Chances for Wharton, Cornell, top schools?

ee33ee
Sun, 27 May 2007 21:25:42 +0000

Well there are a lot more people here, so I’ll just make another thread

Right now I’m looking at

Wharton(reach?)
Cornell(match?)
Duke
Dartmouth
UVA
UNC Chapel

This is from my thread in the UPenn forum
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30



Asian male, I’m thinking of applying for early-decision for Wharton if I have a decent chance (or should I just apply early for Cornell, which I’m sure I have a much better chance at getting into?)

All A’s as soph/fresh, 4 honors classes in each of those grades

Junior
AP Comp Science -A
AP US History - A
AP Stat - A
AP Calc AB - A
Honors Physics - A
Honors English - B (yeah…i know, but 11th grade honors english in my school is the hardest course, even harder than AP english)

Senior
AP Chem
AP Physics
AP Gov/Econ
AP Calc BC
Honors English (cant do AP english with a B in honors last year)

Sat’s
Math: 770
Reading: 760
Writing: 780
Total: 2310

PSAT: 224

Activities
Fresh:
Swimming
Republican Club
Outdoor track

Summer: Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth

Soph:
National Honor society
Cross country
Indoor track
Outdoor track

Summer: took a course at community college Intro to Math (waste of time, i know)

Junior
National Honor society
Cross country
Indoor track
Outdoor track

Summer: I’m going to the Penn. Gov. School of Excellence (5 week program thats pretty competitve to get in)

I’m pretty sure I’m going to be a finalist with my PSAT score of 224.
I have some other minor awards like winning the debate tournament at CTY, age group awards for local races, but nothing spectacular

I’m in PA, medium-level competitive school, not many Asians around here (good for me), I know I’m in the top 3% of ~400 kids. I’m very intelligent (my SAT score is w/o studying), I’ve slacked off a lot and managed to get all A’s except for English this year. I’ve often felt contempt at the whole college application process and I’d rather have a few hours to chill every day instead of filling up every waking hours with extracurricular activities that i didnt ENJOY. I’ve often had the attitude “OK, I think it’s stupid to show that you’re a caring person by volunteering when, in actuality, you are only doing it to put an extra line on your resume”.

There are three things about me that might set me apart from the typical math/science/academic/piano Asian, but I’m not sure if it’s enough to give me a chance at Wharton.

I’m thinking that if I do apply, these would make good essay topics?:

e Bay - For the entirety of my sophomore, I ran an online business selling items for a multiplayer RPG game (I had to build massive connections to do this sort of thing single-handedly while spending only 2 hours a day on it).
Basically, I was an e Bay level PowerSeller with my own e Bay store and around $25,000 PROFIT in one year. I regret stopping after a year, but e Bay no longer allows the selling of virtual items. So… this is the big IF: how much weight would my entrepreneurship carry?

Running - I’m not good at all, but I love it. I’m a LONG DISTANCE runner, so the amount of time I put into it is often underestimated. I run 30+ miles a week almost year-round. I have 2+ hours of practice pretty much every weekday of the school year, I run by myself every weekend, I train over the summer (last summer I logged over 300 miles). Now I’m naturally not a good runner, so I haven’t won any awards except for local road races… whereas if I had spent all this time on an instrument, for example, I would probably be very, very good. Would colleges care about the extraordinary amounts of time and passion that you put into an activity that you’re not that good at?

Bodybuilding - Again, this is an activity that dedicate large amounts of time to for its intrinsic value, not how well it would look on a resume. I started half a year ago, but it takes far more than the 3 hours a week that I put in at the gym; I’ve spent 10+ hours a week for the past few months reading up on bodybuilding topics. Anyone who has done it knows that bodybuilding is not as simple as it sounds. Should this even be on my resume? I know it would probably make a good essay topic, as I’ve almost doubled most of my lifts. This is completely on my own initiative and on my own time, which is probably a disadvantage for me, because there’s no school bodybuilding club, competitions, etc. that would make my efforts “official”.

Sorry for the long thread. I just want an honest assessment so I know whether or not I’m wasting my time. I am not very knowledgeable about the whole college app. process at all.