UPENN ED or Cornell ED

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>WHARTON BABBY</p>

<p>About me:
1. Ethnicity & Gender: White male (First generation immigrant? Born in Ukraine.)
2. Income Bracket > 150k?</p>

<p>Stats:
1. Unweighted GPA: 3.91 - 4.0 (Top 1% - Top 3%); 1 A-, 2 A+s, 1 B, and the rest are all As
2. PSAT: 207 & SAT: 2160 (750 M 720 W 690 CR) - Aiming for a 2200+ on my third try...
3. AP Tests: 5-US History; 5-English Lang
4. Subject Tests -Math L2 - 800; History - 740 (probably no re-take)</p>

<p>Extra Curriculars:</p>

<p>Sports-
1. Tennis (JV - 2 years, Varsity - 2 years)
2. Soccer (JV - 3 years, Varsity - 1 year)</p>

<p>Leadership-
1. Vice President of UNICEF Club (2 years)
2. Peer Leader (2 years) (Help 10 freshmen in their first year of high school)
3. President/Co-Founder of PascackVolunteers (2 years) (A club/organization/liaison service my friend and I started at our school, which is the main conduit for all other volunteer clubs in the district, which covers two high schools. The principal loved our idea, which is the main reason why he decided to make it district-wide).
4. Application Administrator (2 years). I was part of a programming team that helped to design and program an iPhone application for our entire high school (available on the App Store). I now filter posts that are made to the application. </p>

<p>Ordinary ECs-
1. Investment Club (3 years)
2. Debate (All 4 years) (Undefeated JV season junior year; won 3rd place team award @ the last debate)
3. Math League (4 years) (Invited to dinner meet 2x; only top 10 people at the club)
4. Science League (2 years) (Top 5 students in the grade); is this worth mentioning?
5. National Honors Society (2 years) (of course, lol)
6. Science National Honors Society (2 years); is this worth mentioning? Didn't do much here...
7. Habitat for Humanity; is this worth mentioning? Didn't do much here...
8. Environmental Club; is this worth mentioning? Didn't do much here...</p>

<p>*The science clubs have nothing to do with my intended major, so I'm not sure if I should mention them...?</p>

<p>Volunteering (kinda lacking here?):
1. 125+ volunteer hours at a local blood bank by the end of the summer (telerecruitment and data entry and canteen)
2. I'll obviously get a few hours from NHS and tutoring before I submit my application. </p>

<p>Side passions-
1. Intermediate Programmer. Learned Javascript, HTML (and of course CSS), and I am in the process of learning Python, Java, and jQuerty (obviously not a whole new language, but it might as well be for what I'm gleaning). I will be skipping CP Java and going straight to AP. I highly recommend codecademy (an online learning website - FREE).
2. Own and manage an equity fund (with the supervision of my parents of course!).
3. Fluent Russian and conversational Spanish...</p>

<p>Summer activities-
1. TENNIS TENNIS TENNIS ALL THE TIME!! 1-5/1-6/1-7 almost everyday during the summer. I am also proud to say I was a part of the best tennis team in school history this past season.
2. Intense soccer training
3. Moved up from CP Spanish to Honors Spanish
4. Learned Java and moved up to AP Java, skipping CP.
5. Shadowed + Interned for Ferrari North America (the lawyer there is a friend's dad).
6. IT administration at my mom's company: Hardesty & Hanover for 1 week...
7. Cultural/learning experience/vacation (lol not at all) in Russia for 2 weeks.
8. SAT prep (obviously won't put this on my application).</p>

<p>Awards:
-Excellence in History - 9th Grade (Only one given out for the entire student body of 350+)
-Excellence in Foreign Language - 10th Grade (Only one given out for the entire student body of 350+)
-New Jersey Scholar's Program Nominee (Top 2 Students in the grade, based on GPA; kind of slid since then, have done badly in physics).
-Minor mathematics scholarship in 9th grade from Raytheon</p>

<p>Most rigorous curriculum senior year (probably will have to drop some classes unfortunately..):
-AP Statistics
-BC Calculus
-AP Lit
-AP Spanish IV
-AP Java (Skipping CP Java; taking a summer course)
-AP Euro/World History (Whatever it will be called)</p>

<p>Side question: Can anyone get me an internship at Goldman Sachs or on Wall Street? LOL that would be frickin amazing...</p>

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<p>If you are asking which school you should apply to ED nobody can give advice on that. Your stats make you qualified and since ED is binding it means that you cannot apply anywhere else, so apply to the school you would be happiest at. The biggest issue I see is that you started almost all your EC’s junior year, which makes it look like you joined everything to try impress colleges.</p>

