<p>I was just rejected from Penn ED a little over a week ago and I'm STILL not over it. I thought I had a shot, and I would've been happier with a deferral--the rejection hit me hard. I did everything I thought I was supposed to do--a campus visit during my junior year, meeting with the Huntsman coordinator in Philly, and an amazing interview with a CAS graduate! I'm not really sure why I wasn't accepted and so many people with lower stats were accepted over me.</p>
<p>My stats--</p>
<p>GPA: UW 4.0 W 4.55
SAT I: 720 CR 800 M 760 W (1 sitting)
SAT II: 800 USH 800 MII 750 Lit 780 Bio-E 720 Spanish
ACT: 34 (took twice, got a 32 the first time)
AP: 5 on all but lang/comp, got a 4</p>
<p>senior year courseload: AP lit, AP psych, AP spanish, AP calc bc, AP chem, choir, finance</p>
<p>interview went great!
my essays were great, but I mean that's just my opinion.
my recs were good- math teacher and spanish cause of huntsman</p>
<p>extracurrics: the basics like NHS and key club, but I'm a 4 year xc/track runner and my 5K is sub-20, one mile around 5:15.</p>
<p>help getting over this? and with my stats, what are some schools similar to penn that have a great business program like wharton?! I know I want to be involved in greek life and all that but in an academically-recognized school. thanks!!</p>
<p>Don’t worry. You are not alone feeling this way. I had always heard that essays are a deciding factor between 2 similar candidates. But in this selection process I see candidates with the same demographics and much lower stats getting in just because of their essays. I take comfort in the fact that I’m not alone. There are folks out there much better than you or me that got rejected. Now the only thing to be done is to concentrate on the other essays.</p>
<p>Maybe your essays weren’t as good as you thought they were… Or naybe you got beat out by URMs, legacies, and recruited athletes, as those hooks give the most weight during ED. Hmm… Emory’s got a good undergrad business school (Goizueta). So does NYU (Stern). CMU also has a pretty good undergraduate business school (Tepper). UChicago also has a great economics department, if that interests you. I’d look at these few schools, based on their academic programs… I’m not quite sure what you’re looking for outside of the academic program, though.</p>
<p>At the top schools in the country, after a certain point it just comes down to numbers you cannot control. Where you live, what your race, religion, gender, ethnicity, etc. are, what your high school experiences have been, all of that affects who gets offered admission. At the end of the day, they could very well just take a dart and throw it at a wall to figure out who gets in because they have no way of knowing who will turn out to be the best fit. The process isn’t as scientific as people wish it were.</p>
<p>I see that you’re a great athlete, but otherwise your ECs do not really stand out. Wharton is a crapshoot for everyone so good luck with the other apps!</p>