Decision: Accepted - Wharton !!!
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown M/CR/W/Essay): 1480 (750 math, 730 reading, 21 essay)
SAT I superscore (breakdown M/CR/W/Essay): same as above 1480 21 essay
ACT (breakdown): none
ACT superscore (breakdown):none
SAT II (subject, score): none
Unweighted/Weighted GPA: unweighted 97, weighted 99+
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school doesn’t rank but top 5% in a class of 100 at a highly competitive hs
AP/IB (place score in parentheses): AP World soph year (4), AP Spanish Lang & Culture (5), AP English Lit (4), AP US History (5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP English Lit, AP Environmental Science, AP Calculus AB, Dual Enrollment college class at Lehman College (American Political System), Honors Gov, Honors US History 1972-Present
Number of other ED applicants in your school: none
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel, etc.): none
Common Awards (AP Scholar, honor roll, NM things, etc.):
AP scholar with honor, arista, national merit scholarship program commendation, national hispanic recognition program
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (name, grade levels, leadership, description):
4 year varsity baseball player and captain
4 year varsity basketball player and captain
SHSAT tutoring at the middle school I used to go to (4 years)
Work writing invoices for my dad’s construction company
Taught at a school in Puerto Rico for 3 summers
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community Service:
Made my own fundraiser after hurricane maria and raised $5,000 for relief aid, then got in contact with a nonprofit and negotiated with them so that the money I donated was allocated to supplying shelters in my hometown of Puerto Rico
Head coach of a nationally recognized youth basketball team sponsored by Nike for the past 4 years, won several nationally recognized tournaments.
Acted as an assistant coach for a Nike sponsored high school basketball team over the summer after my junior year, and when the team budget didn’t allow for the organization to pay for all the players, I reached out to people within the organization, got the contact of another coach within the organization who has a son in the NBA, and got his son’s contact/ asked his son to donate money and sponsor the kids who couldn’t afford to pay for traveling expenses for the summer, which he did.
Teacher Recommendation #1:
10/10, from my US teacher who I had sophomore, junior, and senior year, he really liked me and we connected on a personal level, he knew me as well as anyone in my school.
Teacher Recommendation #2:
8.5-10/10, came from my sophomore and junior year English teacher, he was kind of weird and a lot of kids didn’t like him but he really liked me and we had a lot of conversations about random topics outside of class, he’s also really smart and a really good writer, kind of a wildcard here and I was guessing his rec would either be really amazing or it could have backhanded compliments and not be the best, but I took a chance because he really liked me.
Counselor Rec:
9/10, my guidance counselor is really overworked and has to write recs for all 100 kids in my grade, and mostly everyone does ed/ ea so she’s really busy but we talked a bunch of times and I would say she really liked me and understood what my strengths were as a student and as a person and knew how interested I am in business and how much I wanted to go to penn, I think she wrote a solid rec.
Additional Info/Rec:
Interview:
10/10, my interviewer was really nice and we really connected over lunch, I told her all about myself and my accomplishments, and about my school, including the things I did and didn’t like about it, also explained why I really loved penn, it honestly couldn’t have gone much better she really liked me and she was really nice.
Writing (Subject, 1-10 rating, details):
Why Penn:
10/10, I spent a lot of time on this essay and I had a family friend who went to Wharton read over it and make suggestions. I talked about my asset management skills as a financial manager for a team that I was an assistant coach for, and how I used innovative thinking and networking to get a donation to help kids who couldn’t afford travel expenses. I also talked about what clubs I am interested in at Wharton & why, and talked about specific reasons why I liked penn over other schools (president Amy Gutmann’s commitment to need based financial aid and admitting first generation students, as well as those from varied backgrounds, talked about penn’s unique urban campus, and also about how my small high school limited my opportunities and penn would provide me with the ample resources and opportunities I need to succeed.
Any dual-degree program essays: none
CommonApp Essay:
10/10, worked really hard on this. I wrote about being a first generation college student, getting accustomed to life in an NYC specialized high school as an outsider who came from a family where education wasn’t emphasized, and how even though I changed a lot because of my new high school environment, I stayed true to my roots and remain strongly involved in my Puerto Rican community, and talked about the fundraiser I did and how I taught in a school in Puerto Rico for several summers.
Other:
Date Submitted App: 10/24/18
Applied for Financial Aid? Yes
U.S. State/Territory or Country: NY
School Type: Small, Public, Specialized
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: Male
Income Bracket Range: <75k
Hooks (URM, first generation, recruited athelete, development):
First generation, Hispanic.
Reflection
Strengths:
My essays were really well written and focused on specific topics (my involvement coaching sports, helping others, and my commitment to my Puerto Rican background, and how all of this relates to business and what I want to do at penn. I’m also hispanic which I’m sure helped, I go to a school that Penn is familiar with and they accept students from our school every year, took every AP my school has to offer, very high gpa, and had two things that really stood out in my application (the hurricane maria fundraiser and getting money from an NBA player who I didn’t know to sponsor kids on the team I coach).
Weaknesses:
Low SAT score, no SAT 2s
Were else were you accepted/deferred/rejected:
Accepted into Indiana and SUNY Binghamton , deferred from Ross at Umich.
What would you have done differently?:
Studied more for the sat, maybe gotten involved in more formal business related activities.
Other Factors: None
