@waffleman But you have to have the EC first to write about it in Essay so EC> essay
For the Penn essay you technically do not need any EC’s. It is asking how you will explore your interests with respect to the SPECIFIC UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOL TO WHICH YOU ARE APPLYING. They want you to talk about academics mainly. @runswimyoga
@runswimyoga Standardized test scores >EC and essay
@PancakeGirl100 Yeah we, for the most part, decided it goes something like this GPA>Scores>Penn Essay>CommonAppEssay>EC’s>Recs
In my opinion, as far as standardized test scores go, you really just need to meet some threshold or cutoff and afterwards it won’t matter. IMO, if you have above a 2250, it doesn’t really matter what you get. I don’t think 2260 vs 2360 would be a massive difference in their eyes.
@PancakeGirl100 Agree! but GPA/ over that and if SAT is just average benchmark and your EC is outstanding then EC can take precedence … for instance if you are doing something on a national level that can benefit Penn and the community in a big way SATs might not be so important…
imo GPA/transcript/rigor>Scores>ECs>CA Essay>Penn Essay>Recs
@VaishS yeah i agree. But what’s the lowest scores accepted students have recieved? Mine are fairly low
also how long do interviews typically last? mine was half an hour, is that bad?
@PancakeGirl100
Idk the lowest but according to the common data set the 25th percentile for ACT is 30 and for SAT it is 670 (CR), 690 (M), and 690 (W)
but you could def get in with lower than that if you have amazing ECs or some other hook or some unique situation
and for the interview that seems to be on the lower end but interview lengths don’t mean anything so you should be ok as long as the conversation was ok 
Honestly, at least for me, the stats for my school are vastly different than what you find in chance threads/on CC. @PancakeGirl100 what are your test scores? Your best data for comparison would come from Naviance since it’ll show it specifically for your school.
@runswimyoga Unfortunately, I was not lucky to have a ridiculously talented team around me, so we didn’t do so well in the competitions, but I did play a large role on the team (captain, recruited people, represented the team at fairs, ~1200 hours spent so far) and am getting a rec letter from my lawyer coach, so hopefully that will show that I did do something even if the awards can’t back it up. Is it always necessary to have state/national level awards for anything to be credible?
@ComputerAge 40 kids!!! Where do you go to school? Also, Penn doesn’t consider the writing section of the SAT. What would you say is the solid benchmark for CR + M? 1500?
Also, one last UChicago concern: I chose not to request an interview? Is that bad?
My act is a 26 and my sat 1800
@jarrett211 I think they still look at the writing section for this year, the writing requirement is being removed for the class of 2021.
@PancakeGirl100 Are you a hooked applicant? Do you have any amazing ec’s? URM? The odds of getting in with those scores is unfortunately probably less than 1%.
@jarrett211 Are you sure Penn doesn’t look at the writing section? I’m fairly certain they do… anyway for CR + M I’d say 1450 would be a decent cut off. I go to a big school, but still 40 is a massive portion of our grade. Don’t want to say exactly where I go, but it’s a highly selective public school.
I noticed that the 75th percentile for the SAT was like a 2330, being an Asian, does a 2300 put me at a disadvantage?
“One major change in the Penn testing policy is the removal of the requirement to submit an ACT or redesigned SAT with the essay portion.” I don’t think this applies to us, because we take the old SAT, not the redesigned one.
@jaimk123 I know that there is no writing section on the new SAT, but when I went to my info session, the adcom said that Penn still sees it, but they don’t really look at it. Also, I’m pretty sure they don’t consider the ACT writing section, so it wouldn’t make sense that they would consider (or if they do, it’s given extremely little weight) the writing section of the SAT. http://pennwpadmin.wpengine.com/a-note-on-penns-standardized-testing-policy/ I mean it doesn’t technically say that they don’t consider it anywhere, but you can pretty much tell it’s not given any weight.
Here you go, guys: http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/whatpennlooksfor/testing
To summarize, for our class, the essay isn’t required for the ACT. For next year’s class, the essay isn’t required for the SAT.