Please chance me for UPENN (and columbia if you want)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>I am currently a junior. Please forgive me if I come off conceited. I'm really sorry.</p>

<p>I'm going to apply Early Decision to Columbia University, and I'm planning to go into pre-med. But I am also planning on applying to UPenn if I get deferred/rejected (hopefully not). </p>

<p>Scores:
SAT: 2260 (I'm going to retake it, but the breakdown currently is 790M, 730CR, 740W)
SAT Bio M - 800
SAT Chem - 800
SAT Math II - 800</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0/4.3 unweighted and 4.75/5.0 weighted. I'm somewhere from 5th to 8th in my class of 420 students.</p>

<p>AP Coursework (11 listed): AP Bio (10), AP Chem (10), AP Language and Compostion (11), AP American History (11), AP Calculus BC (11), AP Physics B (11), AP Statistics (12), AP Environmental Sci (12), AP Literature and Compostion (12), AP Psychology (12), AP Econ (12).</p>

<p>College Coursework:
UConn Spanish V (12) - An immersion course by University of Connecticut.
Fairfield University - "Human Biology: Form and Function" taught by Dr. Indrani Dutta. It's an undergraduate level Biology course. I ended up with a 99% in it.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Medical-Related Activities and Achievements:
- Qualified for and completed 30 hours in a medical internship under dermatologist Dr. William A. Notaro (11)
- Completed 42 hours as a volunteer at the Pathology Labs at Danbury Hospital (10)
- Completed 35 hours as a volunteer at the Dialysis Unit of Danbury Hospital under Dr. Winston Shih, Dr. Raymond Raut, and Dr. Howard Garfinkel (11)
- Completed 17 hours as a nursing-volunteer at the Ashlar Senior Home (9, 10)
- UPenn Biomedical Research (2009) - A research immersion program that I had to apply to for the summer based off of SAT scores, essay, and extracurriculars.</p>

<p>Science Related Activities and Achievements
- Science Quiz Bowl Team (9, 10, 11)
- 3rd place and 7th seeded science quiz bowl team at 2008 U.S. High School Northeast Science Bowl (10)
- 4th place and 4th seeded science quiz bowl team at 2009 U.S. High School Northeast Science Bowl (11)
- 2008 Connecticut Chemistry Olympiad State Finalist (10)
- John’s Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth Program in the summer for sciences (2007 and 2008)
- Fast-Paced Chemistry Course and Laboratory under Dr. Art Frankel at JHU CTY (9)
- Fast-Paced Physics Course and Laboratory under Dr. William Kallfel at JHU CTY (10)
- Yale Labs (2009) - I research along with my principle investigator, a PHD at Yale who I follow as a mentor. This consumes most of the summer.</p>

<p>Mathematics Related Activities and Achievements
- Founded the Math Team (9)
- President of the Math Team (9, 10, 11)
- 2nd Place Team for Western Connecticut Mathematics League Tournament (11)
- Completed 45.5 hours of volunteer work as a Math Tutor for high school students (9, 10, 11)
- AMC Recognition Award (10)</p>

<p>Debate Related Activities (9, 10, 11)
- Junior-Varsity Debate on the Lincoln-Douglas National Circuit (9)
- Varsity Debate on the Connecticut Extemporaneous Circuit (9)
- Varsity Debate on the Lincoln-Douglas National Circuit (10, 11)
- 8th Speaker at 3rd Connecticut Extemporaneous Tournament of 2008-2009 (11)
- Double-Octofinalist at the Princeton Classic in the Varsity Division (11)
- 2007-2008 Best Underclassman Debater Award with a season record of 15-8 (10)
- Captain-elect for the 2009-2010 [Senior] year (I have to take care of a roughly $20,000 budget).
- Summer of 2007 National Debate Forum Debater in the Varsity Locke Lab (10)</p>

<p>Athletics
- Obtained varsity letter in golf (9)
- NHS Boys Varsity Golf (9, 10, 11)
- 2007 South-West Conference Academic Team Award (9)
- 2007 South-West Conference League Champions (9)
- 2008 South-West Conference Academic Team Award (10)
- 2008 South-West Conference League Runner-Up Team (10)
- Selected teaching assistant for PGA Professional John Hiteshew – completed 30 hours (10, 11)
- Probably placing at some Connecticut State Junior Golf Tournaments.</p>

