is UPenn a POSSIBILITY ?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>I'm still a junior in high school and my freshman and sophmore years weren't too great. I started out my freshman year with all regular classes, and no honors</p>

<p>R= Regular
H = Honors</p>

<p>ENGLISH 9R: 91
Social Study 9R: 93
Math B-1: 91
Earth Science R: 93
Spanish II: 86
PC/A Cert.: 92
Health 9: 86</p>

<p>Sophomore year I moved up to honors, and that had a devastating effect:</p>

<p>English 10H: 86
Social Study 9R: 95
Math B-II H: 85
Biology H: 81 (guess science isnt my thing)
Research Mthds: 88
Spanish III: 88
Career/Finance: 95
Business/Marketing Planning: 94</p>

<p>Cumulative GPA up to this point: 89.3</p>

<p>However, this year (junior) not only has my course load been heavy, but I've shown improvements in all of my subjects. Keep in mind these are only for the 1st two quarters.</p>

<p>AP Eng: A-
AP U.S.: A-
PreCalc H: A
Chemistry R: A
Spanish IV: A
Ceramics: A
College Marketing: A+ (final) ½ year course
Photo: A- (final) ½ year course
Health 11: A+ (final) ½ year course</p>

<p>I'm hoping to get A's/A+'s in my classes in all of my classes by the end of the year, and if i do that, my average will raise to about a 90-91. And I know that senior year grades dont count in the overall GPA/average, but lets just say I continue to excel in my classes and get A's/B+'s in all of them:</p>

<p>AP Calc AB
AP Economics
AP Psych
AP Science (havent decided yet)
English: Creative Writing/Shakespear (½ year Electives)
Language: I'll have taken the Spanish regents by the end of junior year, so would I be better off continuing to take an advanced Spanish course or start a different language course like Chinese?</p>

<p>SAT I: 2250
SAT II: Bio - 660, Math II - 740</p>

<p>EC's:
- Varsity Football Captain
- Varsity Spring/Winter Track Captain
- Volunteer at Hospital 100+ Hours
- Church Volunteer since 8th grade :Youth Group Pres., head of altar serving
- Volunteer Work at charity organization
- Student Council BCG Representative
- Clubs: Key Club
- Work Experience: Tutoring since 10th grade
- I'm also planning to take part in a missions trip with my church</p>

<p>Awards:
- School Quality of Life Award
- Church Grant/Scholarship (for active participation)</p>

<p>Assuming that I write good essays (I've been told by many that my essays were good) and I already have an idea of which teachers I will be asking to write my recommendations because they have been known to write very good ones, what are my chances of getting accepted into my reach school UPenn?</p>

<p>I know that even if i do get that 90-91 by the end of this year, my GPA will not be as high as it should be but would the fact that I improved tremendously SOMEWHAT "offset" the fact that I didn't do as well freshman/sophomore year? I've really gotten into the right mindset and have gotten serious about my studies. Also, could this potentially be a good essay topic in your opinion?</p>

2

<p>a christian jock applying to penn. interesting. </p>

<p>serious improvement over time is always good. you don’t have a big advantage over most other people obviously, but i see some depth and content in your activities. use the fact that you are a different to your advantage. show penn that.</p>

3

<p>Christians don’t apply to Ivy League schools anymore? News to me.</p>

4

<p>So what do you think about my chances then ?</p>

5

<p>get recruited for football</p>

6

<p>That seems to come up in a lot of my threads that I post on this topic lol but I don’t think some people realize how hard it is to get recruited for a Division 1A Ivy League Football team… even though that is my dream to play college football I think the chances of me getting recruited and getting a scholarship are minimal.</p>

7

<p>Well it’s the defining policy of the Ivy League NOT to give athletic scholarships. So the chances are zero for that.</p>

<p>Expressing interest in Penn’s sprint football team couldn’t hurt.</p>

<p>I got into Penn with a low GPA (3.86 and I believe that was weighted) but I also had a 1580/1600 SAT (with 790 SAT II writing). Can you get your SAT score up?</p>

8

<p>i think his SAT score is pretty good, but the GPA isn’t great (the improvement is tho). of course there’s a possibility</p>

9

<p>I’ll definitely try, I’m studying for one more month and I’m going to take my last SAT in March hopefully. 2300+ maybe !?</p>

10

<p>People with lower SAT scores have gotten in; I don’t think you need to worry as much about it as your GPA. Raise it as much as you possibly can. It’s good that your GPA has an upwards trend, though. That’ll definitely be taken into consideration (and will for me as well, thankfully :P).</p>

11

<p>Agreed. Saying that you want to play rugby and/or sprint football would be good.</p>

12

<p>You can start by not calling it UPenn. It’s Penn. This is one of those Houston Street issues (if you are from NY you know what I am talking about)</p>

13

<p>I can start what?? I don’t see how the spelling of a college has ANYTHING to do with getting in.</p>

14

<p>It doesn’t. He was being a dick. Don’t use it in your essay or something, though. Haha.</p>

15

<p>The Houston Street analogy is even more obscure.</p>

<p>It’s Penn, not UPenn. No one here calls it that, but so many high school students do. If you call it Penn, it shows that you know at least a little bit about the school, beyond the website address. This goes to everyone on these boards: don’t ever use UPenn in application material. It’s got to be the easiest way to boost your chances.</p>

16

<p>Well even if you know the website address, you should know it’s called Penn since it says it very boldly in the logo on every page.</p>

17

<p>can any1 give me some feedback on my chances.. not about its spelling ?</p>