ED @ Penn chance

s13nior
Sat, 29 Sep 2012 13:20:19 +0000

I go to a top private school in Boston. It’s crazy competitive (most teachers think giving out a B+ or A- is a very good grade), so my GPA is pretty low, but I’ve had an upward trend since freshman year and got mosty As, a few A- my junior year (most rigorous course load available).
GPA: ~3.73 UW
SAT: 2350
Sat II: Latin 790, Math I 800, Chem 770

ECs: Lit Mag 4 years (Editor-in-chief), newspaper 4 yrs (section editor), piano 11 years + school orchestra, I tutor middle schoolers twice a week (4 years), started creative writing club and community service program teaching underprivileged kids to write creatively (president + founder), interned at a lit mag + a newspaper, published in 3 lit mags + multiple times in a newspaper, independent physics research, physics lab internship @ MIT for a summer, some random community service clubs

Summers: internships, cty, ivy summer programs (including Penn’s physics academy)

Race: White
Gender: Male

I know I’m not a competitive applicant in terms of ECs + academics, but I’m wondering if you think I have any shot at all (ED or RD)? I want to major in english and minor in physics. I love this school to infinity but I don’t want to apply if it’s a lost cause and I would fare better at a less prestigious school. Do you think there’s any way the 3.7 thing can be amended?