5 Days left and stressed, Chances Thread

Colleges & Universities University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>So I applied ED to Wharton.</p>

<p>GPA: 4.24
Most of the mediocrity is concentrated in my Freshman year, though a few of my B’s occurred during my more recent years of high school. Maybe this counts as an upward sloping academic history? <em>hopeful look</em> lol
Class Rank: My school doesn’t rank
Notes: I’ve taken 4 AP Courses (APUSH, Calc AB, Macro, Micro) before senior year and am currently enrolled in 5 (Calc BC, Gov, Lang, French, Physics).</p>

<p>SAT: 2350 (one sitting)
Math- 770
Reading- 780
Writing- 800 (essay- 10)</p>

<p>SAT II’s:
Math II- 800
US History- 800
Physics- 640 (They said send everything, but I’m assuming they’re only looking at my top 2)</p>

<p>AP’s:
Calc AB- 5
Macro- 5
Micro- 5
APUSH- 4</p>

<p>EC’s:
*Model Congress; 4 years; President
*Model United Nations: 4 years; Vice-President
*Ultimate Frisbee: 4 years; Captain
*Youth Orchestra: 6 years; Section Leader
*Breakdancing Club: 2 years; Founder/President
*Marching Band: 3 years; section leader (Note: did not participate this year)
*Math Honor Society; 1 year
*French Honor Society; 1 year</p>

<p>Awards:
*AP Scholar with Honor
*NMSQT Commended Student
*A bunch of MUN and Model Congress awards from conferences hosted by universities such as UPenn, Princeton, JHU, etc.
*Best Percussion in my school’s marching band
*2nd Place and Spirit Award at States 2008 [Ultimate Frisbee]
*3rd Place at States 2009</p>

<p>Volunteer Service: 100+ documented hours teaching at my local Chinese School as well as teaching Math at a summer camp.</p>

<p>Job Experience: Helped found a business with my parents this year. My formal job title was Marketing Representative. During the creation process, I made a lot of the decisions (my parents have never done anything business related before) and also had my fair share of the gruntwork (creating a slogan, product descriptions, etc.). Most recently, I’ve worked to expand our business into the wholesale sector (as opposed to just eBay and our website). I stopped working in October due to my school workload.
^ That’s more or less all the information I included about my job experience in my application</p>

<p>Essays: I did not do the optional page 217 essay, though I think I did fairly well on my other two essays. However, it’s probably important to note that both of them were fairly large risks (my common app one has a pretty unorthodox structure and my supplement one relied heavily on humor)
Recommendations: Probably nothing stellar. I think I had 2 very solid teacher rec’s and one solid councilor rec as well.</p>

<p>In a nutshell, the main thing I’m worried about is my GPA (for obvious reasons). I don’t see the rest of my app having much of a negative impact on my chances. Thoughts?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance</p>

2

<p>Is the 4.24 out of 5? My school’s GPA system doesn’t work like that so I don’t really understand how weighted GPAs are calculated. If you messed up freshman year a little, it shouldn’t be too much of a big deal unless you got straight C’s. A B or two from recent years shouldn’t hurt you too much either, unless you have been getting straight B’s in math - which I doubt. Overall you have a decent chance. I don’t know what your supplement essay was about or in what type of humor you wrote it in, but hopefully it’s not in written too much in a “joking” way. You wouldn’t want the adcom to believe you think Penn is a joke. But I guess if you had teachers read it, and they understood it, then it should be okay…</p>

<p>Good luck to you! I applied Wharton as well and your stats are far better than mine. :P</p>

3

<p>Woah. I applied ED to Wharton and your stats are like a gazillion times better than mine. I think you have as good a chance as anyone. Good luck, last five days. :):)</p>

4

<p>Thanks guys, good luck to you too.</p>

<p>My school does weighted GPA out of 5. 5’s= A’s in Honors or AP courses. 4’s= B’s in Honors or AP courses and A’s in non-honors courses.</p>

<p>I did have a couple B’s in Math, but they were in my school’s G+T program. Do you think that will hurt me less? At least I got an A in Calc AB last year =.</p>

<p>And in regards to my Suppliment essay, I don’t that that any of the humor would offend the adcoms… It’s just that, instead of using the usual examples like “I’m dedicated, just look at how many EC’s I have”, I used quirky and seemingly insignificant experiences instead. Also, I equated my desire to go to Penn with two physical features found on campus (the Button and the chairs in the Wharton building’s classrooms); though, I think I substantiated them with legitimate points so that I wouldn’t come off as arrogant or insulting.</p>

5

<p>My stats are pretty much exactly the same; I also relied heavily on humor on one of them! :stuck_out_tongue: I didn’t help my parents found a business but I did science research at Cornell last summer, do a science honors program at Columbia, and did a summer program at Columbia. I’m a bit less involved in the school than you are… well, more clubs, less positions but I did a good amount of community service (undocumented- I don’t feel the need to) and internship. Oh, and I’m a science, not history, person.</p>

<p>Good luck getting in, I applied ED as well. :slight_smile: 5 days!</p>

6

<p>Assuming your essays are pretty special and your grades do in fact show an upward trend, I’d peg you as in. How many Bs are on your transcript though? And in which courses? This could make a big difference.</p>

7

<p>whatttt uppp another breakdancer…lol i hope theres more at penn…if i get in…which i wont =/</p>

8

<p>Here are my B’s…</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
Geometry Honors and Accelerated
French II
LA 1 Honors
Biology Honors</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Pre-Calculus Honors and Accelerated</p>

<p>Summer:
Macroeconomics (not sure if this would be too big a problem because it didn’t factor into my GPA and I got a 5 on the AP test)</p>

<p>Junior Year:
Physics Honors
LA semester course</p>

<p>I should have all A’s this year. So yeah, not so great in the grades department =.</p>

9

<p>Your SAT grades are really good. How did you get so many B’s?
Normally 2300+ corresponds to 4.9+ GPA
mine is 4.82 and I only got 2250 the second sitting.</p>

10

<p>SAT scores do not correspond to good grades…</p>

11

<p>^What he said.
Unfortunately I was very unmotivated freshman year and wasn’t much better sophomore or junior. I finally hit my stride the summer after junior year but obviously it’s too late to salvage my GPA =[.</p>

12

<p><em>b-b-bump</em> D=</p>