What are my chances for ED?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>hi i’m EDing to the engineering school…also do I have a better shot here or at m.i.t.’s EA?</p>

<p>asian female senior from new york</p>

<p>sat I: (first try) 720 m, 740 cr, 730 w (2190 combined) --hope to improve this oct</p>

<p>sat IIs:
-760 chem
-730 math 1C</p>

<p>aps:
-5 world history,
-5 chem (first 5 in the history of my school for chem–so ill get a pretty good rec)</p>

<p>current courses: ap lit, ap bio, ap calc ab, ap econ, religion, psych, govt (all classes taken over the 4 yrs have been honors level)
*my school is very small and ive taken just about the most amount of aps possible </p>

<p>gpa: 4.0/4.0 (96.6 weighted)</p>

<p>rank: school doesnt rank, should be around top 10% though out of 60 girls(relatively competitve all-girl catholic school)</p>

<p>awards:
-national merit commended student
-national latin exam gold for 2 yrs, silver 1 yr
-national french exam award</p>

<p>research experience:</p>

<p>NYU’s Musculoskeletal Research Center (summer of jr yr)

  • assisted in various projects regarding molecular biology research
  • in the process of writing an Intel paper on the interaction between a certain protein and growth factor (will be first Intel paper ever submitted by my school)</p>

<p>Fu Foundation School of Engineering, Columbia University: Neurotrauma and Repair Lab (summer of soph yr)

  • helped build protocol to develop a clean western assay for aquaporin-4</p>

<p>Hunter College’s Center for the study of gene structure and function (throughout jr yr)

  • mounted and measured rat whiskers
  • observed rat whisking frequency
  • acknowledged in a paper that is about to be published</p>

<p>ecs:
-co-founder and co pres of chess club (1 yr)
-co-captain of soccer team (4 yrs)
-science club, treasurer (4 yrs)
-student council, rep (1 yr)
-amnesty intl (3 yrs)
-culture club treasurer (3 yrs)
-newspaper (4 yrs)
-track (2 yrs)
-junior ladies of charity (4 yrs)</p>

<p>*basically my school sucks ass when it comes to the math/sciences…no math clubs or participation in olympiads of any sort</p>

<p>volunteer work: 3 hospitals, american red cross (should total well over 200 hrs)</p>

<p>also did a science program at Barnard college during jr yr: Barnard’s Saturday Science Seminars</p>

<p>thanks for all your thoughts</p>

2

<p>Chances are better at Penn SEAS. MIT's EA also has a lower accept rate than its RD, I think. I always hear that Penn ED is gives a high boost to chances.</p>

<p>I think your profile is on par with the SEAS ppl here and you're female, so I'd say above average definately. How much that is I don't know. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>frm the look of ur stats, u've a better chance than me! :(</p>

<p>why not give MIT a try, with all ur ec's coupled with great essays, u're in! :D</p>

4

<p>Within the past few years, only girls have been able to get accepted to MIT (about 1 every 2 years or so), so you being a girl and having a strong science background would be an excellent boost when it comes to MIT. How much of a boost? Not quite sure. Good luck!</p>

5

<p>hmm i dont really understand what you mean by "only girls have been able to get accepted to MIT (about 1 every 2 years or so)"....</p>

6

<p>Sorry, I meant only girls (from my school) have been accepted to MIT as opposed to boys. It's been more than a decade (perhaps even more) since MIT accepted a male from my high school. I realize this doesn't really help you, but I was trying to point out the advantage you have lol.. really confusing sorry :o</p>

7

<p>ohh okay got ya. thanks lol. if its not too much to ask, how 'good' were those girls that got accepted to mit?</p>

8

<p>I think u have a better shot at MIT. They dying for girls, and they value "initiative" more than anything else. Research, and founding a club, i think you have a great shot there.</p>

9

<p>I think Penn will be more forgiving on the SATI/II math scores than MIT will...MIT is so tough w/o perfect maths.</p>

10

<p>The girl who got in last year (class of '09) was the sal. for her class. The girl from two years ago was #5 from her class. Each class is approximately 600 kids, but last year's class had <em>only</em> a little more than 550 (which is still a lot!). As far as I know, the girl from last year was not a complete science genious. Instead, she had a balance between the humanities (she was an editor for our school's paper) and science (although she didn't win any awards, I'm not sure how science-oriented she was exactly). When it comes down to it, judge each school by how well their programs fit you and do not disregard the social scene of each. I've found that Penn has a great social atmosphere, however MIT dominates in the sciences (no duh!). Though you'll be getting a great education from both, MIT will undoubtedly provide you with <em>better</em> science facilities and research opportunities. If you're looking at college as a place to learn and work hard (and have fun too), then MIT sounds like your school. Penn will give you similar opportunities, however the balance between academics and fun is not the same as MIT. Good luck in your search, I hope you find the school fit for you!</p>

11

<p>thanks krabble, very helpful.</p>