Legacy for Upenn? chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey Guys,

I just had a quick question. Do you think being legacy for upenn will substantially increase my chances of getting in? My Sat is 2180 (2200 superscore ) including 770 for math. I know Upenn is not ranked highly for undergrad engineering compared to other top schools and even state universities so what do you think my chances considering:

gpa 3.3
6AP’s by the end of hs.
sat: 2200 (math:770, writing 740, cr:690)
subject tests: math 2 : 720
us history : 720
-attended boys state ( prestigious leadership and citizenship program)
-cal poly slo summer engineering camp
-ace (architecture, construction, engineering) mentorship program
-volunteer tutor at my school (3 years) + paid tutor senior year
co founder and president of my school’s fashion club (haha i know that sounds lame) but I wrote one of my college essays how our club and specifically I launched my school’s clothes drive and we’ve gotten over 100 bags of donation from our last event and we’ve received awards from the community and salvation army

  • community service 130+ hours -one of my community activities I did was help raise awareness about oil companies drilling in low income neighborhoods, and i ended up being interviewed by the LA Times and Al Jazeera -volunteer every week with my church and go to Downtown LA to help the less fortunate

HOOKS ( first generation college, african american, male )

I know these are so so stats for ivy league but the two people who reviewed my essays said they were outstanding and I’m really good with connecting with the reader and making things personable. Also expect my 4 letters of recommendation to be beyond exceptional like a 20/10. I’m a people’s person and my teachers are super invested in my success.

And back to that really low gpa, my first 3 semesters of high school i got 2 2.8’s/2.3 because there was a death in my immediate family and then i improved to a 4.0/4.33 junior year with ap classes and I’m on track to get a 4.0/5.0 4 apps this year. my college counselor already explained this in my letter of rec so i hope they’re lenient about that.

So what do you think are my chances?

2

Your 3.3 GPA is your biggest millstone. But how can you be a legacy and a first generation student? That’s incompatible. No one can really offer a “chances” prediction – but if Penn is your reach school, go for it. Just be sure to apply widely, not banking on Penn.

BTW: your view of Penn engineering is off. Sure there are other programs that fill the “top ten” lists but to think that Penn engineering somehow has a lower threshold for admissions is incorrect. That being said, you should look into some of those other engineering programs (Purdue, Rose Hulman, UIUC, RIT, etc.)

3

Legacy only matters for Penn during the ED round. Did you apply ED?

4

i had the misguided notion that siblings that graduated from penn counted as legacy. :frowning: i was just wondering what your thoughts were, I’m not interested in schools outside my state anyway. and i think you’re right @Ksty1098 legacy is more beneficial during ED