Do I have what it takes?

Yasmin
Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:57:58 +0000

Or am I a typical applicant?

I’m a junior at a competitive school in the middleeast. (does that make me an URM? idk just wondering…) I’m planning to apply to Penn a year from now…so any advice would be great! Tell me if you think I’m on the right track…

Rank: 15/120 (ya, I suck)
GPA: (avg of 4 yrs) 16/20

Thats an A. I messed up freshman year and got a 14/B- so that got my average down a bit. Now I’m getting 17s (A+). Also, our school dosent weigh GPA so taking a rigorous courseload brings my grades down…colleges would take that into account.

SAT: 1850 June (I’m re-taking it in Dec. right now I’m getting 2000-2100 in practice tests. I’m aiming at 2200+)
SAT II: taking next year Maths IIC, Bio M and either world history or french

APs: Biology, European history, Macroeconomics, English language and composition
A-levels: English language and litreture, Economics, Buisness, Arabic, Maths.

I’m taking the 4 APs and 4 ASs and Arabic A2 this year. Next year, I’ll be taking 4A2s (the second module of the A-level) and a couple more APs. Thats a total of 6 APs and 5 A-levels by graduation.

ECs:
-Head of biomonthly 50page school newspaper (10hs/ wk)
-University support prefect (this probably wont count so much)
-I interned at a publishing office in the summer where I translated childrens books from Arabic to English. I liked it so much that I’m still doing it. The office is a long drive from home tho so with school and all I mostly work from home.

I volunteer every weekend at the local autism center. I just started a couple of months ago so I doubt by the time I apply I WONT be one of those people with 1000+ volunteer hours lol. But I guess it will still look good…right?

I organized a couple of events in school including an international culture day, a Talent show, a “Brain Scratch” contest and a couple more events for the elementary grades.

So what do you think?
I feel like I’m a bit behind…
what more can I do to get in?