Let me begin this post by saying I know I am far less qualified than the majority of the applicants and I know my chances are slim but I would appreciate it if you would give me your honest opinion on what my chances would be at Penn ED more specifically Wharton, where my father is an alum. Thanks!
GPA: 3.71… weighted (this is obviously my greatest flaw, very unmotivated student early in highschool )
SAT I: 2060 single, 2080 super
ACT: 33 E:35 M:35 R: 32 S:31 W:32
SAT II: USH: 710 Math II: 700 (going to retake Math 2 and hopefully score higher)
PSAT: 207
9th grade:0 AP/honors somewhere around a 3.5 gpa
10th: 2 honors, 1 AP probably more like a 3.7
11th: 3 AP 4.1 gpa
12th: 6 AP 1 honor hopefully 4.2+
EC:
President/Founder of Student Managed investment fund (we invest real money from my schools endowment into the stock market)
Teen Board (Officer) at a community center called Wesley Rankin
Teen Board (member) Ronald McDonald House
NHS member
Member of Junior Classical League
Participant in UT Dallas top trader comp this summer and last summer, finished top 10 last summer
Last Summer worked at a Veterinarian’s office, 6 hrs a day, 4 days a week, 8 weeks over the summer
Went to TCU for a week to participate in an investor challenge(for more info search tcu investor challenge)
Internship at private equity firm
President Volunteer service award all 3 years (300 hours total now)
Honor Roll all years
Varsity Golf in 11th, likely 12th, JV 10th
JV Crew 9th Grade
Member of World Affairs Club 9th, 10th
Member of Environmental Awareness Club 9th
Summer after Freshmen year took a service trip to New Orleans to help rebuild the wetlands through and organization called Student Shoulder to Shoulder
Teacher Recs
(10/10)- saw me progress from a B student in 9th grade to and A+ student 11th grade in her class
(10/10)- best student in the class and she’s my advisor, really likes me
Guidance Counselor Rec- not too sure but I don’t see why it would be any lower than (8/10)
My Essays should be pretty good
So I guess my main question is should I waste my ED on a school that is so far from my grasp? Or should I use ED on something a little more plausible like wake forest or emory (don’t get me wrong, both great schools) and then try and transfer into penn after a year at one of those colleges, presumably getting all A’s. And if I did do the latter do you think I would have a fairly good shot at getting in with more grades under my belt?
@mat324 your sat and goa are a bit subpar for penn.under normal circumstances i would say dont waste your ED at Penn. HOWEVER the fact that you are a legacy changes up the game completely. I know if legaces with even lower scores than yours that got into Penn. Aso legacies have a tremendoud advantage during the ED cycle and less so during RD. In fact the ED acceptance rate for lecacies has been rumored to be as high as 50%. If Penn is your first choice i say go for it ED. Your legacy status will improve your chances immensely.
Just wondering, what is your unweighted gpa? I know Penn gives a LOT of consideration to GPAs, as their average accepted UW gpa was 3.91 last year, highest of all the ivies.
@mf8088 in fact the average GPA of the enrolled students was 3.94 according the the latest common data set (so the average GPA of the accepted students is prob even higher). i dont know if it is the highest in the ivies, but it must def be one of the highest ones. penn is known to put a lot more emphasis on GPA rather than SATs.
@Penn95 my bad, I looked at the 2013-2014 common data set, on which it stated 3.91. I wouldn’t say that the average GPA of accepted students is higher than the average GPA of students who enrolled, though.
@mf8088 well my unweighted is abysmal, somewhere around a 3.4, and I know it’s not any substitute for maintaining a high gpa throughout all of highschool but I’m just hoping that colleges will account for my strong upward trend
@Penn95 well im hoping that Penn would be more focused on my ACT than my SAT. So you think that I would actually have a decent ( I’m using that word very loosely) chance were I to apply ED because of my legacy, even with my bad gpa and average ACT?
@mf8088 maybe not but if i had to bet i would say it is a little bit lower since the cross-admits Penn loses are students who choose Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, MIT instead so it wouldnt be far fetched to say that many of these kids have ultra high/perfect GPAs. In any case the difference should be negligible.
@mat324 You will only have a decent chance if you apply ED. Legacy status helps a lot in ED but very little in RD. And there are legacies with subpar scores (lower than yours) who get in because Penn values legacies a lot, more so than the other Ivies. ED is the best chance you got and given how much Penn favors legacies during ED is it a chance worth taking I think. Make sure you nail the essays and improve Math 2 a bit if you can.
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