What are my chances of a UPenn transfer?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

It’s a long story, so please bear with me…

High School:

I was technically home-schooled (for religious reasons). I was taught in a classroom setting by teachers who weren’t my parents, but I have a home-school diploma and transcript.

My GPA was a 3.92
SAT: (reading) 570, (math) 520, (writing) 590 for a total of 1680
ACT: 24

My extracurriculars included Civil Air Patrol (Think homeschool version of JROTC), a national Christian debate league, lots of tutoring and volunteering, and running a student-led youth group as much as they would allow a female to do so.

Basically my high school background is intended to be EXTRA Christian with a sprinkle of good ole fashion southern Jesus.

Ethnic/ Racial background

My father: Latino/ Filipino.
-His father and grandfather (full Filipinos, I THINK) lived in Mexico (I don’t know why). My grandmother is Mexican.

My mother: Identifies as white, we don’t know her exact heritage

ME: half white, 1/4 Mexican, 1/4 Filipino. I tell everyone that I’m Asian/White because my classmates did NOT care for Mexicans back in the day, I was legitimately afraid for myself at certain points lol. Me being referred to as Asian just stuck after that point. My own family were also prejudice against Mexicans. I have no idea why. (Not supporting it!! Just reporting it!!)

My College work:

I spent 2 semesters at Liberty University in Fall 2013 - Spring 2014, the first semester I failed miserably. The second semester I failed slightly less miserably.

Sem 1:

Gen Chem: F
Gen Bio: F
Pre-calc: F
Bible: A
Speech comm: A

Sem 2:

Gen Chem:F
Gen Bio: B
Pre-calc: F
Bible 2: A
Information technology: A

At this point I lost my financial aid and went back home. I’m not sure if this matters, but the reason I failed my science/ math courses is because I had no idea how to study and I honestly didn’t try. I also hated the school, I was tired of being in a constant religiously-oppressive environment where free thought, where the answer wasn’t Jesus, was looked down on. No offensive to those who went and loved it, it definitely wasn’t for me though.

Community College A

I spent 2 semesters at a local CC Spring 2015-Fall 2015

Sem 1:

Pre-calc: C
Anthropology: B
Accounting: A

Sem 2:

Calc 1: F

A stopped showing up to my Calc 1 class and failed it. I honestly don’t remember why I did this, I think it was because I had a hard time in pre-calc and felt discouraged by my calc 1 class. See “Personal Background”

Personal Backgroud

I’ll try to be as concise as possible since there is a lot of information. Basically I grew up in a very religious, guilty all the time, house. My father was physically, emotionally, and I later found out sexually abusive (last one was toward a sibling, not me) and my mother looked the other way. Neither were very encouraging to me about college.

Fast forward to high school my sophomore year, members of our church find out about our home life. One of my siblings and I temporarily live with other families, but are separated (this was NOT done through the state). I go between 3 other homes and my family’s home all through high school. One of the families I stayed with was Jewish and I became a closeted Jew, (this was a huge no-no in my community). Then my senior year, the last family I stayed with, I was friends with their son and eventually we date and become engaged.

We stay together up through my bout at our local CC, but throughout we are under a lot of pressure from various members of our community, namely to get married asap. We end up splitting up and I moved to Philadelphia with a non-biological sister in early 2016.

Four months later I meet a very nice guy on tinder (yes I know) and we go out. I get pregnant and we decide to start a family and make things work. (We also got married.) I try again at community college because I want to get my life together for our child

Community College B (Community College of Philadelphia)

Sem 1 (first trimester pregnant forgot to drop the course)

Sociology: F

Sem 2:

Pre-calc: A
Intro to chem: A
Chinese: A
Honors English 101: A
Honors Humanities 101: A

Game plan: retake Sociology, only the honors version to show I can do it. Take math (my ideal major) and honors courses. I hear our honors program sends around 20 students to UPenn every year. I’m also helping start our schools first debate team. I also plan to start volunteering and offering to lead student volunteer efforts.

I know that was a lot so for those who stayed with me, thanks!! With this information in mind here are my questions…

  1. What are my chances for UPenn if I continue with my game plan?
  2. If my chances are bad, what can I do to improve them?
  3. How many credits am I allowed to take before I become in ineligible to transfer? The website says 2 years is the max, so 30 credits?
  4. Should I bother retaking the college courses I failed?
2

I don’t know much about transfer admissions, but know that they are still competitive.

Your stats are very very low for Penn.

Sorry to say that F’s in college courses because you did not know how to study/did not try is not a good reason. After all, the most common reasons why students fail classes is because they don’t care or don’t know how to study. Your F’s aren’t really a result of special circumstances but you did have a challenging upbringing.

It’s great that your most recent grades are solid.

I wouldn’t be optimistic of Penn. Try to look for somewhere not only less competitive, but also less demanding academically. You can be happier somewhere else and earn an awesome education.

Sorry for not being able to answer the other questions I’m sure someone else can.

3

Sorry to say but your transcripts, despite the life journey you’ve been through, don’t entirely scream “Penn material.” It’ll be difficult to pull through the transfer pool with that many Fs.