What Can I do To Get On the Right UPenn Track?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>My school only offers 1 A.P. class until Senior year, A.P. U.S. History (Sophomore Year). My school offers accelerated classes but that is not A.P and only for math and science.</p>

<p>My best subjects are english and history. I was going to take A.P. History but I got scared that I would receive a B- so instead I took the next level down which is an A shoe in for me. There are 2 lower levels than the history class I am. Math and Science are not exactly my thing. I am in the one level below accelerated for science. I am in the highest level spanish class. My school does not do A.P. classes or classes titled "honors", it just has "levels". I am kind of lost and don't know what to do because I feel like since my school does not offer A.P's in my strong classes (english, spanish, business, law, etc.) then how can I stand out to colleges?</p>

<p>As far as math goes, there is accelerated then advanced average, average and lastly special attention. I was in advanced average last year but got a B so I decided to drop down to average math class and right now I have an A+ (which is better?). I don't know what to do. I am receiving good grades but I feel very foolish for not being able to take the hardest classes. Senior year I might be able to attempt A.P. Physics but certainly not AB Calc. </p>

<p>I want to pursue a career in business. Is my math class/grades really dependent on my chances at UPenn? Is there no chance I could get into UPenn by being in the average math class? </p>

<p>There are only 4 A.P. classes offered in the entire school year (3 of which are only offered senior year). Will colleges know that? (I am at the 4th highest ranked public high school in the state). </p>

<p>Please give me some advice what I should do to get into the UPenn ball game. What extra EC's should I flood my schedule with, my courses should I focus on (more so) and lastly just overall general advice would be very helpful (other than acing my SATs/ACTs). </p>

<p>Also, is taking the SATs crucial for Penn if I do really well on my ACTs? And if I could end up with a 3.5-3.6 but overall really good everything else would I have any shot getting into Penn? I have great connections to some very prestige business professors there for my recommendations. </p>

<p>Thanks so much for the help.</p>

2

<p>I find myself to have somewhat the same predicament as you. I go to a very strong but small public school that doesn’t offer many AP’s, and you would not be able to take many at one time because your schedule wouldn’t allow it. For math, I would seriously recommend trying AP Calc. On the Wharton website there is a list of qualities they look for in applicants, one is that they have taken calculus in high school. I don’t know how to help you do better in that class, I only know that you should take it for Wharton. When it comes to the lack of AP’s, I’m pretty sure colleges see what classes you took compared to what was available. I’m not 100% sure on this one but I hope it’s true. My school doesn’t offer AP Econ which I would really like to take to go to Wharton, and as freshman there were only 3 available honors classes (I took 2 of the 3). As for SAT vs ACT, they don’t care. Send them whichever you do better in. I’m going to send in my ACT scores for sure, just make sure you take 3ish SAT II’s. Preferably math II (which I took) and then 2 others. Hope I helped!</p>