churchill1995

Hello to all... I am going into my senior year and I plan to go into some area of science. My stats are listed as below...
GPA: UW 3.73 (the highest GPA you can get at my school is a 3.88) On a 4.0 scale my GPA would be a 3.84.
ACT: 28 composite
Reading: 29
English:29
English/Writing:31
Math:25
Science:30
Essay - perfect
As far as high school rigor goes:
3 IB classes (8th grade year)
All honors classes freshmen year (I used to go to school in Tennessee, but then moved to Philadelphia sophomore year). At my current school only the science classes are considered honors, and no APs are offered.
ECs:
(Co-Founder of the Science Club)
Engineering Club for 3 years
Chess Club for 3 years
Varsity Soccer for 3 years
Wing Chun Kung-Fu for 2 years.
Played Club indoor soccer for YSC sports in Philadelphia.
1st Place Winner in Earth/Space Science in the city wide "George C. Washington Philadelphia Science Fair" sophomore year. I did a project on Terraforming Mars.
Honorable mention in Earth/Space Science for the Delaware Valley Tri-State Science Fair.
Honorable Mention in the city wide "George C. Washington Philadelphia Science Fair" junior year for the category of Physics. I did a project on the Manipulation of Electrons in CRT televisions. (mentored by Stephon Alexander of Haverford University).
Distinguished young scientist of the city of Philadelphia 2010-2011.
Volunteer @ MANNA food packaging service (once a week)
Volunteer @ The Franklin Institute (Big Science Museum in Philly)
I am a member of a five man research team at the Joel Bloom Observatory where we take composite images of the Sun with astronomer Derrick Pitts.
Member of the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society of Philadelphia.
Finalist of the Ableton Live Summer Music Challenge, which was a global contest for producers under the ages of 18. (2010-2011).
URM (African-American male, if that helps at all..)

My school in philly sends about 8 kids each year to Penn. Please give feedback.

iranb94

What's your rank??
Being African American-or a minority in general- will certainly be to your advantage. Ec's look pretty good, but your ACT scores need a bit of work. Composite score of 30 or more is what you want to shoot for... Try testmasters.com for a guaranteed 4 point increase...

churchill1995

Thanks for the tip! I am certainly going to take my ACT at least one more time. And my school doesn't rank so I'm not sure how that's going to work out.

churchill1995

Any more thoughts? I'm not sure whether I should apply to Upenn or Cornell. I want to apply to at least one ivy and have the school set as my "reach."

dfree124

Your ACT falls well below Penn's 25th percentile. Study hard for a better score this fall!