<p>My dream school is UPenn, and I was wondering if I am pretty solid if I am applying early decision:</p>
<p>White male.</p>
<p>Presitgious Public School.</p>
<p>GPA: 4.25 (Top 3%)
SAT: 2250
Senior schedule:
AP Calculus BC
AP Spanish Lit.
AP English
AP Chem
AP Psychology
U.S. Issues (required senior course)
Journalism
*I took all possible honors and AP throughout high school, except I never took an AP history (is that bad?)</p>
<p>EC’s:
-Lt. Governor for District Key Club
I am in charge of key clubs in six different schools in New Jersey and serve on the district board. Keep in contact with many outside organizations and run district events
-School’s Key Club President
-Student Council Adminstrative Secretary
-Founder of Medical Careers Club
-Captain of Rugby Team (…I won’t be recruited though)
-Science Olympiad
-News page editor for award winning weekly newspaper
-Peer Leader
-Job at a Kaplan educational center
-Training to become an EMT
-National Honor Society
-Spanish Honor Society</p>
<p>**I don’t mean to sound like “what are my chances people” and just flaunt everything i have, but I really do want to know how I stand for UPenn- my dream school. (I want to pursuit pre-med)</p>
<p>***Also, my great-great grandfather built buildings at Notre Dame and Boston College and both have honored him multiple times. The foundation that honors him is writing me a recommendation letter. Will that give me a leg in to those schools (which are also high on my list)?"</p>
<p>Thanks so much! I really would appreciate some feedback.</p>
<p>First of all, the buildings at N.D. and B.C. will definitely help you get into those schools. You are likely to get in even without that extra hook.
However, you might want to consider applying early decision to Penn. If you know that it’s your dream school, ED can be a way to get the college app process over with by December. Penn takes under 20% regular decision, and over 30% early decision (got those #s from the Penn board…anyone feel free to correct/make more precise). Your stats (GPA, SATs) and ECs are wonderful!</p>
<p>Don’t be fooled by the differential ED/RD statistics; they’re largely selection bias - despite what people will tell you since nobody can prove otherwise. Classical argumentam ad ignorantiam.</p>
<p>With that out of the way, I’d say you’re looking OK for Penn. Your SATs are within range or on the lower end of the scale, and your class rank is solid. Having buildings built at other universities in honor of someone who is not you will probably carry about zero sway for you at Penn, but at the very least you’ll get a letter that’s more interesting than most. It would definitely help, of course, at the schools that have the eponymous buildings.</p>
<p>Penn is still a reach, thanks to its large and equally talented applicant pool.</p>
<p>I thought that once you hit 1500 with SATs, it doesn’t really matter how much better you do. Then they just set candidates apart based on the bigger pictures, such as E.C.'s and such. For instance, a girl from my school with a 2350 was rejected a boy was accepted with a 2150. Should I strive for even higher SATs even though I already took them twice?</p>
<p>For those who care, here is the info on ED/RD acceptance rates at Penn:</p>
<p>"A record low of 17.7 percent of applicants have been accepted into Penn’s Class of 2010.</p>
<p>The University accepted 3,622 out of 20,479 applicants – 13.8 percent of regular-decision applicants and 28 percent of early-decision applicants."</p>
<p>If you think about ED vs RD, in ED you are competing with less people for the same number of spots that are available during RD since Penn accepts about 50% early. In terms of sheer application numbers (not quality), it is “easier” to get in early.</p>
