My Chances for UPenn

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
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<p>I know this may not help me at all and I'm missing a lot of information but I really need some insight - I'm not close to anyone who has gone to a top notch school and I have no idea where I stand. I appreciate any help on both my chances here and colleges in general, no matter how brutally honest! I am considering Early Decision because this is my first choice school, but I'm not completely sure yet of the commitment (also because I plan to retake SAT IIs in November and I'm afraid of cutting it that close).</p>

<p>Info: Caucasian female (Russian heritage) living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania; my entire family except me are Russian immigrants, if that means anything. I also speak Russian.
SAT I: 2250 for first take; Reading and Writing: 770; Math: 710; (I plan on retaking in October because of my math and essay scores)
SAT II: Math II: 730; Physics: 670 (physics is horrible, I know; I'm retaking both in November)
ACT: 33 (probably retaking in September for the heck of it)
GPA: about 4.22; I guess unweighted would be 4.0? all A's at least
My school doesn't rank</p>

<p>I took 3 AP classes this year and will be taking 4 next year; I will have taken 8 weighted honors classes, plus 3 unweighted freshman year. For AP testing this year I'm expecting 4 or 5 in AP Calc AB and English, but a dreadful score in Physics Mechanics.</p>

<p>EC: Science Olympiad (very minor leadership role but I could play it up; a bunch of medals from invitational, regional, and state competitions), Key Club (officer), National Spanish Honor Society (community service but got cheated out of leadership position), Symphonic/Jazz Band, Theater Club (I have been in one play - trying out again this year - and have done pit orchestra for two musicals. I was also a rehearsal pianist for the musical this past year and may be accompanying the choir senior year). I've done various community service events in addition to my participation in Key Club, all one-day things. Outside of school I ski and take tennis lessons.</p>

<p>I play the piano, which is a big thing in my life. I've won two top-ten finalist awards in a small local music competition and in a recent national competition I placed bronze (not in the sense that I took the third place, but I was in the third-place group, if that makes any sense). This competition allowed me to play in a concert in Bechstein Hall in NYC (unfortunately first and second place groups got to play at Carnegie). I am considering sending in music supplements when I apply, depending on my teacher's advice.</p>

<p>I also volunteer at the Franklin Institute. Now I am actually doing this for my graduation project, but I'm hoping I can leave out that detail, especially since I plan to continue after I've filled my project requirements. This is in connection to my love of science.</p>

<p>Awards: Science Olympiad medals, the piano competitions, and gold medal (98th percentile) in the National Spanish Examination for the past two years. Based on my PSAT score I expect to be at least a semi-finalist for National Merit. I won the Wellesley College Book Award this year. Unfortunately a lot of my academic awards are from freshman year because I was still in middle school and at the top of the class, but in high school I got kind of lost in the crowd.</p>

<p>I've asked my AP english, AP calculus AB, and AP Physics teachers for recommendation letters, and I'm pretty sure they all like me. My english teacher actually went to upenn, and said she would love to write me a letter, though when I mentioned the university as my top choice she didn't seem too enthusiastic about that...</p>

<p>Sorry to write so much, hope I covered everything. My 3 main....I don't want to say hooks, because they're not that great, so "areas", I guess....are science, music, and foreign language/linguistics, all possible majors I'm considering. I haven't really looked at the essays for the application but for all the colleges I'm applying to I expect to write about my "bicultural" upbringing (I've written some really great stuff on it before), my musical interests, or my experience in the theater club (I can pull a ton of great "lessons" out of it). I also expect to apply to Columbia, Swarthmore (no chance really), MIT if I can get over the fear of my teachers laughing at me, and PennState as a safety. I was going to apply to Princeton but I never realized how limited its academic programs are. I'm still looking at other safeties. Any other advice is welcome.</p>

<p>For anyone who took the time to read through all that - bless you. haha. Thank you for your help!!</p>

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<p>I forgot to add work experience:</p>

<p>I work at a fast food chain, nothing special there, and I do data entry in the summer for a company that helps out college students.</p>

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<p>You are perfectly fine and ready to apply and most likely get accepted =)</p>

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<p>ED has an acceptance rate approximately 14 percentage points higher than RD, so I would recommend that route if Penn is definitely your first choice. </p>

<p>Additionally, regarding November testing, Penn’s website states: “Early Decision candidates should take these examinations either during the junior year or in the summer before the senior year, but no later than November 2009. Early Decision candidates who opt for November examinations must rush their test scores to us.” Obviously replace 2009 with 2010 for the next application cycle, but it does sound like if you take the SAT IIs again in November, you will be fine for ED.</p>

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<p>Thank you very much, I immediately feel a bit better! I think my main fear with ED is that even though more ED applicants get accepted, I feel like I will pale in comparison to other ED applicants and that will hurt me. I’m leaning more and more toward it though.</p>

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<p>Hi katz :slight_smile:
I think you have a great chance! Very colorful EC’s!
I’m also a piano lover :slight_smile: Do you think you will be sending an arts supplement?
I’m not sure of some repertoire selections for that kind of level … maybe we can discuss in private message?
Anyway, good luck! I’m ED to wharton as well ~</p>

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<p>I am afraid I did this chance threads thing last year and it was a totally useless thing. No one except the adcom can tell you whether you will get in. So dont bother…if anyone says yes you will get in, dont flatter yourself and if anyone says no dont get demoralized. Nobody knows a clue and anyone who thinks they do are kidding themselves. My top two choices were Stanford and Penn (Wharton). There was this instance on CC where I had people convinced that I was in at Stanford and on the Penn thread people were frankly discouraging about my chances at Wharton. (Even though they are both equal schools in their own fields) Want to know what happened? I got rejected straight by Stanford and accepted with flying colours at Wharton (Got into a scholar society). Take my advice, relax and stop creating chance threads. Put more effort into your application or if you are a CC fan, then use this forum to obtain knowledge on more important things.</p>

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<p>sarvarox12 - I know =( haha I was cringing the whole time I typed it…I just feel so clueless that I wanted to try to get some insight. So I took the desperate route. :stuck_out_tongue: Thanks for the advice - and don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on making any chance threads besides this one.</p>