What do I need to get into M&T?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Hey guys, I'm a rising junior and I REALLY want to get into Jerome Fisher M&T! I still have a little time before applying to college so I wanted to ask what you guys thought of my stats/ECs and how to "better" myself!</p>

<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown M/CR/W/Essay): 2150 (770, 690, 680, 8) -- This score is from eighth grade lol but I'm taking the test again this fall (my practice tests are 2300+).</p>

<p>SAT II (subject, score): Math II (800), Biology (780) -- I'm taking Physics and AP US History next year though which I'll probably score better on.</p>

<p>Unweighted/Weighted GPA: 4.0/4.6</p>

<p>Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Our school doesn't rank, but I'd definitely in the top 5% if we did.</p>

<p>AP/IB (place score in parentheses): AP Statistics (5), AP Biology (5)</p>

<p>Junior Year Course Load: AP Computer Science A, AP US History, AP Physics C, BC Calculus, AP French, AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, English 11 Honors</p>

<p>Senior Year Course Load: Multivariable Calculus (Post-AP), Linear Algebra (Post-AP), AP English Language, AP US Government, Geosystems Honors, Parallel Computing (Post-AP), Senior Research Lab</p>

<p>Major Awards (USAMO, Intel, etc.): AIME qualifier, AMC 10/12 Certificate of Distinction, National French contest Silver and Bronze medalist (both years I've participated, I won medals).</p>

<p>Common Awards (AP Scholar, honor roll, NM things, etc.): Probably AP National Scholar, Honor Roll, NHS, etc.</p>

<p>Subjective:
Extracurriculars (name, grade levels, leadership, description):
Figure skating!! (I've been figure skating for 10 years and it's one of my greatest passions. I compete at Regionals, Sectionals, and Nationals, I'm a US Figure Skating double gold medalist, and I'm on the US Figure Skating Scholastic Honors Team)</p>

<p>I am the founder and president of a program to help children in foreign countries learn to speak English. It's an online program, and we communicate over Skype or phone calls, but I'm currently in the process of creating a website with a video chat system to make it more professional. My current students include children from all over China. I've actually had one of my students come to the US to meet me:) and learn more about American culture.</p>

<p>UNICEF (planning to do this soph year 'til senior year) -- I was recruited by the club officers to be the Outreach Coordinator for our school's chapter of UNICEF after I was able to coordinate a guest speaker and a fundraiser with the director and vice president of a local nonprofit in our community. I now am responsible for coordinating our club's activities with other organizations in the community.</p>

<p>Literary magazine (planning to do this soph year 'til senior year) -- I am the business editor for our school's literary magazine, a job that involves creating our magazine's budget and meeting with publishers to discuss printing our magazine.</p>

<p>Writing Center tutor -- I was recommended to be a tutor in our school's writing center after I wrote a "phenomenal" essay in English class, and my role is to help other students in my school who are struggling in English class learn to write better essays!</p>

<p>VMT(Varsity Math Team) -- I regularly attend meetings and participate in math contests such as the New York City Interscholastic Math League (NYCIML). </p>

<p>Varsity Dance Team -- I've been dancing (non-competitively) for almost as long as I have been skating, and I joined our school's varsity dance team. We perform at football games and we also compete in the winter. I'm hoping to be a captain my senior year!</p>

<p>I'm going to be in NHS next year and hopefully will get an officer position.</p>

<p>Job/Work Experience:
I am a coach at the ice rink where I practice, and I teach other students to learn how to skate. It's something that I love doing, and I try to make each and every one of my skaters develop a passion for skating just how I did years before.</p>

<p>I've tutored a child with ADHD and autism for three years in communication and writing skills, and I've learned a lot about children with intellectual disabilities through this process. It's part of the reason I'm so passionate about helping underprivileged and otherwise disadvantaged children (seen in my activity with UNICEF and various volunteer activities).</p>

<p>I am a peer tutor in the Aristotle Circle tutoring program, which hires only straight-A students with high test scores, and I tutor students in all sorts of subjects.</p>

<p>Volunteer/Community Service:
I volunteer at a local hospital and various nonprofit organizations that benefit underprivileged children.</p>

<p>Summer Experience:
Special events intern on a county committee of one of the political parties (is it a good idea to specify which party I interned with?).
Hopefully RSI, M&TSI, or LBW next year (which do you guys recommend?)!
I'm also going to do an unpaid internship at Microstrategy, a tech company.</p>

<p>Other:
U.S. State/Territory or Country: Virginia<3
School Type: Public magnet (It's a "public" school in that it's funded by the county but there's an admissions process to get in) -- Ranked #4 in the country by US News
Ethnicity: ASIAN :(
Gender: Female
Income Bracket Range: Very High
Hooks (URM, first generation, recruited athlete, development): N/A</p>

<p>Haha this turned out to be a bajillion times longer than I'd thought. Thanks SO MUCH if you reply <3.</p>

2

<p>I’m not sure I see the business connection to your resume other than a few minor club roles. M&T is engineering and business. Your resume seems more liberal arts/pre-health oriented, rather service-oriented than leadership-oriented. I don’t see much of an engineering connection either.</p>

<p>Since you are a rising junior, I would say use your time to dive into a business related EC. Can you work on some business connections, maybe intern with a manager or director? Working part-time at an engineering firm regarding project management might be a very good addition to your resume. Your academics are clearly stellar, but based on my friends who were in the M&T program, the business part is pretty important.</p>

