<p>Hey all, Im just looking for peoples opinions of my chances applying upenn ED.</p>
<p>My situation is slightly unusual, which i will describe in more detail below.</p>
<p>-3.46 GPA. This seems super low i know, but in large part this is because I am truly incapable of learning a languege and have three years of straight C's in it. Without Spanish my GPA would be more like 3.7. My GPA also has a strong upward curve.</p>
<p>I attend a small private high school in philly, with a history of sending graduates to Penn.
My school does not rank and we have no AP's, however I am in every single advanced course we have, (exept Spanish lol) and have taken 6 years worth of science courses.</p>
<p>Last year 15 out of a class of 90 of our grads were admitted to penn, with an average gpa of 3.68 and SAT's of 2100.</p>
<p>-2250 SATS.</p>
<p>Major other Stuff:</p>
<p>I play 2 seasons of varsity sports and am treasurer of our student government.</p>
<p>My father is a tenured faculty member at Upenn, and holds an honorary degree from them.</p>
<p>In conclusion, will ED, my father, and my SAT's be enough?</p>
<p>Thanks for your time, and sorry for the poor quality of my post.</p>
<p>I forget to include that over the last 5 years, the average stats of someone from my school being admitted to Penn ED are 3.51 Gpa and 2000 SAT.</p>
<p>I expect great recs from my teachers and I am rather good at writing short essays.</p>
<p>If they are indeed a feeder school to Penn, then it seems like you have a great shot esp. if your father is a current tenured faculty member and you apply ED with a great essay on why you want to attend Penn and what you would bring to the Penn community.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>45 percenter:</p>
<p>if Penn’s incoming GPA is above 3.8+ could CAS be that much lower i.e 3.51 as the OP states for his school? Is this a preference for Philly students? I would think that the average GPA for out-of-state CAS accepted students is higher in order to make the overall GPA 3.8+ for Penn. your comment?</p>
<p>The OP’s school is one of the best private schools in the Philly area, is very competitive academically, and–as the OP indicated–has a strong tradition of getting lots of kids into Penn. That the school is actually within the city limits of Philadelphia probably also helps. The Penn admissions office is very familiar with the school (as it is with many others all over the country), and knows how to put grades/transcripts from that school in proper perspective. I’m sure this is true for the many other highly competitive schools with which the Penn admissions office is familiar, i.e., a 3.8+ GPA–or a 3.51 or 3.46 for that matter–from one school is not necessarily equivalent to that same GPA from another school.</p>
<p>Also, Philly residents do, indeed, get a bit of a boost in Penn admissions. There aren’t that many applying to Penn and, for historical, potlitical, and civic reasons, Penn generally seeks to admit as many qualified Philly residents as it can.</p>
<p>I do live in the city limits, and I am most certainly applying ED. </p>
<p>Also, since you seem so knowledgeble about us Tigers and Upenn, Do you know if Penn will receive my first quarter grades before they make a decision?</p>
<p>^ Not sure about that, since the quarter ends on November 5th. I don’t know when grades are due out, and how fast they’re sent out to colleges. You should check with your college advisor about that and, if you think it will help your chances, see about getting your first quarter grades sent to Penn on an expedited basis. I’m sure your school is quite experienced at dealing with Penn’s ED schedule, so your advisor should have info on this, or be able to get it.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>This is not a question you should be asking on CC. Several people at your school can answer it much more accurately.</p></li>
<li><p>As is apparent, you are not exactly anonymous, including to any admissions people who may check this out. How many people at your school (and you have completely identified your school to anyone familiar with Philadelphia private schools) fit your profile? I thought so.</p></li>
<li><p>In private school term, your school is not “small”. Abington Friends is small.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You are right about this not being a question that should be asked on CC, if i were asking it only on CC.</p>
<p>Having discussed it with my school, i see no harm in compiling as many opinions on the subject as possible, however ungrounded in fact some of them may be.</p>
<p>To your second point: Should an admissions officer see this, whats the harm? I truly wish to attend Penn, and I feel i am doing nothing wrong by compiling opinions on my chances of admission.</p>
<p>To your third point: Small is purely relative, but surely of all the schools that send kids to Penn mine is surely on the small side.</p>
