I am 1 / 142 - small, rural high school. (most likely the only one applying to UPenn)
W. GPA: 4.263
UW: 3.9
11 APs, 6 honors - my school offers 9 APs.
- 3 on Bio, 4 on Seminar, 5 on Lang, and 5 on U.S. Gov.
- planning on taking 4 more exams this year
4 dual enrollment classes, 3 of which are business related.
- my overall coursework is pretty business heavy
SAT: 1250 - going test-optional obviously.
My extracurriculars include Vice President, a part-time job of over a year, and moderate volunteer work, as well as several school clubs. (not very impressive in terms of internships or anything)
Awards include NHS, AP Scholar w/ Honor, and AP Capstone Diploma Candidate
I believe my personal statement and supplementals are strong - they were reviewed by multiple teachers.
I want to apply because I get free applications so why not but it isn’t the most impressive. I have involved myself extensively in the school and in the community, but my school doesn’t offer very many opportunities in terms of business like DECA.
Wharton is a reach for any unhooked applicant but if it appears affordable then go for it. You only have a chance if you apply.
As I tell every applicant, be sure to create a well balanced application list with reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable and that you would be excited to attend.
If you submitted a 1520 SAT, it would still be a really small chance. I think you should apply because I would love to see you come back and tell us we were all wrong. Still, go into this understanding what it is…the longest of long shots.
Apply! And then focus on finding other schools where your stats put you squarely in the “admit” pile. Any college would be lucky to have you- the trick is to go explore and identify the ones where you are a clear “we want this kid”.
In Applicants to the Wharton School, We Would Like to See:
An interest in business to fuel positive change to advance the world’s economic and social well-being
Demonstrated leadership
Strong preparation in mathematics, particularly calculus
You can self-assess on the first couple things, but if nothing else it can be helpful to know what sorts of themes they may be expecting from their successful applicants, and to reflect on whether you are really a good fit for that, and if so how you intend to demonstrate that to them in your application.
I otherwise wanted to direct your attention to the third thing, particularly the reference to Calculus, as you did not mention whether or not your curriculum included Calculus.
As a final thought, Wharton is an incredibly difficult admit for anyone, but I think with your overall strong course record, demonstrated interest in business, community involvement, and coming from a small, rural HS, there would be many very good undergrad business schools very interested in you. And if you would like some suggestions about other undergrad business schools to consider, you could get a lot of help exploring your options here.
If you are interested, you could provide more information about your budget, and any other preferences you might have (region, setting, size, and so on), and we could then give you options to consider.
It appears that Penn is using test scores for admission to engineering and Wharton, and taking kids without test scores into Arts and Sciences. I came to that conclusion after seeing that diversity admits to Penn as a whole post affirmative action hardly dropped, but the URM admits to Wharton last year plunged. That only makes sense if they’re using different criteria for each program.
I think you have a good chance as a rural student if you just want to apply to the school for Arts and Sciences, but I don’t think it makes sense anymore to apply without test scores to math-based programs.
I note this becomes one of those situations where it might be hard to sort out causation from correlation.
Like, just anecdotally, the other kids I know of in S24’s class who also took Calc BC as juniors and got 5s also got high SAT and/or ACT scores.
OK, so we know Wharton likes to see strong preparation in Calculus, and I think it is a very good bet what I saw anecdotally is true more generally, at least as to Wharton applicants (that Wharton applicants who had all the things Wharton is looking for including strong preparation in Calculus would at least mostly also have high SAT and/or ACT scores).
So does Wharton actually require high Math subscores too? My guess is no, not in any strict sense, but it might usually expect to see them anyway. And if it didn’t, it might pay particular attention to other evidence of strong math preparation, particularly Calculus. And if you didn’t have any of that, your chances would probably be very low.
But again, it might not really come up all that often anyway, not among the people who would be competitive for Wharton in the first place.
I was coming here to say this! I have a current Penn kid who is very happy in CAS and getting a Wharton minor which you can do from CAS. I say apply! Take a lot of time on your essays. grab the attention of the AO and let them see how you would be a good fit for their next class. You have done amazing work with the opportunities you have.