<p>SAT: 2230 (800M 700CR 730W)
SATII: 800 Math II 800 Chem 800 Physics
Rank: valedictorian</p>
<p>AP: slew of 5’s and one 4. Took BC calc junior year</p>
<p>My Guidance counselor said penn was a safety for me, but I didn’t believe him. Am I?</p>
<p>No one is a “shoe in” to an ivy league school. Even for the kids who end up getting accepted to multiple Ivies, it’s hard to predict that would have happened before it does. There is also the issue of getting into one school but not the other which happens a lot.</p>
<p>As for you personally, I could not tell you precisely about how you will fair without knowing specifics that you could not get on here. I will say that my scores were very similar to yours and I know a lot of other people here who had similar scores. But I also know a lot of my classmates in high school who had scores about the same or higher on the SAT or ACT who did not get into Penn.</p>
<p>FAR from it, you’re stats are average Penn.</p>
<p>Sounds like your guidance counselor is confusing Penn with Penn State. The last time Penn published such statistics several years ago, roughly 2/3 of the valedictorians who applied were rejected. And that was before Penn’s acceptance rate had fallen to its current 12%.</p>
<p>You should recommend to your guidance counselor that he carefully review Penn’s current admissions statistics before advising any student that Penn is a safety for him or her. These days, Penn is not a safety for anyone.</p>
<p>No one’s a “shoe in” for UPenn. Maybe he meant Penn state…? But umm, anyway, enough of my joking. No one’s truly a “shoe in” for any school ranked above, say… 12 or 15. Now you’ll have a good chance, as your stats fall in the right range, but there are no “shoe ins” at UPenn.</p>
<p>You were right in not believing him.</p>
<p>In fact, a couple of 2400s were rejected from Penn. I come from Singapore and even people with 4As on their A levels were rejected from the College (Not even Wharton!). The people from Singapore who go to Penn are Presidential Scholars (Only 4 - 5 people in the nation get it) and perfect scorers for both IB exams and A levels.</p>
<p>This is just to show you that scores aren’t everything, and Penn is a highly sought-after school. I heard that last year, many people who had 2100s also got in Penn; not only 2300s. When it comes to the top schools, results merely get you a foot in. There is still much more for you to do.</p>
<p>considering you spelled “shoo-in” with shoe, no. sorry.</p>
<p>Yup, you’re a shoo-in.</p>
<p>^ No, no one is a shoe in.</p>
<p>No one is a shoo-in at an Ivy. When we toured an Ivy the Admissions rep told us that he could show us 50 pages of names of Valedictorians with perfect SAT scores that they rejected last year. He stressed that Ivy’s are much more than your GPA and test scores (which are automatically expected to be great). The rest of your application has to be stellar as well. You have great stats though, so that is a great first step. Good luck. :)</p>
<p>Is it possible that your GC meant Penn State?</p>
<p>No I don’t think he meant Penn State, because we were talking about where I should apply. He said Harvard would be a long shot, Brown I would probably get in (legacy), and then he said Penn would be a good safety…</p>
<p>I think he is being wayyy too optimistic. Also, I just got my SATs back and got 800W, so now I’m at 2300.</p>
<p>No one who knows what they’re talking about would classify someone as a long shot for Harvard but a shoo-in for Penn based on their test scores, GPA, class rank, etc. The difference in stats between the two schools is just not that great. </p>
<p>All elites schools look at much more than stats (awards, extracurriculars, essays, etc.). A lot comes down to how much your overall application impresses the individual admissions officer who looks at it on that particular day. You might get lucky at one school and unlucky at another. There is no way to predict with an certainty, that’s one reason why acceptances/rejections seem so random sometimes.</p>
<p>If we could judge based solely on scores nobody would be freaking out about admissions because it’d be so predictable.</p>
<p>Don’t listen to anyone. You’re a shoo-in. In fact, don’t even write your supplemental essays. Penn should be paying you to even consider the school at all.</p>
<p>Sheep, you have great stats, however it took you 4 times to superscore a 2300 and Penn will see that. I don’t know if that will hurt you. It probably will not. However, I think your GC is doing you a disservice by giving you unrealistic expectations about which schools are considered safety schools. Ivy League schools are not a safety for anyone.</p>
<p>Agree that no one is a shoe-in. I was accepted and I wasn’t even top ten - but had great test scores including AP and a lot of sports.</p>
<p>Brown would be much more of a safety than Penn.</p>
<p>You have to really want to go to one of these schools to get in, it will show in your essay.</p>
<p>I disagree that Brown is a “safety” school as it has an admit rate below 10%. My safety was my state school plus two others that have >30% admit rates.</p>
<p>There are no safeties among the ivies, unless you’re a great New Yorker applying to one of Cornell’s well-respected state-funded schools…and even that’s arguable. </p>
<p>@OP, which high school are you from?</p>
<p>If Harvard’s a long shot then I can’t see Penn being a safety.</p>