Yep, another chance me thread! (Huntsman and Wharton ED)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>This is my first post on CC (though I've been lurking a while), so nice to finally interact with you all.</p>

<p>Background information</p>

<p>White female from Kansas
Target Language for Huntsman: Russian
Religion: Jewish
School: I attend a pretty competitive public school, although the vast majority chooses to attend our state schools, so that may work in my favor.
Course load: Most rigorous available. By the end of my senior year, I will have taken 11 AP courses.
GPA: 3.97 UW/4.6 W (although I'm not sure, since I haven't seen my transcript after the end of second semester junior year)
Rank: Top ten out of a class of ~375</p>

<p>Standardized Test Scores</p>

<p>SAT Reasoning: 2320/2400, 1520/1600. 800 W, 740 M, 780 CR.
SAT IIs: 750 Math IIC, 780 US History, 720 Chemistry
PSAT: 220 (so I'm hoping to be a National Merit semifinalist?)
ACT: 34 composite, 31 English/Writing
APs: US History (3), European History (3), Calculus AB (5), English Language (5), Chemistry (4)</p>

<p>Major Extracurriculars</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>]Youth Court (2 years) - This is a program organized by the local courthouse to help juveniles who have committed misdemeanors to realize the consequence of their actions by assigning appropriate sanctions. I'm also the founding member of this program at my school.
[</em>]Future Business Leaders of America (4 years) - I will be treasurer of the club next year and have several awards from the organization (see below).
[<em>]KAY Club (2 years) - This is a community service club run by my school.
[</em>]Volunteering - see below
[<em>]Student Council - Treasurer of senior class.
[</em>]Debate (3 years)
[<em>]Forensics (2 years) - Mostly speaking events.
[</em>]National Honor Society (2 years) - I'm working with the officers and the adviser, as well as my school's administrators to implement a program to start recycling plastic bottles at my school, but I have also been involved in other community service activities through NHS, as well as tutoring.
[li]Spanish National Honor Society (2 years) - We provide help for any student who is struggling with his/her Spanish class, or just needs a place to practice Spanish.[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>Employment</p>

<p>I work about 15-20 hours a week at a local restaurant (manual labor).</p>

<p>Awards/Honors</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>]Candidate for National Merit Semifinalist? (I don't know if I want to put this on the app or not, or if I should wait until I receive notification of my status and then change it on the app accordingly?)
[</em>]Principal's Honor Roll (4 years)
[<em>]Several FBLA awards (I've gone to district and state competitions the past three years, as well as nationals for the past two. This will probably continue next year.)
[</em>]Varsity Letter in Academics (10th and 11th grades)
[<em>]Varsity Letter in Debate (received it last year)
[</em>]Spanish Student of the Year (11th grade)
[<em>]Presidential Volunteer Service Award (11th grade)
[</em>]Honor Roll at local community college where I've been enrolled for the past year[/ul]</p>

<p>Community Service</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>]Youth Court - As I mentioned, this program is at the real courthouse and my school. All in all, I probably devote 6 or so hours to this a week.
[</em>]Various activities through KAY Club - Varies per week
[<em>]Hospital - I did this last summer for about 100 hours, and might pick this up again if I have time.
[</em>]Art Museum - I volunteered at the local art museum for about a year, spending about five hours a week there.
[li]Medical Mission - In 2007, I went to Guatemala on a medical mission and volunteered about 50 hours there.[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>Recommendations</p>

<p>Will be very strong. I will also ask my FBLA adviser for a supplemental rec and that will be strong as well. My guidance counselor is the only one I don't know about, although he's mentioned to me that he thinks I challenge myself a lot and that I'm one of the top students in my grade.</p>

<p>Essays</p>

<p>Ahh, the essays. I'm currently working on the essays right now, and so far, they range from pretty good to excellent, and I'm hoping to get them all to the latter part.</p>

<p>Is there anything else that I may have left out? I will be applying to Huntsman as my first choice, with the option to drop down to Wharton ED for my single-degree.</p>

<p>Also, I recently attended the LBW program at Penn, but I don't know if that's really going to factor into admissions. I loved it, though!</p>

<p>Thanks for taking the time to read this thread and respond! I really appreciate it.</p>

2

<p>you have a GREAT SHOT especiall with ED! BUT still nothing is a gurantee so bulk your EC's and start working on that essay ASAP!</p>

<p>Good Luck</p>

3

<p>Yeah, I know that my ECs are kind of weak, and that's really what's going to bring me down. I'm hoping that my scores and everything else will kind of make up for it, but who knows?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

4

<p>There is no way to know how they will weigh your excellent standard statistics (grades, scores, class rigor) with the weakness in name-brand ECs. I think they will appreciate how you have filled your schedule with all the little ECs like tutoring, art museum, etc.</p>

<p>I would say tell your parents to shell out for your expenses so you don't have to work 15-20 hrs a week and use that time in the fall to do something special-looking to put on the application.</p>

<p>Showing you love Penn with the LBW experience will probably help. Show it in the essays and the interview.</p>

<p>I don't think the fact your school sends a lot of students out-of-state is going to work in your favor; it may hurt. Schools get 'reputations' in the eyes of admissions committees- if they don't tend to produce many ambitious students who want to reach higher college, they often think it's not wise for them to accept many from that kind of school.</p>