<p>I think your chances are very good, your SATs are great and with the legacy and links to Penn, you are very likely to be accepted. ED and great essays are a must so good luck!</p>
<p>Honestly, I have a very hard time believing that the average successful Penn applicant from your high school - or any - had a 3.5 and 2000 SAT. That’s Tufts-levels. What sort of students do they send to Harvard?</p>
<p>Even the kids I know from the Philly area, who were supposedly “preferential” admits, had 3.8+ and 2200+ on their SATs. They just didn’t have to distinguish themselves as much in other areas (ECs, for example).</p>
<p>Your SATs, by the way, are not as high as you might think. They’re in the upper 50% of accepted students, but it’s not like they’re 99 percentile. If what you say about your school is true, then perhaps they will offset your GPA - but otherwise, I would say that your chances are unlikely.</p>
<p>Why are you answering your own question? It almost seems like you’re telling us that the average Penn ED applicant from our school got similar or even inferior numbers compared to you and expecting us to tell you that you’ve got a good shot ED judging from precedence.</p>
According to his school’s Naviance.com page for Penn, for the last 5 years (2005-2009), the average GPA for accepted ED applicants is 3.53, and the average SAT is 1997. For RD applicants from his school for the last five years, the average GPA is 3.73 and the average SAT is 2107.</p>
<p>As I previously indicated, his school is somewhat unique for Penn admissions in that it is one of the best private schools in the Philadelphia area, is actually within the Philly city limits, and has a longstanding tradition of robust admissions by Penn.</p>
<p>Fair enough. Still, you can see why I might be skeptical. And that’s really outrageous, by the way. No one with a 1997 should be accepted unless they buy a building or something.</p>
<p>Honestly, I’m kind of outraged. I had smart friends with 2250s and 3.9s who were rejected so kids from “one of the best private schools” in the area with 2000s could attend? What excuses their ridiculously low SAT score? If they couldn’t do well on the SAT, how are they going to succeed against thousands of their peers who are all much smarter than they are?</p>
<p>Do you know how fallacious that claim is? I, for example, have the highest SAT score from my school (2370) but I don’t claim to be the smartest student by any measure. My former roommate presented quantum mech papers at international conferences reserved for professors (as a high school junior) while my seniors have won top awards at the Intel ISEF and various international olympiads. A SAT score simply put is not a measure of how smart you are. </p>
<p>Similarly, I don’t think a GPA is either. For example, I hail from an international school that is known for being particularly tough. A senior of mine who had a 3.4 GPA also had a 2360 SAT, two golds in national olympiads in different subjects and a bronze in an international olympiad. I personally consider myself quite smart but I’m applying to the top Ivies with a 3.1 GPA. </p>
<p>So whine as much as you like but keep in mind that not all high schools are equal and neither is there an equal willingness among applicants to go down the very restricted and unrepresentative pattern of learning that will help you ace the SAT. </p>
<p>And even if all of what I’ve said doesn’t stand to reason, yes it’s also true that elite private schools have rapport with top admissions offices for their traditions of sending excellent students over.</p>
<p>Agreed, but it definitely IS a measure of how dumb you’re not. A smart person will not, in general, do very poorly on standardized tests, even though he might not perform as well in school, which has more “soft” and subjectively graded factors, especially in the humanities.</p>
<p>As evidenced by your brilliant friend:
</p>
<p>That’s actually a cookie-cutter case of what I was saying the OP’s school is NOT LIKE - a bunch of under-achievers with seemingly no redeeming characteristics aside from attending their feeder school. Your friend is the opposite: despite his seemingly low GPA, he truly excelled in his standardized testing and numerous other academic outlets. He DOES deserve to attend Penn, or any Ivy League school.</p>
<p>^ I think you’re underestimating how “holistic” the admissions process is at Penn and other top schools. It’s about a lot more than SATs and GPAs, especially with a school like the OP’s with which Penn has a long track record. Also, as I previously indicated, Penn finds a great deal of institutional value in enrolling qualified Philadelphia residents, when it can get them (there aren’t that many who apply). Furthermore, if Penn found over the years that the students it takes from the OP’s school with relatively lower GPAs or SATs could not perform well at Penn, it wouldn’t continue to admit them.</p>