<p>Hello,
I am deciding between Penn CAS or Wharton. My school is a feeder school to Penn and can pretty much guarantee me a spot at CAS, SEAS or Nursing. However, I love finance and I would love to apply to Wharton, but I don't know if I am good enough to take the risk. I have a strong upward trend and I repeated my Sophomore year at a private feeder school (I've asked the penn rep, they don't mind as long as I do better). So here goes...</p>
<p>Race: Asian Male</p>
<p>Objectives:
Freshman Year 3.325 UW No W (One of the most prestigious boarding schools in the nation)
2 Honors taken out of a possible 2
Sophomore Year 1 3.4 UW No W ( at a different school, 1 ap 5 Honors)
Sophomore year 2 3.9 UW no W (at another school, 1 AP 4 Honors)
Junior Year 4.0 UW ( Same School, 4 Aps)
Senior Year 4.0 UW (hopefully) (Dual Enrollment at the UPENN)</p>
<p>ACT: 34
SAT II: Math II: 760 World: 780</p>
<p>Subjectives:
President of Model UN, lead the team from a no rank team to top 20 in nation. Won multiple awards at the most competitive global conferences
President of Mock Trial, won many awards in that category as well
Treasure of the Math Team
Treasure of Service club
Editor in Chief of Student Newspaper
Cum Laude (top 5% of class)
Writer for Huffington Post Teens
Varsity Tennis Captain
Professional actor appearing in multiple films/ TV and such</p>
<p>Summers:
Internship at World Financial Group
Internship at an Investment firm in China
Micro and Macro econ at Drexel
Learned a programming language on my own
All American Model UN Team competed as Team USA
Done multiple films as a professional actor
Ran my mother's business as a manager</p>
<p>Recs:
2 teacher rec: Amazing
1 counselor: Great Rec, counselor used to be dean of admissions at Princeton he says he'll pull strings and help as much as possible</p>
<p>Hooks: I am a first generation immigrant and college, father was an illegal immigrant. He died of cancer when I was in 6th grade. My mother does not speak any English, I had to take care of the family business and my mother since then. We used my father's health insurance money to pay for my first year at Boarding School but was kicked out because we can't afford the next year. I then moved to the East Coast from California with my mother and my first Sophomore year I had a lot of family issues. Second Sophomore year a prep school gave me a scholarship to attend. My years before boarding school I lived in the ghetto (literally) and thats why I did not do so well at boarding school. Sophomore year 1 had a lot of family issues.</p>
<p>I am also fluent in Mandrain and Cantonese. Almost there in Spanish</p>
<p>I think you have a solid chance, and you don’t want to spend the rest of your life wondering “what if?” Take those leaps of faith, and you’ll be surprised. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Do Wharton, you’re story (and stats) are one of the more compelling and genuine ones I’ve seen on this site. It’s actually pretty admirable to see a student turn his/her life, along with the family’s, around.</p>
<p>I personally am not convinced that it is significantly harder to get into Wharton than to get into CAS. I think that is a myth. After being here for four years, I just don’t see any difference in the quality of students.</p>
<p>Your school probably has very little say to any of the undergrad colleges at Penn.</p>
<p>Why do you think that your school can influence admissions decisions in favor of its students?</p>
<p>I’m honestly curious because it sounds like a marketing scheme to command higher tuition. I understand the whole feeder school thing but what generally makes a school a feeder is the quality of students and curriculum and/or the wealth of families that send their kids to a certain school. Penn, in their generous spirit and wisdom, has also adopted I schools in its home city of Philadelphia as feeders too.</p>
<p>Well, what happens is that we have quite a few members on the board of trustees at Penn who are alumni. We generally send about 15 kids to Penn a year out of a class of about 90. Last year 20 applied, 18 got in. All of those who go are at a subpar level to Penn. The avg SAT score to Penn CAS from my school is about a 1950 and UW GPA is about a 3.6 along with very varying family backgrounds. The rejected ones are usually 1700 SAT and lower GPA. The wife of our head college counselor is one of the assistant deans of admissions, and with all of that, we have somewhat of a say. I don’t know the full process of it though.</p>
<p>I know life is not fair and all that. But this just makes me mad. These sub par students take place of qualified students who end up heart broken. I’m not sure I want my child applying to Penn anymore. Xgarrison96, my anger is not toward you, but rather the whole ridiculous and arbitrary admission process.</p>
<p>Wow, dude your stats and EC are amazing! you should try applying to other IVY. You’re a professional actor? Dayyuuum, what movies have you been in?</p>
<p>^ You should apply to the school whose curriculum, and the possibilities it offers, interests and excites you the most. It’s that simple. Beyond that, don’t overthink it. :)</p>
<p>I agree with 45 percenter. Also, I’m unclear, given your persuasive stats, where, realistically, do you think you’ll end up if you don’t get into Wharton? You’re competitive at any number of schools, and I’d be surprised if you didn’t end up at a very good school, even if Wharton doesn’t accept you.</p>
<p>Honestly, I am afraid that I’ll end up at a school like Emory or maybe Penn State even. Not saying either of those are bad schools, in fact they both have great programs. I just would like to go to a top notch school in a league like the ivies.</p>