=72[/url]”>http://www.soma.on.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=72&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Lol, actually OP, your response to @kal007 was pretty pretentious. More so than the first post. I’m not making any guesses about your chances, simply commenting on the irony of this thread.</p>

9

<p>Dear Kal007,</p>

<p>Please feel free to examine every record, every piece of information provided. I am quite excited you will be spending your time and effort to qualify my statements. Also, thank you for your advice on the web-designing; interestingly enough, our website in a week time from today will benefit from a $3000.00 contract with a prominent web-design company, and will be going live with a newly designed, far more attractive website. When it is done, I will not hesitate to send the link to you. As I said, over 60 staffs and secretariats share CAIMUN’s vision of strengthening Canada’s mosaic of multiculturalism, including numerous staffs and volunteers from my high school and over 15 staffs from UBC, SFU, and various other high schools. Few days from now, I will be presenting CAIMUN at UBC’s student leadership conference, and will be going through another round of recruitments.</p>

<p>Today, I had confirmed with CAIMUN’s sponsorship director on the validity of those partnerships and sponsorships, and she has told me a novel piece of information that the Rotary Club is still at pending status. It seems like there has been a misunderstanding between my external dsg and sponsorships usg that has disclosed to me a misrepresentation of information. That’s a faux pas on my part, or more specifically, an unfortunate blip in our correspondences between secretariats. I thank you, in all honesty, for bringing that issue into light. I should feel lucky that I have not sent any list of sponsors or partners to UPenn, because doing so would have created one mistake that would bring into question the legitimacy of my other many ECs.</p>

<p>Secondly, I enjoyed touring through your link for SOMA MUN. Since you have wrote “Canadian International MUN,” I logically thought you had established the Canadian International MUN ‘<a href=“http://www.canimun.ca’%5B/url%5D”>www.canimun.ca’</a>, which is a post-secondary international MUN. Now that I have acquired a new piece of information, I will contact my sources and networks if SOMA is truly an international MUN drawing delegates from all over the world, and will see upon the results if I need to tweak some descriptions of my organization.</p>

<p>It was interesting talking to you. I was at first quite appalled at your comment that my ECs demonstrate a true nature of pretense. Especially that you are an alumni of Upenn, a school I have desired to go to since childhood, it was scathing to hear such dispositional comment. However, I accept your apology, and please do accept my apology for my tantamount rude comment of calling you cowardly.</p>

<p>Please do verify my list of funding. I will, for your sake of probing into my organization, give you more venues for your research. Sponsors & Partners: S Academy, Elite Institution, Chosun-ilbo, Vancouver Education Post, Aspire Academy, Nirvana Canada. Pending Status: WorldMUN, UN Association of Canada, Rotary Club, Royal Bank of Canada, Vancouver Club.</p>

<p>Thank you for your time and effort. I hope to talk to you soon on these matters and clarify more issues if they are deemed necessary. If we would like to clear the veils of anonymity imposed by the Internet forum, please provide me with your email and contacts, and we will have a more genuine, sophisticated discourse that doesn’t descend to any character assassination and threats. If you would like to talk more on the descriptions of CAIMUN as a founding member of SOMA, please feel free to email me at <a href=“mailto:sg@caimun.ca”>sg@caimun.ca</a>, and if you would like to talk directly to the USG of sponsorship, please email <a href=“mailto:sponsorship@caimun.ca”>sponsorship@caimun.ca</a>. </p>

<p>I appreciate your concerns, and I will take into careful consideration all other criticisms and comments you harbor for CAIMUN and my description of ECs. As a 17-year-old, there’s much to learn from, and I take this opportunity as s precious time to write whatever wrongs there exist.</p>

<p>Lastly, I would love to receive helps and advices from you for the advancement of CAIMUN. We have established a list of 100 schools in Ontario for marketing purposes, but we do not have any insights upon the hotspots of MUN marketing in Ontario. I believe that you, as a founding member of SOMA, would possess extensive information on marketing issues, and it would be an unconditional pleasure to hear from you advices and comments on marketing in Ontario. Please send your advices to <a href=“mailto:sg@caimun.ca”>sg@caimun.ca</a>, and <a href=“mailto:marketint@caimun.ca”>marketint@caimun.ca</a>.</p>

<p>Again, thank you in advance for your time. I hope our correspondences continue, and I wish to learn more about SOMA’s successful techniques.</p>

<p>Sincerely,</p>

<p>H.K</p>

10

<p>I just read the whole thread, and I don’t see any ‘pretense’ anywhere. Ko was writing details and elaborating on some stuff, and if those elaborating show a pretentious nature, a lot of applicants wanting to explain their ecs to adcoms are going to have problems of being pretentious.</p>

<p>Anyways, I think you are pretty good on your chances. Huntsman is extremely difficult to get into, and I have very limited information on its admissions process. But by any means, your application is really strong and concentrated.</p>

<p>I am going to write a chance thread (this is my first time using collegeconfidential because my counsellor suggested me to use it), so write me a response too!</p>

<p>Good luck! =]</p>

11

<p>

</p>

<p>um…THIS.</p>

<p>Koharvard—do you really talk like that in real life? </p>

<p>So here’s my 2 cents on your chances (barring the validity of your MUN accomplishments),
It’s great that you have ECs that truly show that you want to go to the Huntsman Program. If possible, I would draw out/hint on your math accomplishments and skills (not just your scores) because at the very core, business schools look for strong math students.</p>

