Hi! I am a high school senior and I am wondering if it would be smarter for me to apply to UPenn early decision (binding/restrictive) or Harvard early action (non-binding/restrictive). Here are my stats.
Race: Latino. Brazilian and Paraguayan. Both parents are immigrants. Born in USA.
Intended major: Political Science / International Relations
SAT: 1470 (760 CR 710 M)
SAT IIs: Scores have not come back yet, will take Spanish, US History, World History, I imagine above 700s.
ACT: 32C, 34E, 34R, 31M, 31S (Penn superscores, so 33 superscored)
GPA: 3.85 UW 4.04 W (highest GPA in school is around 4.5). Got all As in slightly above-level classes freshman year. Took 5 honors sophomore year and did well but not the best (due to personal issues). Took hard classes junior year and did excellent. Doing well so far senior year in even harder classes. Upward trajectory is what I am hinting at.
APs: AP Euro (5), AP Psych (5), As in both the classes.
Senior Course-load: AP Comparative Gov’t, AP US Gov’t, AP Spanish, AP-level English (college level class but not AP, same difficulty), other electives.
NOTE: in my school, the most AP classes a person can fit into their schedule for their junior year is 4 at most. My school is unlike other schools where people can take 8 in a year. We have many required classes and only 8 class spots*
Essay: is amazing, believe it to be one of the best. Made my teacher cry. Talks about hard times I went through due to being gay, resulting in me becoming obese (don’t worry I didn’t pull the card too hard) and how I recovered and lost 80 pounds.
NOTE: my school is a very academically competitive school. It is comprised of mostly Asians (Indians, not a bad thing though) and I am definitely one of the top 3 performing Blacks or Hispanics. APs are much harder here and the highest GPA last year was around a 4.5, we are a public school in central NJ
Extracurriculars:
- Co-editor in chief of my school newspaper. Won awards at state conference. Was put in charge of creating/managing the online newspaper. Transitioned whole paper online successfully and increased twitter followers by 14 times. Presented at state conference about my success in this. Did this for all 4 years.
- Worked on the political campaigns of local NJ state representatives and local council members. Both won. Mostly canvassed for them, convincing moderate voters to vote for the candidates. Did this for 2 years.
- Volunteered at a local summer camp for 2 years to explore teaching as a career. Was promoted to a paid leadership position for the 3rd. Typical summer camp duties.
- Volunteered for a week for 2 years at a special needs camp.
- National Honors Society: community service here-and-then.
- HiTops/Teen PEP - got into selective school program (based on interview and reputation/personality) where seniors teach underclassmen about sexual health through skits and performances.
- VLA - The leadership council for my school. Represented my newspaper. Senior year only.
- Self-Studying - I taught myself Spanish and Portuguese to reconnect with my culture. I also taught myself French phonology in preparation for college study of the language.
- Protesting - I mentioned that I spend some of my weekends protesting.
- National Hispanic Recognition Program
- Spanish Honors Society
- Exercising - I mentioned that I spend a lot of my time at the gym for health-related reasons. I had to prioritize this over more mainstream extracurriculars due to my declining health before. Hope they will understand this.
Note on essay: My sophomore year I got a few Bs due to coming out (3 Bs). I explained this in my essay. My junior year I did much better due to recovering (4.21 GPA).
Teacher Recs: Will be good. All from teachers who love me, know me well, and have a lot of good things to say about me. Most will say that I am super smart (their words) and am one of the students that is always participating insightfully.
Because I qualify for affirmative action, I believe I may have a slight chance at getting into these schools. I am wondering if it would be smarter to apply to Penn, where I am more likely to get in but would be bound to that school, or apply early to Harvard, where I probably will definitely not get in, but a chance exists. Basically, do I mostly secure a spot in an Ivy league, but one of the lower ones, or should I risk it at Harvard? I do not mean to say that I will get into Penn ED, but I have a higher chance there. I should note my mom attended Harvard extension school in the 90s, but I do not think that qualifies me as a legacy, nor should it because I don’t think it should count. I’ve visited both schools, by the way.
Also, I would appreciate it if you all could chance me for selective schools (Ivy leagues, Georgetown, Duke, Stanford, Northwestern, UChicago, UMichigan, UVirginia, and NYU).