Chance Me for Wharton ED at UPenn and UChicago EA (1560 SAT, International Student)

[rightleft]

Demographics

• International student

• Female

• State/Location of residency: India

• Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Private school

Cost Constraints / Budget:

No constraints

Intended Major(s)

Economics

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

Our school doesn’t give GPA or rankings, but my predicted grades (CBSE board, 100 point grading scale) are:

Math: 97

Physics: 95

Chemistry: 95

Economics: 98

English: 95

APs:

4 in EVS, Phys C Mechanics and Microeco

5 in Phys 1 and English Lit

predicted 5 in Calc BC

SAT:

780 English and 780 Math, overall 1560

Duolingo English Test 160/160

Extracurriculars and Awards

First Prize winner and youngest team in the National Level Student Journalism event held by IISc

Won Honorary Mention in the Asia-Pacific Linguistics Olympiad

Finalist in national level Science Quiz 2024 organized by IISc (Indian Institute of Science)

State round topper and National round Finalist in the world’s biggest cryptic crossword competition (CCCC) twice in 2021 and 2022

Featured Author in an anthology Published by Scholastic

Self-published a novel

Mercatus Fellow at George Mason University: One of 20 students to be selected globally for a fellowship with stipend on “Complex solutions for complex world” to understand political, economic and social life from the policy perspective

Non-Trivial Fellow: One of 150 fellows out of 15,000 applicants globally. Built a self-audit framework to mitigate the climate impact of AI systems using mathematical modeling.

Internship at a climate think tank: Researched support infrastructure available in India for climate focused deeptech startups and benchmarked it against global incubators and accelerators to identify the gaps and opportunities. Wrote a research paper which has been published on the site.

Course at CERN for one week

grade 12: House Captain

grade 11: Vice President, Maths Club

grade 10: Inter-school Event Coordinator

Core Committee Member for Inter-School Fest

Certified Scuba Diver (PADI Open Water Diver)

High altitude Himalayan trekking and camping

Founded an initiative that creates audio books explaining textbooks in vernacular language for visually impaired students. Joined by 20+ volunteers and created more than 2 hours of audiobook content.

Completed Data Science + AI program by GirlsWhoCode. Undertaking 2 online courses in Applied Data Science and Machine Learning on Coursera by UMich

**LORs:

1. My principal, counselor and English teacher

2. My 11th and 12th economics teacher

3. my 11th and 12th math teacher

They all love me and have known me for a long time so I’m confident in the LORs

[NiceUnparticularMan]

It is helpful you are full pay, but of course International admissions at those sorts of colleges are incredibly competitive even for full pay Internationals. And part of how they will pick which Internationals to admit cannot be reduced to objective qualifications.

So while you have a chance and should feel free to apply, if you want to be sure of having the opportunity to study in the US you should make sure to apply to a robust list of other colleges.

[thumper1]

You might want to make sure you actually can apply EA to U Chicago if you are applying ED to Penn.

@Mwfan1921 do you know?

[DadOfJerseyGirl]

I’m not mwfan, but yes that is allowed since EA at UChicago is unrestricted and not binding.

[happy1]

Congrats on your many accomplishments. You are a viable candidate for any university. But as you likely know already, the schools you mentioned must be considered reaches for any unhooked applicant – even more so for an international student from an over-represented country. It is pointless to try and chance you as there will be more well qualified applicants than spots available.

If you want to study in the US be sure to craft an application list that includes reach, match, and safety schools that you would be excited to attend.

[Metawampe]

Unless you’ve already applied, you’ve missed the ED deadline for Penn.

[Metawampe]

And the EA deadline for UChicago, which was also 11/1.

[rightleft]

I’d already applied, I’m just trying to gauge my chances

[Metawampe]

Got it. “Chance me” threads are typically more useful when students are trying to build and stratify their college lists, figuring out whether they are making credible choices. If if you were still at that point in your process, most commenters would have encouraged you to take your shot. But since you’ve already applied, all people can do is wish you luck.

You have credible stats, but the schools you are targeting have limited seats for international applicants, and attract strong international interest due to their aid policies. You have strong qualifications, but as you know, these schools a turn down a lot of qualified applicants.