<p>I didn’t score well at all on my SAT (extremly nervous, moderately shaking), but I’m going to take my ACT in October. I know that I have the capacity to score just as high as many of the people on this board (29+). I just have to get the test into proper perspective on test day.</p>
<p>My problem is knowing how much weight this test will carry on my UPENN app. The main reason being that I’ve only taken honor level classes (no AP’s), my GPA is only a 3.9 (weighted), and I attend a ‘disadvantaged’ high school. </p>
<p>However, I do have above average Ec’s and I hold numerous leadership positions; over 2000 community and volunteer service hours, and I have an intense passion that I can show vividly on my app. </p>
<p>With these credentials, what score (ACT) would appropriately accompany them to, at least, give me a fighting chance come RD season? </p>
<p>If you're SAT is below the 20 percentile (of the school's), it'll probably hurt your application, with the rest being equal. If it's between 25 and 75 percentile, it won't have a very large effect. At the 85-100 percentile, scores will start to have a notable positive effect.</p>
<p>25-75 percentiles:
SAT I: Verbal 660-750
SAT I: Math 680-780
ACT Composite 30-34</p>
<p>Flavian
When you say "(of the school's)" you're referring my school, right?</p>
<p>I would estimate that my school's average SAT score (50th percentile) is probably around 900; which we all know is beyond horrible, when applying to UPENN.</p>
<p>Then you list 25-75 percentiles: What do they refer to (National average? UPENN average?)</p>
<p>This may give the applicant a boost despite some lower standardized test scores.....grades good, community service good, desire to step up good. Don't be discouraged. Focus on your essays and teacher recs.</p>
<p>Yeah, the best thing an applicant can do in his/her application is to play the "pity card." In fact, as much as one can, try to guilt the admissions officer into accepting you by making them feel really bad for you, in as many respects as you can. It usually works, from my experience...</p>
<p>Not pity.....not at all. Rather I would say that an applicant who has not had the opportunity as say an applicant from Exeter....will be considered in a different light. Good grades but no advantage to score as highly on SAT. So if you are from Compton with good effort, recs, grades but lower test scores I say don't be intimidated from submitting an application. Rather than asking for pity I see it as taking what you have and submitting your application the same way someone from a suburban public or city private school with two parents of professional standing will be doing with their little cubs. The colleges are looking for students who can contribute and for a class not a group of PLUs. People Like Us.</p>
<p>They're human beings just like the rest of us. If they feel sorry for an applicant and feel sympathy for their pitiful circumstances and outcomes, they might reward them with admission. It's how I got in.</p>
<p>I would choose to say adcom would respect your ability to achieve despite or inspite of pitiful circumstances. You were admitted because of respect NOT pity.</p>
<p>Hazmat, you mentioned teacher recs. I have a teacher at my school that I'm thinking about getting a recc from. He graduated from Cornell's graduate program. Another recc. is coming from an Army vet of 28 years; he served in Vietnam.</p>
<p>Will these be substantial, more so, powerful reccomendations when applying to UPENN?</p>
<p>Well the quality is a mixed thing. Firstly you seem really sure these will be positive recs. Just remember to ask if some feels they can write for you not just asking will they....subtle difference. Your teacher from Cornell will certainly know how to word his rec for you....."finest student I have had in xxx years" versus "strong student"....very much a difference. Your Viet Vet will be just fine....I wish you the best of luck.</p>
<p>I've actually heard that admissions officers like recs much better that are more negative and mediocre, because then they're more likely to be honest and genuine. Recs that say "this is the best student I've seen in years" or shower the student with too much glowing praise is often seen as phony and artificial. So, if your reccomender is going to write things that are too positive, it might actually work AGAINST you, and you might want to look for someone else! Good luck.</p>
<p>I think you are asserting that one solicit a rec that is not valid. My statement rather referred to a valid assessment. I guess what you are saying my be true but at many schools hundreds of rec letters from the same HS are sent out. I know that from my HS this was/is certainly the case. When a HS is known and the recs are honest.....statements such as the one i mentioned are quite weighty. In the instance I referred to here......an underprivileged HS one can assume this student is of stellar qualifications "from that HS population". At my previous school no recommender would write a mediocre letter. Are you really saying that adcoms want to admits students who are assessed in letters of rec as mediocre? I find this not credible and I wonder what type of HS you have familiarity with. Finally, I hope you are not telling us that Penn accepted you because you were mediocre....I hope you don't believe that.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that UPENN can easily maintain intellectual diversity without admitting any mediocre applicants. </p>
<p>Intellectual diversity doesn't mean the 'collection people with different mind capacities.' It does mean the collection of people with different ways of thinking, each with unique means of expressing it through communication, art...etc.</p>
<p>Schools like UPENN, Yale, MIT...all obviously choose those applicants with those 'stand out' ways of expression. Then if they meet a <em>standard</em>, they're in. I guess its something that the schools see in students with odd ways of expression that probably eventually relates to mind capacity in the long-run, however.</p>
<p><em>standard</em>= not really a minimal thing, just what is expected of those students in the "highly selective" quartile. I used the word standard because of the lack of another word. (vocabualry sucks...lol)</p>
<p>My young friend, you still have a lot to learn. Diversity comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors. If they have all really intelligent students who score similarly, how will professors be able to maintain neat bell curves in competetive classes? Trust me, I'm right on this one.</p>
<p>I agree, but I just can't imagine an 'average' student, such as myself, attending UPENN. I know the actual meaning of diversity. I don't think that when a college encourages or aims for "intellectual diversity" that they are referring to ALL ends of the spectrum (600-2400 SAT), however. Hence the entire term "INTELLECTUAL diversity" which I interpret as 'how peoples minds work in comparison to one another, not how 'smart' each individual is singularly.'</p>
<p>You may be right, I may be wrong, or vice versa. </p>
<p>I think that we should "agree, to disagree" on this topic, regardless of who's right or wrong. Its dependent upon how a person looks at the entire term, it will always be objective no matter how long anyone debates.</p>