I’m a senior this year and I was wondering if my credentials where good enough for Penn’s CAS?
Here’s my about me:
Gender: Female
Race: White (born overseas)
GPA: 4.00 (I go to the Texas Academy of Math and Science at the University of North Texas so our GPA’s are only on a 4.00 scale)
-I will also have about ~73 college credit hours when I graduate.
-Unfortunately, my school does not rank at all, but at my old high school (I was there for freshman/sophomore years), I was rank 1 out of 46 (small class, I know)
-SAT: 2170 SS (not entirely happy with this)
-ACT: 34
-Yet to take subjects (bio and math II)
-Will take math up to Cal III
Extracurricular:
-1 Month Student Exchange program to Japan
-$3000 summer research scholarship recipient at UNT
-1.5 years of research experience at UNT
-(Currently) four publications in scientific journals in chemistry
-Head of Habitat for Humanity volunteering club (1 year)
-Executive of art club (1 year)
-Led after school children’s chess club (1 year)
-Various volunteering such as tutoring at-risk children, assisting with special needs children’s programs, school ambassador work, library volunteering (around 200hrs combined)
-Youth and Goverment (2 years)
-Theater (1 year)
-Band (5 years)
Awards:
-NHS
-Recognition of Global Leadership (as a youth ambassador to Japan)
-Citizenship Award (2 years)
-UNT President’s List
-Band state qualifier
-Youth and Goverment state qualifier
Anything (or lack of) that might hold me back? All opinions are welcome!
Biology or biochem actually (despite all that chem research). Actually, I initially became interested in my professor’s work because of the medicinal applications it has. I really want to work in a biology lab if I continue to do research in college.
I will do as much online research as I can, but my parent’s just had a baby in April and that makes travelling there from here (Texas) nearly impossible. Will that lower my chances considerably?
I don’t think Penn tracks who visits – many students cannot. We visited and I don’t feel that we learned anything from the visit that we couldn’t have found out online or from college confidential. My kids decided not to apply to some colleges after visiting because they didn’t like the atmosphere. If you are accepted you could attend quaker days to make sure you like Penn before committing. Penn even pays travel expenses for some students to attend quaker days if finances are an issue. If you plan to apply ED and are accepted you will be stuck going there so you should be sure you have a good feel for the place. Penn reps visited my kid’s high school and they also did “Penn in your town” programs. If Penn reps visit your area you will have an opportunity to introduce yourself to them and ask questions. At the group information session and tour we attended at Penn, we never met the rep assigned to our area. We were just one in a crowd. I don’t think it will lower your chances if you can’t visit.
@AngryDolphin “I will do as much online research as I can, but my parent’s just had a baby in April and that makes travelling there from here (Texas) nearly impossible. Will that lower my chances considerably?”
I understand the financial realities. I think that you can do just as well without a visit, but to me, it will just be a bit more difficult. For example, when DD visited, she had a chance to hear the assistant dean speak about research opportunities at Penn, and that would be something to a candidate could mention. You can also talk about the feeling you got after meeting some actual Penn students or sitting in on a class, or walking down Locust Walk.
Alternatively, many people feel that college visits are not very helpful. It is true that you can investigate research opportunities, campus layout, school traditions, clubs and activities available, etc. How do you see Penn as different and a better fit for what you want compared to other schools you have visited or researched?
It is important to include enough details that it does not sound like you wrote it after 5 minutes on wikipedia. The more that the essay makes it clear that you know Penn well, the more comfortable the Adcom is that you will really be happy at Penn. It is very important that the students want to be there and are comfortable there.