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<p>Uh oh. You are absolutely right… I hadnt even thought of that. In fact, the UNICEF club was started just when I happened to be in my junior year. The application we made for our school, and the app design course I took was also started in my junior year. NHS and SNHS and peer leaders are only extra curriculars you can do as a junior. But wow you brought up an excellent point…how do I explain this to college admins?</p>

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<p>They will understand for NHS and SNHS (that is the case for all NHS clubs). That being said I would address it in either your essay or supplement (if the college requires one). If I where you I would talk about how I had been involved in various things and entering junior year felt that I had the skills and time to dedicate to these causes. That being said I think that no matter what they will be skeptical of the fact that you became more involved later.</p>

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<p>I will do my best to address it in the supplement, but now you have me a little worried lol. Its not like I was, “oh my god I need to get more involved” during my junior year. The opportunities just happened to present themselves to me this year.</p>

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<p>bumpbumpbump</p>

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<p>bump bump bump</p>

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<p>Wow you have great stats!
Well about that decision, I agree with what was said before, you should apply ED to the school you love the most since it is a binding agreement. Though I have heard Cornell is “easier” to get into than UPenn? Not sure if this is true though. But I will say one thing: UPENN is in the heart of a major city while Cornell is in the middle of nowhere, New York. Ultimately it will be YOUR decision! So think about it carefully before you decide.
Good luck! I hope you get into the school of your dreams (:</p>

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<p>thanks guys, I really appreciate the replies so far (keep it coming! lol). Anyway, yes im going to have to make a tough decision; picking between UPENN and Cornell will be extremely hard. Obviously I think I’d have a better chance at Cornell, but UPENN I think would be a better fit for me. I’m just trying to put my stats in perspective, to see how high I can go. Thanks again!</p>

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<p>I don’t see you getting into Wharton, scores are too low. Few ap scores, average ecs. Average awards.</p>

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<p>Haha kiddo64, it seems that you’ve found me again… Anyway, I agree and disagree with your statements. My SAT I score is flat-out not good very UPENN…understandable. My awards really aren’t that great either, except for the NJ Scholar’s Program thing which I thought was pretty good. However APs are a different story. There are basically five core classes at my school, and pretty much every school: foreign language, math, english, history, and science. Out of these five core classes, only 2 are offered to juniors as APs: History and english. And I took both…psychology and comp sci and stat did NOT fit into my schedule. It was really unfortunate but whatever… couldn’t do anything about it. As for my ECs…I’d say that most of them are pretty bland but I think designing an iPhone app for your school and starting a district-wide club is pretty solid. And lastly I speak russian and wasn’t even born either which is pretty cool (not really a BIG hook, but still something). But do you think I’d have a solid/above-average chance at making it to Cornell ED??</p>

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<p>born here*…</p>

<p>Lol I wrote that too fast. My bad</p>

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<p>any more replies? i’d chance back…</p>

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<p>Apply not where you think you’ll be a better “fit” (because really, almost everyone is happy and finds their own niche in a mid-size university) but which programs interest you and what kind of careers you want to pursue.</p>

<p>If you want to study finance, I think either school is great. But since you mention internship at places like Goldman Sachs or in Wall Street, I can speak from experience that it’s probably not what you’d expect. If you think these internships are “freakin amazing” because of the prospect of money-making and professionalism, I think you need to study more and find your true passion. But if you’re interested in them because of investment interests, financial advising, and other intrinsic aspects of financial science, these opportunities will naturally come to you in time.</p>

<p>And I don’t think your SAT scores are safe for either school (considering the median scores tend to increase each year and you’re a white male), so I might suggest trying ACT instead of taking the SAT for the third time.</p>

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<p>Umm these internships would of course 100% be UNPAID…lol im not expecting to get any money of course, for many years. And id be lying to u if i said that the prospect of making a lot of money isnt awesome, but I can honestly say Im really really passionate and interested in the subject matter. Obviously I TRY to learn some stuff on my own, but I feel like an experience at Goldman Sachs or at any Wall Street firm would be absolutely INVALUABLE…id love it. Thats why it’d be “freakin amazin” lol. </p>

<p>I’m kinda surprised and disappointed that you say my SAT scores arent even safe for Cornell, ESPECIALLY considering the fact that im applying ED. I am gonna try and re-take them as I said in my application, but still…</p>

<p>Haha it sucks to be a white male right now…</p>

<p>Thanks again for the reply! This is actually really helping me…what do u think about the rest of my application? Look okay?</p>

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<p>I respect you XD. Try the act, but for Cornell Ed if you got 2200 or higher or 34 or higher you have a solid solid chance.</p>

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<p>Alright then I guess I know what I gotta do…re-take the SAT and get at least a 2200. Thanks guys.</p>