Wharton ED chances- pleasee help

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
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<p>Let me say this first, i know wharton will be a VERY big reach for me, but i really really like it, and would still like to give it a try. I’ve actually posted once very long ago, but i was very inactive after that so i didnt have much response. So here I am again, hope you guys don’t mind. SO, heres’ my stats</p>

<p>International Student: Asian/Chinese( Born in malaysia, moved to Hong Kong at 4)
Speaks Mandarin at home, but is fluet in Cantonese(you can call it a dialect or something) and my English is alright, Ill probably be able to get good toefl grades. I also know two other chinese dialects, but not fluently.</p>

<p>Private School, Full IB diploma (we send around 5-10 to Ivies each year, but only a few have went to harvard so far, but around 1-3 get accept to Upenn every year, so i gues they know our school, its actualy quite famous in Hong Kong)</p>

<p>Rank: No rank, but i believe im around 10-25th, really hard to determine tho (we have like 98 studetns i think)</p>

<p>SAT1: 800m 580 CR 600 WR, Total:1980 (yes i noe they suck, but hey… im just not THAT good at eng… and i didnt study at all, so i believe i can improve next time) will retake in Oct, and wil mass study this summer, hopefully get at least 2100, aiming 2200 0.0 seriously trying.</p>

<p>SAT2: Chinese 800, Math 2c 730 Physics 680 (yes i noe the math is not good, and the phy basically sucks. but i did them during april in my junior year, when i havent covered all the materials for phy yet, for math, i just needa study for the next one) will retake in nov, but they probably wont see the score if i ED, hopefully they can ignore the 680 T_T sicne they look at the two ‘highest’ score</p>

<p>Alright, my transcript now</p>

<p>During my fresh and soph year, i did the IGCSE, the cambridge thingy if anyone noe… anyways… heres the breakdown
the grades are 7-A* 6-A 5-B…</p>

<p>Freshman
Eng 5 (its actualyl two components, lit and lang, but they just give u a single grade)
Chinese First language 7
Additional Math (the harder one) 6
Geography 7 or 6 i think… i cant remem…
History 7
IT 7 or 6… cant remme soz… i can verify in a few days tho…
Co-ordinated science (phy bio chem) 7
PE 6 or 7… but this rlly doesnt matter, cuz its just our school requirement.</p>

<p>2nd semester
OK, THERES A MAJOR DIP IN GRADES HERE FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON.
Eng 4
Chinese 6
Add math 5
GEO 6
His 6
IT 6
Sci 6
PE 6</p>

<p>I hav no clue wat happen, and am tempted to make up sth to explain it… : P</p>

<p>Sophomore
Eng 5
Chinese 7
Add math 6
Geo 6 or 7… ill verify in a few days (i think its 6)
HIs 5 (bad… sicne it went from 7-5… sigh…)
IT 7
PE -watever… 6 or 7</p>

<p>Eng 5
Chinese 7
Add math 6
Geo 7
history 6
IT 7
Sci 7</p>

<p>And for the examination… i got a B for my Eng lit exam, 6 A Geo, IT, Sci, Chinese, eng lang (it counts as two grades, its ‘double award’, which means u get an A, u get 2 A), and 3 A* for add math, extended math (the easy one, which we covered the materials in the early fresh and grade 8, but most ppl take it in our year, with some taking an even easier one),
so its 1B 6A 3 A*, most ppl only hav 9 grades tho, cuz mayn doesnt take add math.</p>

<p>Junior IB (they are not tht great…)
i take chinese A1 Stand, English A2 stand, ITGS stand (yes i noe this is a joker subject, but i was stupid back then), HL math, HL phy, HL econ</p>

<p>Chinese 6
Eng 6
ITGS 6
Phy 7
Econ 6
Math 5 (yes sucks…)
Tok Good
2nd term( i havent looked, but i noe wat i will AT LEAST get</p>

<p>Eng 6 (very unlikely for 7)
chinese 6 (hav chances for 7)
ITGS 6 (have chances for 7)
Phy 7
Econ 7
Math 6 (hav chances ofr 7)
Tok duno. (maybe satisfactory)</p>

<p>OK… i noe they mite not look too good, i actualyl got the ‘acheivement award’ for ITGS and my eng subject… but theres only 7-8 ppl in each class :P</p>

<p>Now its the EC time. dont laugh ur ass off tho… THEY ARE EXTREMELY WEAK AND I WANAN KILL MYSELF FOR THT. but im mentioning everything i can think of, despite of its value.</p>

<p>Chinese writer, co-editor, editor for student led School magazine. founding member (10,11, will continue, so 12)</p>

<p>Co-ordiantor of elementary tutoring (in school) (11, mite be 12?)</p>

<p>TREATS (interatcing/teaching handicapped teenagers (11, dont htink 12)</p>

<p>POSSIBLY SCHOOL NEWS PAPER NEXT YEAR (12)</p>

<p>Interact Finance member(9, 10) charity fundraising year long activity</p>

<p>and theres a whole bunch of small community service of different kind over the years. walkathons… food drive… helper at fashion show for charity… helper at charity fair for children… helper for unicef… book drive for philipines school… inter house hockey (playing against other class, not worth mentioning), swiming gala participant, school fair helper… community service for natural habitat… all of these are pretty short activities tho… longest are like a few weeks, but most are like 1 week, or one day… but it seems tht most of them are ‘community service’ ish activities…
yes i noe they are bad… i cant imagine ppl starting up business etc…</p>

