Hello, I am a Canadian student studying in Ontario currently in grade 11
SAT:1600 Essay 21
SAT MATH II: 800, PHYSICS:800
GRADE 9 MARKS:
MATH-93
SCIENCE-84( know it’s terrible)
ENGLISH-83
GEOGRAPHY-97
FRENCH-86
TECHNOLOGY-84
PHYSICAL EDUCATION-85
ART-78(YIKES)
OVERALL AVERAGE PUTS ME IN TOP 10% IN MY GRADE
FUNCTIONS-96
PHYSICS-95
CHEMISTRY-93
BIOLOGY-93
COMP ENG-98
WORLD RELIGIONS-99
TRAVEL AND TOURISM-100
ENGLISH-85
THESE MAKS SHOULD PUT ME IN TOP 1-2 % IN MY GRADE
ECs AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
-Top 20% in Cayley Math contest
-Top 3% in Fermat Math Contest
-Paid summer research opportunity at a hospital
-Worked with U of T Math professors
-1000 Volunteering hours
-DEEP Engineering Academy in U of T during the summer
-Environmental Club
-F1
-Robotics
-Math club
-Cricket Team
-Baseball team
Recs:
Math teacher(grade 10); 10/10. Really nice guy. Know him well and he knows me well too.
Geography teacher: 10/10
Math teacher; 10/10
My family is low income (50k), so an extreme amount of financial aid required. UPenn in need-blind for Canadian students, and I was thinking about applying ED there. Also, I was planning to apply for EA to UChicago. If these schools are too much to good for me, please recommend any other schools I would be competitive for. Thank You very much in advance.
I think you’ll do well anywhere you apply. You’ve put a lot of time into your tests, classes, and ECs, and it shows. Do well on your essays and you’ll have a solid profile.
If Penn is your first choice, then yeah definitely apply ED.
Your SAT scores are sublime! However, I don’t quite get the grades you have put in your classes - you should really give a GPA scoring because maybe your school is a bit harder and weighs different mark ranges as As or Bs. Any ACT or PSAT scores? I like how your grades are slowly improving over time, but those 9th grade grades would hurt you very much if your school is similar to mine in terms of marks.
You should get a fee waiver so I would apply to a bunch of schools that meet full financial need, and if UPenn is your first choice then, yes, ED there.
@AP Procrastination In my school and generally in Ontario, we don’t do GPA system. These marks I posted are straight from my report cards. Our mark is just shown and a list of people with averages is posted so you can calculate your rank. Our school is a magnet school, so it is kind of difficult in some courses
Any truly standout awards in physics? USAPho or research-related ones (Canadian equivalents?)?
You have a solid chance at Penn, but for international students especially, you will have to have that “spike” when applying to top schools in the STEM field.
Penn tends to put more weight on grades, activities, and essays and a bit less weight on test scores. I think you have a good chance. For extracurriculars, they are more interested in your best achievements than in the amount. Also, you want to be able to explain how you would take advantage of what Penn has to offer. The out-of-class experience at Penn is an integral part of the experience.
Since you are interested in Physics, you may want to review some of the posts by @rebeccar. I think she was a physics major at Penn.
@anonpenn2022 I don’t have any standout awards of that sort but I am going to be applying for University of Waterloo’s Quantum Cryptography program this summer, so will that be of any help?
@Kyrie123 it’s hard to tell, they’re both top tier schools so they would be a reach for anyone. You can’t really go wrong with either.
In regards to your summer program, that’s fantastic if it’s extremely selective and you get in (especially if you can underline how selective it is). Still, as an aspiring physics major, you might find it somewhat tough to compete against people who have USAPho medals or Regeneron STS finalist awards.
@Kyrie123 You are competitive enough for Penn and UChicago. Penn gives a significant boost to ED applicants so if Penn is your top choice you should do ED there. There is no practical difference in your chances between Penn and Chicago.
@Kyrie123, if you are able to clarify the paid summer research (could not be counted to be volunteer in general), the 1000 volunteering hours (25 weeks full-time commitment), and other time-consuming ECs (could not be counted to be volunteer in general), you might have a reasonable good shot among top 20 schools, which need a solid package to be admitted.
