<p>U/W GPA: 3.556
Weighted GPA: 4.499
SAT 1: 2280 (740 CR, 770 M, 770 W)
SAT Biology: 770
SAT Math 2: 790
ACT: 34 (35 W, 36 M, 32 R, 31 S, 34 Essay)</p>
<p>IB Program with 4 HL's</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
TaeKwonDo for 10 years, black belt, instructor.
Volunteered at two hospitals for two years each.
Fed Homeless with Church, helped to start the program.
Volunteer at World Vision
JV Soccer for two years
Church Youth Leader, part of Praise team.
Piano, Guitar, and Drums (dunno if this is important)
Chess Club Third Board
Worked at Dollar Mart for 3 years
Worked in DIRECTV for 2 years</p>
<p>Awards:
NMSP Student
NHS
SHS</p>
<p>Personal Info:
Korean Male, parents make about $35,000 a year. </p>
<p>I know that my U/W GPA is my biggest problem. My mom had a major injury in my sophomore year that put her in the hospital for 6 months. Therefore my freshman and junior GPA were around 3.8, while my sophomore GPA was 3.1. This was also the reason why I couldn't continue soccer for all four years. </p>
<p>Is it still possible for me to get into CAS, or any Ivy league in general?? Not to toot my own horn, but I think my weighted GPA is pretty high (please correct me if I'm wrong; don't have much perspective haha). Other than that, I have low expectations. Is there the slightest chance for me?</p>
<p>Just to clear up a few things. Weighted GPA does not matter as it fluctuates greatly according to a school’s offerings. What does matter is that they EXPECT that you take the hardest curriculum at your school.</p>
<p>That being said, your UW GPA is low. What matters more is your rank. If you are below 15%, I would give you a close to 0% chance of getting into uPenn since something like 94% of the class is 10%, which includes URMs, athletes, legacies, VIPs…</p>
<p>If I were you, I would look into where I would be applying ED. You obviously have potential, but your GPA is simply too low. I would look at Duke, WashU, Carnegie Mellon, uPenn, Northwestern ED. Pick the one you like the most and have the best chance of getting into. If you don’t get in, I honestly wouldn’t waste time applying to Ivies.</p>
<p>And before somebody says it, I know WashU, Duke, Northwestern, and Carnegie Mellon aren’t Ivies. They are just the highest caliber schools with ED. WashU, a school that suffers from low yield rate, gives a HUGE advantage to those who apply ED so that is why I am mentioning them.</p>
<p>@geekboy Unfortunately I dont have my predicted scores yet, although I already have a 6 in SL philosophy under my belt.
Senior schedule:
HL Biology
HL Psychology
HL English
HL Math
TOK
SL Spanish
Hoping to major in biology, CAS if I get into Penn by some divine intervention.</p>
<p>As long as you’re doing well in the most challenging classes available at your school, I don’t think GPA really matters. GPA is used more as a tool for your school to rank its students; Penn would get your transcript and see that you’ve been doing well excluding sophomore year so just make sure to mention why your sophomore GPA was so low in your application.</p>
<p>@adelice where should I mention my sophomore year GPA? On my Yale SCEA app, I put it in the additional information section. Was that the right place to put it?</p>
<p>Ouch that UW GPA, I dunno, even normally you were getting a 3.8, which isn’t really that great for Upenn… I don’t want to be mean but, I think that you would have a much greater shot at getting in to another schools like the ones Wallrus75 said. Just being honest.</p>
<p>Ok ok. 4 HLs are quite a challenge! I would say as long as you have over a 38/42 in your grade 11 finals, you should be in the accepted zone. I got in with a 41/42 but my sat scores were crap compared to yours and I know someone who got a 39 in grade 11 so a minimum of 38 would be good</p>
<p>I don’t know. Each individual is different but I know a kid that got rejected and had a tough year GPA wise because he got leukemia and spent most of the year in the hospital. He had great stats, standardized tests, etc. I don’t know if it was his GPA which took the hit that caused his rejection or not. I worried that his situation was too defining of an event in his life to the point that weakened his essays and personal story to some degree. He got into an elite non-Ivy though if that’s any consolation. I say go for it and see what happens.</p>
howevet, wallrus said that I might have a shot at those schools with ED. Does the same apply for RD?</p>