So, I am very grateful that Ivy Day went well for me! I got into Yale, Columbia, and Cornell. And I got waitlisted at Harvard and Brown. I have also gotten into Northwestern, Duke, Hopkins, and Emory. I truly am happy I have many great options, but getting rejected from Wharton has been nagging at me for the past couple of days. I had a very business oriented application which I though would fare well at UPenn in comparison to Yale or Columbia. I got into Stern and UMich Ross, so it’s not like there was a glaringly obvious hole in my application towards business programs. I am very sorry if this comes off as a humble brag. It is not my intention, I’m just looking for some closure. Below is a run down of my stats. Could anyone give me there thoughts?
Disclaimer; My essays talked about incorporating finance with social development. In my essays, I took the focus of leveraging business techniques to bring about societal change. Tied in well with my ECs.
Sorry, I wrote my stats section very quickly so there maybe grammar mistakes 
Demographic: Hispanic Male, upper middle class, no financial aid. Domestic
School: semi-competitive boarding school (1 ivy league student a year); no-one else applied to UPenn this year.
ACT: 33 (English: 34, Math: 32, Reading: 36, Scince: 30)
SAT II: Math 2: 800, Spanish: 800, US history: 730
Rank: N/A
3.97 UW
If I had to guess, essays and recs were solid since they did quite well at elective schools. I thought UPenn was one of the better, if not the best supplemental essays I wrote.
ECs:
- I played for the best hockey team in the nation throughout high school. For some perspective, a lot of my friends are drafted in the NHL. About 45 hours weekly. I had a captaincy during 11th and 12th grade.
- Manage a day trading portfolio since 10th grade. Started with custodial account, and have had positive returns since.I developed a trading also that executes on certain trends on the Forex market.
- Founded a business consulting group in Panama. Both of my parents immigrated from there, so I've been going there every summer and have been exposed to poverty from an early age. I decided to set up a consulting group in which I would use my acquired business knowledge to advise people in poverty stricken areas on how to start businesses. Every summer since 10th grade.
- Run a clothing resell business. Buy and Resell rare clothing. About 10k profit. Most is retuned to the business, or used for the investment portfolio. Since 10th grade.
- Manager volunteer for an underfunded hospital in Panama. I delegated tasks and managed many of the basic day-to-day operations in the hospital. Created a seminar series for early cancer detection and STD prevention. Every summer since 10th grade.
- Statistics advisor for my schools bio-science program. Assisted students on the analysis of data for year-long research projects. Selected from all AP stats students by on of my LOR writers.
- Spanish tutor for all my dorm mates since 10th grade.
- Volunteer teaching 6-10 year olds basic hockey skills.
It really does not matter why, but let me leave you with someone at Penn admissions said " some years you are a flute player in a tuba world" you were a very strong student but Penn did not need you to fill out their class this year. Yale did this year. There is another kid with your stats who did not get into Yale. Congrats on where you did get into.
It’s all really a crapshoot. You’ll never get an answer to your question. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s because Penn just doesn’t need any more great hockey players this year. Just focus on choosing between Yale and Columbia.
@hockey731 I think your ECs sound over-stated. A 10th grader telling adults in Panama what to do for their businesses, or health sounds way over-blown. (and arrogant) Also, the idea that you are the statistical consultant for other students doing research at your boarding school sounds inconsistent with your math/science scores (32/30). It sounds like you started all this stuff for your resume, but the likelihood that these were as effective as you make them sound is low. BTW, not trying to devalue you, just trying to answer your question. Given the across the board success you report, I suspect it did not hurt that you were Panamanian and upper middle class.
1 Like
@mathcsb I don’t really see how it could be seen as overblown considering peer schools had no problems with it. I think your opinion is granted since you don’t have the contact of my entire application. For example, the business consulting thing. I wasn’t running some MBB firm. Instead, I was in a very poor part of the country where people don’t have the opportunity fo education past middle school. Apart from that, I had my own small business, so I thought I could pass on what I had learned in the process. And for stats, my ACT math is a little low, but I did get an 800 on Math II (I know a lot of people do), but I was selected by my stats teacher for the position. I think it’s because I had the highest grade out of anybody in the class, so that’s why I did that. I’m not looking to argue, because you are entitled to your opinion, but I just wanted to provide some further context.
well did you get in or didnt you? Wharton hears a lot of stories about businesses and community service. Yours sound contrived. I could see Yale eating that up, but Wharton is the real deal. I dont think they bought it. That’s all. You sound like a very ambitious guy, you have a couple of hooks, so I have no doubt that you did well in the process. But your description reads overblown. But some of the addmissions people like that sort of thing and others dont.
I agree that your ECs for Wharton don’t make you stand out. I mean, who knows, but kids applying to Wharton who are interested in finance are a dime a dozen. Starting a business even is super common. Finance or consulting-based ECs are going to be incredibly common among applicants, and even trying to spin “I want to use finance to improve society” - I doubt they will buy that at Wharton because they know that 99 times out of 100, students who are interested in finance want to go into investment banking. Your ECs would help you stand out at more liberal-arts oriented schools (e.g. your successful application to Yale), but not at Penn. Even if you had applied to the College, they would have probably guessed that you would want to try to transfer into Wharton once you arrived. I don’t know your geographic area either, but if you’re from a big metro area especially in the northeast, competition would be all the more fierce.
You’re not the first person to feel the ego-prick of a ‘no’ more strongly than the ego-boost of a ‘yes’.
You say that you don’t want to seem to be humble-bragging- but you miss the point of being genuinely humble.
hockey731, you’re a talented student who has managed to get admitted to some great schools. Congratulations. Be grateful and seize the opportunities you have.
As others have said, your profile above is solid. You’re a bright young man who is doing things. However, in the applicant pools you’re talking about, what you list above is not particularly special. That you got in so many places is a surprise when you consider that there are somewhere between 35,000 -40,000 high schools in the US, each with a valedictorian and other students with special talents. There are fewer than 22,000 ivy league acceptances each year. You should be asking how did I get so lucky?
The ‘flute player in a tuba world’ comment above is true. You have effectively won multiple lotteries. Be happy. Much of the elite college admissions process is out of your control so don’t take any of it personally. Being an excellent student keeps your application out of the garbage pile. Beyond that, who knows? As a first gen., hispanic male (out of your control) you had a leg up. Being a full pay student (also out of your control) didn’t hurt either (need-blind is never truly need-blind in my view).
You’ll never know why Wharton said no. My son was accepted to Wharton, rejected from Brown and Princeton, and waitlisted at Harvard. That’s the way it goes. Wharton was always his first choice so he’s happy even if rejection stung a little bit. At this level, you have to expect it unless you are true ‘unicorn’ applicant. From what you write above, you clearly are not.
Appreciated the places that recognize you and make the most of it.
At this level, there is truly no way to know and there are absolutely no doors (in business at least) that are open to kids from Yale/Columbia that aren’t open to Wharton kids. Just keep moving forward, work hard, and make the most of whichever school you choose, and good things will come. (a Yale/Columbia undergrad + Wharton MBA would be killer IMO)
My son did better on his high reaches than on the next tier. We will never know the reasons for that (and no, it wasn’t due to lack of interest or effort).
But importantly, it doesn’t matter what the reasons were. Let it go.