3

<p>@rhandco Thanks for your honest opinion. There’s some things that I haven’t fully finished yet (I’m big into finance and I have my own stock portfolio, and I’m currently working to finish producing a financial model that I could use in my investment). Would that be a good thing to include on my app (assuming it works and helps lol). Our school has an FBLA club, Investment club, and Economics Society but I’m not sure if it’s too late to join and get a leadership position. What about the program I founded? Is that a “business” EC? Also, like I said, I’m doing an internship with a tech company (under a senior director). Thank you!</p>

4

<p>I’m also going to be taking finance Coursera courses from Yale and Wharton in the fall.</p>

5

<p>Are you sure M&T is for you? You have an excellent resume if you can keep going at this rate for the next two years. Penn has other dual degree programs that combine the College with Wharton, these might fit your app better and the admin committee will probably find that they fit your resume better.
Good luck, you’ll get in to a great school regardless,
Penn '18 student</p>

6

<p>@smarty99 When I visited Penn, the moment I discovered the M&T program I immediately felt like it was the program for me, although I am open to other options (from other schools as well). Do you think my courses are lacking in business, or engineering? I would’ve thought I have very little business-related things on my resume, but I have engineering activities (internship at a major tech company under a senior director, writing a financial model (I’m coding this), I’m taking AP and post-AP classes in computer science, and my senior research lab will be with Computer Systems). </p>

<p>Also, do you think being a girl is “helpful” in any way in admissions (there aren’t very many girls in the program)?</p>

<p>Thanks so much for replying!</p>

7

<p>I’m guessing you go to TJ (I know because my school is 3rd on US News). I wouldn’t worry at all about specifying which party you worked with, admissions officers aren’t going to care. Apply for RSI, M&TSI, as well as LBW. If somehow you get into all three (extremely unlikely), RSI >>>> LBW > M&TSI. I rank it like that because I believe LBW is free to attend (correct me if I’m wrong), and therefore it’s much more selective. </p>

<p>Make sure you get the 2300+ on the SAT. Also, I would classify “US Figure Skating double gold medalist” as a major award (they don’t have to be academic). I would also heed the advice of others who’ve commented, make sure you get solid business ECs, and leadership positions. I’m weak in that area but extremely strong on the tech/engineering/science ECs, and academics, and that will likely hurt me for M&T.</p>

8

<p>@HalfWaterHalfAir‌ Haha yup you got me! LBW is like $6600, which is more than what M&TSI costs (not by much), but I don’t think price of the program is really an issue for me. You’re right in that I need to get some business ECs, which is why I don’t know if it would be a better idea to go to LBW or M&TSI instead of RSI (obviously RSI is MUCH more prestigious though), what do you think? Thanks for your input!</p>

9

<p>Yes, being a girl helps. Helped me get into SEAS IMHO, but obviously M&T is more difficult.</p>

<p>You mention developing the program, but you’ll need to spin it in terms of:

  • did you research the topic originally?
  • did you seek capital?
  • did you set up a management team before starting the program?
  • have you analyzed the growth pattern, how you plan to expand, troubleshooted what went wrong and what works?</p>

<p>The less off-the-cuff it seems, the better. Less like a club, more like a business.</p>

<p>Remember that private schools send tons and tons of applicants to the Ivies, so that is a detraction from your app. Any time you can make it clear that it was <em>you</em> and not your school that pushed you into a field, the better it is.</p>

<p>You could also swing an M&T bioengineering bent with your healthcare related work. I was BE, and one of my BE classmates was M&T and ROTC.</p>

10

<p>You do not need business ECs to get into Wharton, that is a major misconception. I’ve know plenty of Wharton students who said they didn’t have business ECs. You can demonstrate that you have the qualities Wharton wants in other ways like service and leadership.</p>

<p>M&T wants people who are primarily interested in engineers. I heard this from an alum who heard this from the program director. You obviously are interested in science and engineering and have a talent for it. Just write good essays, test scores obviously won’t be an issue. At first glance it does look like you have a lot of ECs which could indicate a lack of focus, but since they seem to be in three categories, it seems like you are interested in what you are doing. Just make it clear you are doing what you are interested in. I have met plenty of students at Penn who had mile long resumes but were actually pretty unimpressive in person as they did everything to jump through the hoops.</p>

11

<p>The good news for you is that TJHSST always seems to send one or two kids per year to M&T. And honestly, you’ve got a sufficient academic profile to be admitted. Keep getting As and getting 5s and doing your extracurriculars, and focus on writing some kick-ass admissions essays when the time comes. Otherwise, there’s really not much more that anyone on this message board can offer you. You certainly qualify for M&T, but obviously not everyone who qualifies for M&T is admitted.</p>

<p>-M&T '15</p>

12

<p>@kathrynwen‌ there is no way your weighted gpa is 4.6. Are you sure that’s not a typo? As for business clubs I would highly recommend joining them. Junior year isn’t too late to join a club</p>

13

<p>I don’t know about the grading at her high school but different schools have different weightings.</p>

14

<p>@Wharton2020‌ it’s a 4.5 right now but after next year it will be a 4.6. We have +1.0 for AP credit and +0.5 for honors, and I’ve been getting straight A’s (which is actually pretty rare at our school, apparently).</p>

15

<p>ah okay. Good job!</p>