Hey,
I really appreciate you helping me out. I’m a senior studying in a private boarding school in Sydney, Australia - but I’m an international boarder from Singapore (I know right)
These are my ‘stats’
[ b]Objective:**
SAT I (breakdown): 2300 (780M, 740CR, 780W)
SAT II (place score in parentheses): World History 670 and taking Math 2 & Biology in June
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): school doesn’t do this
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school ranks by subject - basically in the top 10 for all (out of approx 80 - fluctuates from subject to subject)
Senior Year Course Load: Mathematics, Extension 1 Mathematics (both Maths calculus based), Engineering Studies, Modern History (Germany), Economics, English
[ b]Subjective:**
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses):House Monitor (of my boarding house, do duties, mark rolls, call house meetings etc), Rugby (1 state championship, 1 ‘city/metropolitan’ championship, played for school since 5th grade, inter-state rugby tour), Athletics Team (shot put 3rd, but our school won the point score --> championship & part of the team since 2013), Economics Society (founding member), Chess Club, PADI accredited Advanced Open Water Diver
Job/Work Experience: 1 week at Engineering Company (plan to talk about how the management aspect really appealed to me, also hoping to apply to Fisher M&T Program - long shot I know)
Volunteer/Community Service: 3 hours/week for 1 year at Aged Care Facility, set up initiative to raise funds for a ‘sponsor child’ by selling food in the yard, worked for a week at a Child Care Center (8 hours/day), went on a 2 week long Aboriginal Australian Cultural Immersion (learned about their culture by staying at their traditional ‘homelands’, did some service work), 40 Hour Famine (didnt eat for 40 hours to raise money for World Vision)
[ b]Other**
Applied for Financial Aid?: no
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant): Australia/Singapore
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: fortunate enough where fees will not be an issue
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First Generation college student
Thanks for the help guys
What is your GPA? Your school must have some sort of grading system.
Little to no chance. Being Asian and trying to hard to get cultural immersion with Aboriginals strikes me as inauthentic.
@thetsaria There’s no GPA in Australia, but I am getting As if that helps.
Also @susan1977 what does my race have to do with my community outreach activities? I did these programs even before I considered going to the US…Are you saying only white people can go on cultural immersions without looking sus? I don’t think that’s the case but hey, thanks for the opinion.
@thetsaria the poor world history score probably got you questioning about my grades - I just did it basically to see how I’d go. I don’t actually do world history at school (I do modern history, and it focuses on Germane from WWI-WWII). I’m also hoping to do very well for both my math and bio.
@abc1688 You have good credentials, but I agree with @susan1977 . That extracurricular activity does sound a little weird. Being an Asian international student is going to make admission to UPenn and other highly ranked colleges extremely difficult, probably less than 1%. Your SAT 1 test score and grades are great, but your ECs are lacking. Please make sure you apply to lots of backup options.
Generally cultural immersion activities are not too popular with ivy league admissions officers these days if they are not authentic. It has nothing to do with your race. Real cultural immersion would be having to move to another culture for your parents’ jobs or something like that.
My impression is that Wharton is looking for “rock star” applicants, in whom they see potential for massive donations and celebrity in the future. They want the class presidents, quarterbacks, Intel/Westinghouse winners, Wall St. interns with profitable websites, et al. You certainly have the academic chops to apply. If you think you want to go there, and money is no issue, you should consider applying Early Decision. After that, though, there are many other good undergraduate Business programs worth adding to your list.
@susan1977 I see where you’re coming from now, sorry for the misunderstanding before. But do you think I should leave it off my list completely? Or should I re-word it as a community outreach trip (which it basically was). My experiences on that trip are on my essay. I’m just really scared of it looking superficial, since I never intended for it to be used for any application (i didn’t consider applying to the US at the time, and in Aus, you just use your mark)
Thanks @woogzmama, I definitely understand that its a highly competitive pool and I need a bit of luck come application time!
Hey I think your EC’s are actually pretty good for an Australian applicant- our unis don’t take those into consideration unless you’re applying for a scholarship so it’s not as common to have a laundry list of EC’s, so I don’t think the admission officers will compare your EC’s to that of American students. SAT I is good, if you can get bio and math up to 750+ that would be good, especially math- Wharton looks for applicants with “strong background in mathematics, up to calculus level”. If you write good essays and apply ED, with an ATAR of say 99ish I’d say you’d definitely have a shot. I’m from Australia too and I’m applying to the Huntsman Program ED, so good luck!