12

<p>dude watch your mouth, your making vancouver natives look bad. you sound like your from collingwood or saints, if thats the case then your profile would only be average among some of your peers.</p>

<p>and how insecure must you be, why does it matter that you have over 1000 friends on fb, and you twitter, what kind of kid dosent do that nowadays to advertise for clubs and things, and why must you post ostentatiously over-eloquent 2000 word replies to every 200 word question u get with references to corporate sponsors and a flowery email address, this is CC, wer just a bunch of kids in the same boat, who are you trying to impress? you mad bro?</p>

<p>just humble up please, your ECs arent that impressive for kids out of tough schools in vancouver. Even if they were, they’re not what matter the most, no one cares how many times u shook hands with the korean ambassador or how many corporate sponsors you have, there are literally over 9000 kids out their who have more connections and more resources than you have and can out-stack your stats ANY DAY. what glues your entire application together is the way the adcomms receive your essay, and to be frank, if this is seriously how you write in an actual essay, then bro your app has overblown and pretentious stamped all over it, theres nothing left to hold your application together if you seriously sound this way. if this is really how you sound when you write, then i would seriously consider rewriting b4 RD swings around.</p>

<p>your canadian bro, dun forget your roots, being humble is the most valuable attribute anyone can have, and right now, you sound more like really snobby american (not generalizing at all love to my friends south of the 49th parallel ) than anything else.</p>

<p>i sincerely wish you good luck, please consider my advice and at least reread your essays with what i said in mind.</p>

13

<p>@Koharvard:</p>

<p>After reading all of these posts, I do agree somewhat with the CCers here. Your writing do tend to be a bit over-flowery and pretentious, with dabs of grammatical errors hidden beneath all that fancy language. The way you write 2000 word responses tell me you believe that your writing is effective and will get you the respect you want - which can get you in some trouble. Just a word of advice - even if you do get into Penn or Harvard or whatnot, you will probably not get far with this overblown use of English words…</p>

<p>And I think I know who you are - I’ve seen you at CAHSMUN and Collingwood events… I think I can confirm kvnshi604 (I think I know you too haha) that although your MUN stats are very impressive and you seem to come from a well-connected and affluent family, there’s honestly a lot more than just flowery writing and grabbing every possible secretariat spot in mun.</p>

<p>Your musical accomplishments are good, but not excellent either. Most kids who are dedicated to music has more impressive awards than you, but you’re going into Huntsman, so that shouldn’t be a deciding factor.</p>

<p>As for your chances for Huntsman, I think the language part of your application is going to be a sore point. Having your native language as your “chosen one” does not really show your ability to learn a language…</p>

<p>That’s not saying I’m discouraging you. I just think it’s probably a good idea to tone down your ego and try to be a little bit more humble and down-to-earth. Doesn’t hurt anyone.</p>

<p>And no need to write me a 2000-word response. I can’t handle the pressure.</p>

14

<p>This thread is pretty hilarious.</p>

15

<p>lastcall: you are actually quite right. this thread has turned into quite a ■■■■■!</p>

<p>No sweat over 2000-word response, I ain’t going to write it (I went quite overboard there I must admit! :S)</p>

<p>On this thread i just wished to see how my chances would play out, but it turned into mischaracterizations of identity, and to be quite honest, I ain’t too happy about what this post turned into.</p>

<p>GL to everyone else applying to UPenn, and hope everyone had some great slapstick comedy reading this - just ma errday job of reducing uniapp stress by posting complete-■■■■■ threads ← this is a joke in case anyone were thinking of posting ‘you possess a true deceitful nature blah’ ;)</p>

<p>My sincere apologies to those who stressed concern with this post. Regardless of what happened, we are going to move on and stay connected till our results come out. I can’t stress enough to you all: good luck with everything, and I truly hope we can celebrate together in smiles on our ed results date!</p>

<p>Thanks for all your comments. No matter legit or not, will take them all to heart. :)</p>

16

<p>The above post went rather overboard in the other direction, your faux casual mannerisms really grind on my literary nerves (e.g. “no sweat” [cliche ugh] “ain’t too happy” “GL” “ma errday” and all those smileys). “■■■■■” really shouldn’t be used as a adjective describing non-person nouns - it sounds rather corny e.g. “this status update is such a ■■■■■” “when did this turn into a ■■■■■.” All that being said, I apologize for myself and the other posters for dissecting all your posts in a belligerent manner - I honestly think your application would definitely make it. Again, the above being said, something in your attitude provokes something weird in people’s brains (think blindingly repulsive) - I would advise you to control that power for situations where it is useful =]</p>

17

<p>@Benjameinche are you actually serious?</p>

<p>koharvard obviously wants to move on, but you wouldn’t let that happen and had to comment on koharvard being somehome blindingly repulsive…let go of it and think of others dude</p>

18

<p>Ben you should definitely go into linguistics or become a literary critic. I think you will do well in that field bro</p>

19

<p>Thanks good luck with Huntsman as well</p>

20

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<p>Wait, what about VMUN, CAHSMUN, ConnectMUN…? xD Those are just the three in Vancouver, too!</p>