I want to apply to UPenn this upcoming cycle but I feel like by gpa/rank will put me out of consideration. I transferred between schools. At one schools my gpa is 3.94 uw and 4.78/5 w, but at my current school my gpa is 94/100 uw and my class rank is 83/492. Should I get rid of UPenn off my list? (btw my SAT is 1560, and my mom passed away my sophomore year, so my gpa that year was a 92 uw which significantly brought down my gpa/class rank and I don’t go to a competitive high school. My gpa junior year was a 97/100 uw and I have taken 14 aps)
Should you get rid of it ?
Not if you really want to go. You can’t go if you don’t apply.
But should you add and get excited about the most important school(s) on your list ? That is the I can definitely get into it, can afford it, and would be jazzed to go to school.
Once you have one or preferably two of those, your list can be as you like. These are far more important than Penn.
What is it about Penn you love ? Gotta find those reasonable schools that share similarities.
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So if I understand correctly, you had a 3.94 UW in 9th grade, transferred and your mom passed away and you had a 92 UW in 10th grade, and you have gone back up to a 97 UW in 11th grade. Along the way you have been taking a rigorous college prep curriculum with a lot of APs. Obviously correct me if I am wrong.
Assuming that is right, first, I am very sorry for your loss.
Second, to me that 92 followed by a 97 under those circumstances is something you should be proud about. And while I know college admissions is looming large, I think being resilient in circumstances like that is a very important ability for life in general. So regardless of what exactly happens with college admissions, you should see this as proof that you are on your way to being a successful college student, and a successful adult, and perhaps more so than most kids who have not had to deal with something like that yet.
OK, so some thoughts about what to do in terms of college applications.
You might want to do a full chance me/match me so people here can provide some input on your overall college list. Without more information, we really can’t say whether Penn is a good fit for you, what other colleges you might want to consider, and so on.
But if you are specifically asking whether that 92 UW in 10th grade will be disqualifying at Penn–I don’t think anyone could say that for sure. Obviously under normal circumstances, better grades are better. But again assuming I am right about the circumstances, those were not normal.
Generally speaking, I think ideally your counselor (or even a teacher) would explain this for you, discussing the transfer, your mom passing away, and how you have handled all that. Again, I think you should be proud of how you did, and I think a counselor or teacher might be able to convey the same sentiment.
Then it would be up to Penn, or any other college, to decide what to do with that information, and you can’t know for sure. But you can’t really know what they would do with perfect grades either. That’s the nature of Reach-for-everyone colleges like Penn.
And then the really important thing would actually be the rest of your list. I think you would want to find some affordable colleges that would be a great fit for what you are looking for both academically and non-academically, and where your grades/rank combined with your very high test score and rigor would be considered very competitive under any circumstances. A full list of Likely and Target colleges like that would make it very likely you would have some great offers to consider.
Then for Reaches, what you really want to do is make sure you have looked at what they say they want in a student, and be honestly confident that you are that sort of person. And of course you also want to have good, specific reasons why you would want to attend that college in particular. Then pick something like your best 3-5 Reaches in terms of such a two-way fit.
And then if Penn is one of those–great. If not, also fine. Again, nothing you said indicated to me Penn couldn’t be one of your Reaches. But I also don’t know enough to say for sure it should be. And that’s fine if you want to leave it there, but we could also provide input on the overall picture if you would like.