<p>Religious Services
- Drummer of the junior youth group praise team (9)
- Drummer of the primary youth group praise team (10,11)
- I ended up playing for the church's fundraising concert in order to make money for church repairs. Recently our church burned down due to a severe electrical problems ='(.</p>

<p>Other Awards and Achievements
- 2008 English Department Chair Book Award (10)
- Spanish Honors Society Award (10)
- 2008 CAPT Mastery Award (Perfect Mathematics Score, and highest level scores in all sections) (10)</p>

<p>Other/Misc:
- Korean-American
- Connecticut
- $125,000+, so i wont be applying for financial aid.
- PLEASE CHANCE/COMMENT!</p>

<p>As for recommendations and personal statements, I guess, to be safe, we can assume they will be decent (or a little better than average - whatever that means to you).</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>You know you have a reasonable shot at HYP…you may want to consider applying RD</p>

3

<p>wow really?
Well there are a few things:

  1. I fell in love with Columbia, and I continue to do so every time I go there (which is frequent)
  2. Harvard is way too big for my tastes
  3. I hate the yale campus
  4. I don’t know much about princeton
  5. I love NYC.</p>

<p>So I’ll definitely be applying to columbia college ED, but if I get deferred or rejected then I’ll apply everywhere else.</p>

<p>what do you think my shots at columbia and upenn are like?</p>

4

<p>you need to have good e$$ay$ and could have a higher $AT $core</p>

<p>other $tuff look$ kind of good. i $uggest $itting back, eating some $u$hi, and taking a breather. </p>

<p>al$o be careful w. re$ume formatting, you dont want to have too many extraneou$ detail$</p>

5

<p>Stop making me feel like ****.</p>

<p>(Good shot.)</p>

6

<p>do you really need to inflate your ego THAT BADLY? you know the answer to this thread. and if you have the time out of your busy schedule to sit around and make that giant list, you have time to look at princeton if HY aren’t to your taste…</p>

7

<p>lmao haha
yeah it looks pretty obesessive of me i know… sorry about seeming snobbish.
its just that at this point, i just really want to get into somewhere ED (my dream school being columbia, and the second being stanford or upenn) and get everything done with =/</p>

<p>and as for the resume, i actually didnt type it out for collegeconfidential, i had it typed up already for the yale lab research and the upenn biomedical research - so i basically copied and pasted, but made it CC friendly.</p>

8

<p>My son also preferred Columbia over Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton and Penn (but he liked Yale, Harvard and Penn). Don’t let the “HYPS” obsession on some of these threads dictate how you spend your college years. Columbia and Penn (and Stanford) are all great schools. I’m pleased that my Columbia-bound son made his decision solely based on campus visits, the Core, and NYC. As he has never spent any time on collegeconfidential, his head was never turned by those who seem to think ratings matter more than feel.</p>

9

<p>I guess I kind of did something similar with Penn (I’m not trying to sound conceited either for the record…). Some people on this site told me I would have had a shot at HYPS, but I wanted to just get it over with early and also try to give myself a better shot at Penn (which I fell in love with much the same way you have with Columbia). The thing that people often don’t realize is that the difference between the top 10-15 schools in this country is so negligible that alumni of the Ivies et al end up with roughly the same power in the job market anyway. So, I applied to Penn and couldn’t be any happier that I’ll be going there beginning this fall. If you truly know you want to be at Columbia, then by all means go for it. You’ll most likely get in ED and you’ll have the satisfaction of securing your future well in advance of your friends :). Plus, college admissions is so unpredictable (and doubly so for asians :() that you could get screwed over if you rely on the regular decision process. This happened with one very qualified student from my school (ranked #3 of 700) who applied early to MIT, got rejected, and was then waitlisted from his second-choice school, Columbia, in the RD round. What really gets him is that someone else from my school with relatively inferior qualifications was accepted ED to Columbia. The difference between ED and RD is substantial so don’t think twice if you truly love the place.</p>

10

<p>Congratulations on your hard work and good fortune, nj_azn! Penn is a great school! (My son has also enjoyed not having to think about college admissions since December 11, the Columbia ED date.)</p>

11

<p>Thank you! And, congrats to your son as well :).</p>