<p>Hi everyone, I'm a high school junior and is curious of Wharton's admission standards. From what I read from different forums, it is easily seen that all the applicants have extremely strong GPAs. Unfortunately, I didn't do well in my freshman and sophomore years, and it would defintely affects my chance of applying. </p>
<p>However, I've seen people getting into Wharton with under 3.7 GPA. Is it true that Wharton is extremely mark-based? I know essays and school activities are also important, it's just the marks are really stressing me out.</p>
<p>I am trying to go beyond my potential to improve my grades in my next two years, and score high on my SAT. As well as having excellent ECs. </p>
<p>Not doing well for 2 years will make it hard for you. </p>
<p>But it’s not too late to aim high and try to turn it around. Worst case, you’ll get rewarded with excellent options in your senior year so go for it.</p>
<p>no i swear to god both of you can apply but neither of you will get into Wharton. Penn CAS, or nursing, yes, but not Wharton. Penn sometimes takes kids with under a 3.7, which is very rare to begin with, but its always in the easier schools… never in Wharton lol.</p>
<p>stillastudent and jt1995: as Wharton aspirants, you’re not too early to analyze data. Penn/Wharton explicitly says an excellent transcript is the first criteria. You should spend time on their admissions webpages, the Penn Common Data set (google for this) and anecdotes contained in this post:</p>
<p>I know that the University of Michigan (I’m from Michigan) recalculates your GPA when you apply, only considering core classes and only A’s, B’s, C’s, etc., not A-, B+, and so forth. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if Pennsylvania does anything similar?</p>
<p>Hey thank you guys for replying. The CDS defintely helped. Does the admission office look specifically for an excellent transcript? What about standardized test scores? Which weighs more, GPA or SATs/ACTs?</p>
<p>stillastudent and jt1995: again, what does PENN itself say? It’s not hidden. It’s right there on their website.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for some formula of relative weights, then it’s a supreme fools’ errand. Excellent academic achievement and potential is the first criteria. That’s measured through transcript foremost and to a lesser degree, scores – <a href=“there%20is%20no%20formal%20weighting%20of%20either!”>I</a>*</p>
<p>Then it comes to what the applicant can bring to Penn. This is the holistic side of things. No quantifying that at all.</p>