<p>I come from an upper middle class public high school in New Jersey which has very large Jewish and Asian populations… the students are uber competitive and my class has 360 students… out of all the students from my high school that applied, no one got into UPenn… yet people got into the Holy Trinity (Harvard, Princeton, Yale)… but then the elite private school in our town (Newark Academy) which has like less than 100 students in each class got around 7-10 students into UPenn… I think UPenn just hates my high school.</p>
<p>Hahaha HYP is now the Holy Trinity?</p>
<p>it's ok, I've heard that Brown hates all of Massachusetts.</p>
<p>but what I think is even more hilarious is that Fox hates Brown (see "Simpsons" and "Family Guy").</p>
<p>15 people in my city applied to Brown (I live in Canada, so even in a big city like Montreal, not many people apply to the States)...only one person was accepted, and she was probably one of the least qualified applicants. </p>
<p>Big deal, stuff like that happens. Penn doesn't hate your high school; get over it.</p>
<p>international students have a harder time getting into state schools. that's just reality.</p>
<p>jpps1 k- Penn totally does hate my high school... how do u explain that so many people get into Penn from neighboring towns and from the private school in my town and yet, my high school, which is as competitive, doesn't get neone into Penn??</p>
<p>It's proabably because an upper-middle class public school in new jersey represents one of the largest applicant pools to Penn. Your geography and the number of people applying from similiar institutions hurts the chances for admission for people from your school.</p>
<p>possibly they just hate your GC</p>
<p>if someone applied ED and decided not to go to Penn, they will never trust your GC again and thus look down on his reccomendation. This is very, very, very rare though.</p>
<p>penn mos def hates our high school, NO ONE gets in there but people get into harvard and princeton and columbia.</p>
<p>It's okay - Brown utterly despises my school. Penn used to love us up till this year - we'd get 7-10 kids in every year and this year we only got in 3. Good thing I'm one of 'em =]</p>
<p>hmm yeah i def think that happens. Penn LOVES my school (9/16 accepted last year, 7/15 this year i think). But stanford, which last year took like 5 or 6 people (and every year about 30 apply) only took three this year (and they rejected a ton of qualified people SCEA). It's really weird but apparently they got a new director of admissions and he totally hates us. i guess that is life :(</p>
<p>it's not like only 3 kids out of 360 get in from my high school... no one gets in...</p>
<p>New Jersey is not the best place to come from when it comes to college admissions. In general, many NJ schools are VERY competitive - come application time, a lot of competitive students are coming from New Jersey. Not to mention some high schools have strange retesting policies, grade inflation, etc. which diminishes the integrity of applicants. I also come from an upper middle class town in NJ with a VERY competitive high school (class of 550+) filled with geniuses of all minorities (and majorities, but really since the Jewish and Asian populations are so big basically everyone's a minority). You have to keep in mind that your town isn't one of a kind, and that there might be exceptional students in your class - but what sets them apart from the exceptional students in every competitive class? Not to mention, different schools look for different things, and no one in your school has figured out what that is for Penn yet.</p>
<p>Maybe they aren't getting in to Penn and getting into HYP because they put a lot of effort into their HYP applications and not a lot into their Penn applications. If you write an average "Why Penn" essay, no matter how fantastic you are in every other aspect, you're probably not getting in. Penn wants people who want Penn.</p>
<p>Your school at one time may have kept rejecting Penn.</p>
<p>Except I put my heart into my penn application and my butt into my princeton one.</p>
<p>No one has gotten into an ivy for the past 15 years at my school. Trust me, MANY try.</p>
<p>Well that just isn't enough, peachykween. You have to sell your soul if you want to get into an Ivy.</p>
<p>you're right. As lazy as I was with my princeton application, I must have accidentally hit the <em>sell soul</em> button because somehow they accepted me. Penn, unfortunately, waitlisted my ass.</p>
<p>blah111111 ---- "international students have a harder time getting into state schools. that's just reality."</p>
<p>State schools?</p>
<p>Last time I checked it cost nearly 45 grand to attend Penn. Wait, and only 42% of students here are on financial aid. Hold on, this is a state school?</p>
<p>"Maybe they aren't getting in to Penn and getting into HYP because they put a lot of effort into their HYP applications and not a lot into their Penn applications. If you write an average "Why Penn" essay, no matter how fantastic you are in every other aspect, you're probably not getting in. Penn wants people who want Penn."</p>
<p>Thank you. </p>
<p>"Penn wants people who want Penn."</p>
<p>If you want to get into Penn, this is your gospel.</p>