UPenn Class of 2023 RD

Hello everyone! I just got accepted from the waitlist and made an account to share my stats/details with you.
First things first: All candidates here (even those who were denied) are way better than I am but here we are! So dear parent/student, don’t lose hope.

P.S I’m an international student from Pakistan.

Decision: Accepted (after getting waitlisted)

Objective:
SAT I: Superscored: Maths=700 English=710 Essay=20/24
ACT: Not Taken
SAT II: English literature=720
U.S History=560 (Never studied a word of US history, took the test based on general knowledge)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank: 1/60
AP/IB: Not taken.
OLevel: 9As 1A
A Level: Predicted grades: Economics= A
, Law=A, IT=A, Accounting=A.

Major Awards: First Position all over Pakistan in National Poetey Writing Competition, First all over Pakistan in Turkish Language assessments, TSA Writing Competition (Oxford Union) Pakistan finalist, GOI Writing Competion Japanese Embassy in Pakistan Winner.

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Student Coucil(Head girl 2017-19), Welfare Club (President+Founder), Publications Club (President), School magazine (Editor-in-Chief), MUNs+debating(couple of awards+ English Speaking Union certified speaker and national finalist twice), Wrote op-eds in national newspapers in Pakistan on current affairs and int’l relations.
Job/Work Experience: Helped my father with his side business, summer volunteer at my city’s only cancer research hospital (marketing department, radiology and as a play therapist for young patients.
Volunteer/Community service: Cancer hospital, internship and project with WWF-Pakistan, volunteered at an orphanage and conducted a food drive.
Summer Activities: I won a national scholarship to Georgetown University’s summer immersion. It was fully funded by Pakistani govt and US department of state.
Essays: Wrote my essay on the Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India: A risky and controversial move but I made it clear in the essay that no amount of controversy can preclude me from writing about what I am truly passionate about.
Teacher Recommendations: A very generous professor at Georgetown offered to write a rec for me. Haven’t read it but we had a good rapport and she (thankfully) regarded my passion with admiration.

Economics Sir wrote an exceptional rec for me. I had written a research paper with him on political economy and he mentioned my proposals to combat economic crises in Pakistan to in the letter.
Accounting teacher wrote the last one. We were very close and she knew me well and believed that I would do well at UPenn.
Counselor Rec: My Vice Principal was my counselor and wrote a flattering rec.

City/Country: Lahore, Pakistan.
School Type: Private. International but not renowned.
Ethnicity: Asian (South Asian).
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Not sure about the parameters in US.
Received a full ride though. (100% aid since Pakistani rupee is badly depreciated and even the well-to-do here would be considered financially weak in US).
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I speak four languages with fluency (Urdu-mother tongue- English, Turkish and Punjabi-regional), I can read and understand a bit of Arabic and Japanese and I am learning Spanish. I think being multilingual helped a bit.

Why you think you were accepted/not accepted and general comments: Test scores were really poor but I justified it since I’m an international student and know nothing about US history. Couldn’t take multiple attempts because SATs here are expensive.
I think my essays were good although the Penn supplement was mediocre at best. My recs probably saved me and my American professor was too generous in her praise!
Finally, I used to spend hours through these threads like you guys trust me we get through it. To all international students and esp Pakistani ones, you can do this. I did it on my own you don’t have to pay heaps of money to get into an ivy league.
And finally, to the US students: I see most of your parents are very much involved in the admissions process. Please cherish that and love them for it. Parents from Pakistan and I’m sure other Asian countries (mostly) are completely reliant on their kids, not well acquainted with international admissions systems and we do everything on our own (and failure isn’t an option lol!). To all the parents, you’re doing a great job!

@BHBHBH27 Congratulations!! Good luck to you at UPenn! My son will also be starting there this fall.

Decision: Accepted (after getting deferred)
Also accepted to: Johns Hopkins, CMU, Wesleyan, Hamilton
Also waitlisted by: Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Haverford,
Also rejected by: Swarthmore, MIT, Stanford, Columbia

Objective:
SAT I: Math=800 English=720 Essay=13/24
ACT: Not Taken
SAT II: Chem=800
U.S History=740
Math II=780
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank: 2/330
AP/IB: Chem:5 Calc AB:5 APUSH: 4 US Gov:5 took Physics, Italian, Calc BC and Lit senior year

Major Awards: Questbridge Finalist?

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): High school Lacrosse: 1 year JV 3 year Varsity (2 year captain)
and some useless minor clubs.

Job/Work Experience: worked at a junkyard for like 5 months junior year and over the summer.
Volunteer/Community service: tiny bit of volunteering in school and at a park.
Summer Activities: Junkyard work and lacrosse summer league.
Essays: Wrote my common app about hitting a wall with a rock, my Why Penn essay was decent, I wrote about a few chem courses and the labs.
Teacher Recommendations: from my AP chem and AP calc teachers, they both loved me so I think they were good

City/Country: Bristol, PA
School Type: Public (60 percent free or reduced lunch)
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Max pell grant <35k income
Received a full ride.
Hooks (First generation, child of immigrants, pretty poor)

Why you think you were accepted/not accepted and general comments: Test scores and GPA were good. My common app was ridiculously good and I think it played a large role in my acceptance. I really didnt have alot of extracurriculars or special awards and still got in so my advice is to not go crazy stressing and just make sure your common app is really good and reflects your personality and you should be fine. I think my status as a poor person did make it easier for me to get in though.