<p>Summer :Columbia summer school (11, whjich is NOW) a business non graded/non-credit course, will work at a law firm in malaysia as well after this. </p>

<p>Awards (suck as well)
Honour roll (10,11, wil have 12 but they wont see)
head of year commendation (10,11)(just getting a certain no. of pts, theres a higher one, which means im not tht good sicne i didnt get it.)
Ill possibly get the higher one in my mid year report, which they wont see if i get flatout rejected</p>

<p>Academic acheivment award for ITGS and Eng (11) only hav 8 ppl in each class… nth significant at all…
THTs PRACTICALY IT… but ive actualyl scored some ‘decent’ scores on those world math quiz like AMC, or w.e waterloo or w.e stuff… but i dont think it makes a different, or maybe they arent ‘decent’ at all</p>

<p>Recs: Econ teacher (will be very good), not sure about another one… not sure who to askk… possibly my math teacher n ill try my best to make it good. or i can ask my itgs teacher whihc will be very good, but itgs is not nice at all. n they probbaly want a math rec instead. or i can ask phy, but not sure about the quality… but i assume they will be ‘good’, at least nto to the extend wehre ill be hurt or nething. maybe not impresssive only…</p>

<p>Counselor: Trying everything to make it very good, i think could be quite good, will work on our relation in senior year.</p>

<p>Essay:im working on my second draft for both of them. i really like my Why penn one, at least i think its quite good…says wat i rlly think…
the other is good as well i think. it captures a ‘moment’ in life, gona make it pg 217 or first experience, suitbale for both. i guess they are original.</p>

<p>ok… thts it… i guess. im first generation to go to college. but my bro n sis have went, Sis graduated at UIUC acturial science, and bro is at CMU computer science.</p>

<p>Lets assume my sat is 2100… i have confidence it will… what will be my chances?? i noe u guys will be honest… and i do noe i have a very very low chance even if i ED wharton… im actually thinking of econ CAS instead… will my cahcne be slightly higher??? THANKS FOR READING UP TO HERE, ITS SO LONG! THANKS even if u dont comment!!!</p>

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<p>Definitely a reach but possible. Try to get that SAT to 2200 like you want.</p>

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<p>hahaha, whoa man, you are belittling yourself way too much!! chill out a bit. </p>

<p>I don't know how internation admissions are, but if you were a US citizen, I think you would be competitive. I think your ECs are great- you can definitely talk about a passion there... some might call it a laundry list, but I think you can link them together, and talk about how helping others out is something that means a lot to you, or something lol... that's your job</p>

<p>scores, may be a bit low.... but coming from a completely different continent and part of a completely different culture would seem to me, at least, to make it hard to do well on such an "American" test. Honestly, I think your scores are totally reasonable/impressive because of this (and your 800 in math - a UNIVERSAL subject- shows you are more than on par with the accelerated student. its just your location and background has understandably hindered your performance in sections related to American English). However, i don't know how admissions people view it.... although I think my view makes sense.</p>

<p>Retaking, like you think, couldn't hurt tho... just don't freak out :).</p>

<p>And also, I don't know/understand that grading system.... so my evaluation is more skewed in terms of that too</p>

<p>I dunno, I think you have a great shot. Let Penn know who you are, and you have as great a shot as anybody else.</p>

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<p>well, the grading system, its basically a grade assigned by ur teacher at the end of each semester by looking at ur performance+maybe in class participation+potential+effort+trend. 7 being the highest, 1 being the lowest. I guess a 6-7 for the higher subject is equivalent to a 5 in AP, or in terms of A B C convertion, as i said, 7 would be A<em>, 6 would be A etc.. (thts wat my school say, but its actually vague in what A</em> means neways..)
i actually have some hobbies/interest to add in</p>

<p>Reading: financial related books (reminsciences.... i duno how to spell.. of a stock operator, intelligent investor (reading) etc.. not like i get every single thing tho)</p>

<p>writing: poetry, expressive/creative writing, articles (mostly chinese)</p>

<p>i read in katherine cohens book tht if u use the computer everyday to surf the net, chat, research, reaed, u should put tht in?
but i dont get how going online and chating or surfing the net mite sound good. but i do indeed use the cpu a a few hrs each day for various things.
the best i can put it as is</p>

<p>Computers (surfing, researching, reading, chating, also proficient in flash, powerpoint, animated gif, fireworks, dreamweaver, excel) <- is this worth mentioning at all?</p>

<p>and what about travel? i travel every summer in a way....</p>

<p>Travel: US, europe, thailand, taiwan, china, malaysia <-will it hurt against me instead tho... since they will think 'he always play around only'.</p>

<p>anyways.. u guys are really nice, cuz the last time i posted, the ppl said my chances were very slim.... dont worry, tho, im not freaking myself out, but just rlly wanna go upenn.. do u guys happen to noe if U chicago or Northwestern can be my target? and will i be able to put umich and tufts as safety???</p>

<p>OH, by the way, do any of you know any books written by the finance prof of upenn tht is good? i want to check out some of their books so i can put it in the 'working wit a prof' question, but im having some difficulties in finding ...(i mean i can find a lot fo works by their prof.... bt havent rlly found one 'interesting' or so)
thx for the input anyways</p>

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<p>Bump T_T any input would be appreciated</p>

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<p>bumpppp DX</p>

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<p>SAT's are your biggest obstacle at this point. Focus on the reading. The writing matters, but not that much.</p>