<p>Am i competitive enough to use my early app at Wharton (or could it be better spent somewhere else b/c I will be rejected?) Wharton is easily my 1st choice…no question.</p>
<p>-Caucasian, California Resident
-Junior</p>
<p>GPA: 3.8ish UW, 4.25 W (rank: 35 out of 733; top 5% barely) → also have upward trend of grades, 1 B 1st semester jr, all A’s (hopefully) 2nd semester jr</p>
<p>New Sat (guessing):
-Math: 760-790
-Reading: 650-690
-Writing: 730-800
-Composite: 2140-2280; most likely around 2200 (will retake for higher if necessary…assume 2200 but I suppose it could be as high as 2300)</p>
<p>-SAT IIs (guessing): close to 800 math, 700-750 us history</p>
<p>-1 soph AP, 3 jr AP’s, 5-6 sr AP’s
-5 on Euro already; should score 4-5 on all exams except maybe Calc (3-4)</p>
<p>Major ECs:
-Started a small business at school (profited $200 w/ $350 initial investment)
-Writing a historical fiction/mystery novel (15,000 words so far…still have the summer)
-Worked at McDonald’s for almost a yr (will be 1 1/2 yrs when I apply…should be a manager by then); 12-16 hrs/wk during school; 25 hrs/wk summer
-Starting a program w/ family friend to send boxes of clothing, toys, etc to orphanages in China (our family adopted)…I also have taken 4 yrs of Chinese
-Boy Scouts (almost Eagle)
-JV CC (9/10/11); JV Track (9/10)
-Weekly religious school 9/10
-Fantasy Baseball (6 yrs): sounds like a joke but it is heavily statistically based…national competition (won prizes in 3 of last 4 yrs totalling $300)
-Ran statistical projections for Varsity CC (predicted 1/2 of Varsity runners in our league’s final times w/in 15 seconds 3 months in advance)
-NHS, Freshman Mentoring Program
-Applied to Leadership in Business World (Wharton)…dont know if I got in yet</p>
<p>Sorry for the amazingly long post. Thanks for reading…you people are awesome!</p>
<p>well stambliark i have similar stats to you and also am a junior ( maybe better ec's) but i plan to apply early at either upenn or wharton so yeah DONT hah jk</p>
<p>the "real" point of ED isnt to get into somewhere for the sake of getting in before winter break, it's to apply to your top school, and legally bind yourself to getting in. As audiophile said, if you get in somewhere else, you'll have to go, and then you'll just regret not applying to wharton.</p>
<p>I definitely agree with you Pyrrhus. My question was just wondering if I even have a shot...</p>
<p>For example, someone w/ a 1200 SAT & 3.5 GPA (w/o sports) would NEVER be accepted to Harvard...so they should use their early app elsewhere even if they want to go harvard.</p>
<p>I am wondering if I am in the same position for Wharton.</p>
<p>Well...some people in my school applied EA to a school...e.g. UChicago, and they got in. It's much easier to get into EA UChic than SCEA Yale or Harvard. Then they apply RD Yale and Harvard. At least they have a uni to go to, and they've got nothing to lose. Also, EA isn't binding, so you still have time to think about it AND choose to not go there if you're accepted to a better place.</p>
<p>However, having said that, if you apply SCEA to Yale or Harvard, the chances of you getting in are higher, because you show a commitment to them by applying early. My Yale interviewer told me that even if a person gets deferred by Yale, the chances of them getting in are higher compared to the rest of the applicant pool because they have already been "selected" in the sense that if there was something that the adcom didn't like about the applicant (such as a low SAT score), they would've already been rejected. I applied to Yale early, my SAT score sucks, but I still got deferred. I don't regret applying early to Yale and getting deferred because I now know that I'm not an immediate reject by one of the world's top universities, and I still have a chance. By the way, the admissions rate for the entire regular pool for Yale is 9.9%, and the deferred people who get accepted in the end is 14.4%. </p>
<p>So if you really really really want to go to Wharton, and you know that you won't regret not applying to another university (I didn't apply Penn early because it was ED and not EA), then you should apply early! You wouldn't have to suffer the long wait I'm going through. You're definitely a competitive candidate. But if you're like me and you want to go to Penn/Wharton but you still want to try applying to other schools and see what the outcome is, then it's better to go for an EA school that you also really like, and apply Penn RD. My uni-counselor, who probably agrees with Pyrrhus, does say that the whole early-option idea is not to use it as an admissions strategy, but to apply a school that you really want to go for.</p>
