[ color=green]Decision: Accepted - Nursing[ /color]
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown M/CR/W/Essay): N/A
SAT I superscore (breakdown M/CR/W/Essay): N/A
ACT (breakdown): 33 (35 English, 32 Math, 32 Reading, 32 Science)
SAT II (subject, score): N/A
Unweighted/Weighted GPA: 4.14 W, 3.84 UW (upward trend)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A
AP/IB (place score in parentheses): AP Human Geo (4), AP Calc AB (3), AP World (4), AP Psych (5), AP US (5), AP Bio (4), AP stats (3), AP Lang (4)
Senior Year Course Load: I take all my classes through PSEO at umn: intro to personality, physics, intro to american government, medical terminology, intro to sociology, child psych, multicultural literature in the us, intro pharmacy class
Number of other ED applicants in your school: 3 maybe?
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel, etc.): haha no
Common Awards (AP Scholar, honor roll, NM things, etc.): Nothing special, AP scholar with distinction, academic letter all years of high school
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (name, grade levels, leadership, description): competitive dance (18ish hours a week), teacher assistant at dance, volunteer at a hospital for 3 years, NHS, Key Club, link crew (freshman orientation club), co-chair of a tutoring committee at local elementary school (11,12)
Job/Work Experience: Summer job as a lifeguard, babysitting, paid tutoring
Volunteer/Community Service: Hospital volunteer (350+ hours), various volunteering through nhs and key club (200+ hours)
Summer Experience: Lifeguarding
Teacher Recommendation #1: 10/10: AP human geo teacher freshman year and AP world sophomore year. I was really close with her and did really well in her classes. I still go talk to her after school often and she got to see me mature from a freshman to a senior.
Teacher Recommendation #2: 9/10: Freshman bio teacher and junior year AP bio teacher. She is also an advisor for a club I have been in all of high school. We talk sometimes out of class and I think she really likes me. Having her for two years also probably helped her see me mature from my freshman year.
Counselor Rec: 9/10: probably a better than average rec for a counselor at a larger school. We have a pretty close relationship for a counselor/student and I have gone in and talked to her about problems I’m having before. She has seen me overcome a lot so I think that was helpful for this rec.
Additional Info/Rec: N/A
Interview: 8/10: It was a pretty good interview, she seemed impressed with me but it didn’t last too long and wasn’t anything special. We had quite bit in common and I was well-prepared but i’m not sure if it really made much of an impact on my decision.
Writing (Subject, 1-10 rating, details):
Why Penn: 9/10: I made it very penn specific, talked about my visit, and made sure to show how excited I was about Penn and what it offers. I also tried to make sure I expressed how I thought I would fit into the school well. I’m not usually a huge fan of my writing but I thought it was pretty good.
Any dual-degree program essays: N/A
CommonApp Essay: 7/10: Thinking about this essay makes me cringe. I talked about how I overcame obstacles from my childhood to present. I think I tried to fit too much of my life into one essay and it was kinda cheesy, but I think it showed how I have grown as a person pretty well.
Other:
Date Submitted App: 10/27/18
Applied for Financial Aid? Yes
U.S. State/Territory or Country: Minnesota
School Type: Public 2000+ students
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket Range: ~180k
Hooks (URM, first generation, recruited athelete, development): None
Reflection
Strengths: teacher recs, taking some of the hardest classes and course loads possible, maybe taking classes at a college my senior year?, my EC’s aren’t amazing but I am pretty involved, volunteering at a hospital surely helped for nursing
Weaknesses: GPA isn’t perfect, test scores aren’t perfect, not much prep in chem, no SAT subject tests
Were else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: Penn was my first decision
What would you have done differently?: nothing I guess?
Final thoughts: I am honestly so shocked that I got in. I really feel like I am just an average suburban white girl and there are sooo many more qualified applicants that didn’t get in. This is a dream come true and I never imagined that I could actually get in here. I’ve been creeping on every stats page for the last three years trying to find someone that wasn’t amazing and got in, so if that’s you creeping here you go. Congrats to everyone accepted!!