<p>jacey...i like the what you said about already being 'selected' if you've been deferred...i was deferred from yale as well and now i feel better :)</p>
<p>Hey... take my advice. Apply to CAS DO NOT APPLY TO WHARTON DIRECTLY. They will take you at CAS, Wharton is an added risk. I got deferred from Wharton and honestly there is no way that they would have deferred or rejected me from CAS. If you want to play the game wisely apply to CAS. A ton of ppl get into CAS and then transfer into Wharton sophomore year. The courses are practically identical too so it really makes no difference.</p>
<p>ugh. don't do what theo said. w/ ur business ecs they'll be like, hm, maybe he's trying to backdoor into wharton. and don't do it for nursing either.</p>
<p>well, in any case... w/ the example about the kid w/ the 1200 not getting into harvard.. that's not entirely true. they do take kids (very rarely, usually major urm/athletes) w/ 1200s who are outstanding..</p>
<p>as is the case w/ all of these top tier schools... you have to stand out. apply to wharton early if it's ur first choice, but don't get ur hopes up. and write really, really good essays. out of the ordinary.</p>
<p>definitely apply to wharton if that's where you want to go. have confidence in yourself. and afaforce is right-your stats definitely indicate an interest in business that might raise the suspicions of an adcom if you apply to cas.</p>
<p>hey man. seriously listen to me. i have more business ec's than practically anyone on this board. i've been trading stocks since 7th grade, recessitated myself from bankruptcy at age 12 (during the 2000 bubble), and i've worked for three different companies in Hong Kong and mainland China. i did sales for an electronics company and we closed deals worth several hundred thousand, etc etc..</p>
<p>I eat sleep and drink arbitrage. I wake up in the morning and all I can think about is finding market inefficiencies. Business is central to my very existence.</p>
<p>I'm not trying to be obnoxious, but Wharton didn't seem to give a **** about any of this. I still ended up getting deferred because I got a B+ in chem my junior year and a meagre 730 on the SAT II writing. So honestly don't apply to Wharton, do CAS. Everyone who applied this year seemed to have very little - or zero - business ECs anyways so I honestly don't know *** they want.</p>
<p>The adcoms will evaluate you based on your competition. If you apply to CAS, you are being compared to kids with lower SATs, grades, etc. and I can guarantee you that you will look substantially better.
You clearly have a broad range of ECs that are not necessarily business-related (fantasy football, the orphanage, etc.) so just incorporate this into your essays.</p>
<p>Also don't listen to this BS about the adcoms rejecting u b/c they think you're trying to circumvent the process. They don't have the time to second guess and psycho-analyze the motivation of applicants. If you apply to CAS early, they won't question it (whether you're leaning towards biz or not). Just don't misconstrue "Why Penn?" for "Why Wharton?" that's all.</p>
<p>Why do you think you got rejected because of a B+ and 730? You probably were just like any other Asian in America, and you needed something else. Although I must say, your ECs sound impressive. However, that's college admissions for you...you never know. Penn took a girl form us with a 70 Average cause she was a Track player.</p>
<p>i think if you are genuinely interested in business it would be unfair to yourself as well as penn to app under the pretense of something else. </p>
<p>for me, i initially wanted to app nursing, and then saw the dual degree program nursing/wharton and went for it(i was already thinking of working out a double major if accepted), but people are still considering it like i went the easy way to wharton, when if had the college had a health policy major, i probably wouldve gone that way. anyway that was just vented frustration on my part, but do what you want to do. you have a shot- it's definitely not "wasting" your early!</p>