How is december going to be for me?

jcll2002 · May 29, 2008, 11:54pm

Yeah i hate these too. I feel obligated to post in others because 1) I know I’m going to post one of these threads (here it is) and 2) don’t you just like helping people out? :)

Anyway here it goes:

Applying ED for LSM (CAS second choice) @ Penn
(Also considering ucla, uc berkeley, uc davis, cornell, dartmouth, brown, WUSTL, Northwestern, middlebury, harvard, yale, princeton (throwing my hat in the ring for the last 3))
Also need some safeties (I think davis is on the safe side and I really like the school, but I need others, clearly.)

Public HS (sent 2 to penn this year along with some at other top schools)
California
White Male
Financial Aid: No

*GPA: 3.8/4.6 by the time I apply. huge up trend from freshman year.
*Rank: 2% (10-12) 5% overall (bad freshman grades)
*SAT: 680 CR 710 M 720 W = 2110 (retaking in 2 weeks)
*SAT II: 760 chem 740 us history (taking Math II next fall)
*Taken the absolute hardest schedule.

ECs:

School related:

*Baseball 2 years (then got injured, had surgery, couldn’t recover)
*Student gvt Treasurer 1 year
*student gvt Fundraiser 1 year (established school store. huge pain in the ass. Spend an amazing amount of time here and really care about my school)
*Math Tutor 3 years
*Math Honors Society

Work Experience:

*Hedge Fund
*Orthopedic Practice
*Working in a Penn Lab (Lynch Labs) this summer with the post docs who run it and some undergrads who are also working

Misc.:

*Penn summer science biomedical research program (where i met the guy in the lab for the job this summer. Have great rec)
*Doing research with malaria and other parasites at same penn lab
*Taking Econ this summer at penn
*Publishing paper in national skin disease magazine in september. Not sure how many issues there are, but the institution is comperable to the American Cancer Society
*started playing around in the stock market at 12, now manage money for family friends

Well, I could really use any tips you guys have. What do you guys think?

jenkster · May 30, 2008, 1:28am

You’re amazing. Just good luck to you and hope you get what you deserve.

Calcruzer · May 30, 2008, 1:56am

You’ve made some smart choices with spending last summer at Penn’s science program, and this summer’s internship also at Penn. They have got to know that Penn will be your #1 choice if admitted.

Ivies go by rank and you are in the top 2% of your school for 10-12 and top 5% overall–and the grade trend is upward. You took a tough courseload and you’ve got good ECs with an interesting bit of variety, showing that you know what you want to do, but can still excel in any topic they throw at you.

I put your chances at right around 55% to 60%, especially if you apply ED, which I’m sure you will–and if you improve your test scores even 30 points or so.

As far as the UCs, I expect you will be admitted to all of them, I also expect you will get into Cornell, WUSL, and possibly Brown (although Brown really likes to see at least one SAT score at 770 above for some weird reason).
Harvard, Yale, Princeton will be rejects (too low on the SAT, and they won’t like seeing you with all the Penn connections, since they know that’s your first choice). You should get into Northwestern–but I doubt you will get into Middlebury, since your profile is not along their lines–and they will see all the other application locations. Dartmouth is the hardest to predict of all of the schools–could go either way.

John Hopkins is not really a safety, but I’d apply there anyway (your science major, you see), and maybe besides UC Davis, I’d consider UCSB, which has one of the top 5-rated Chemistry programs in the country, or maybe Rice or Tulane, the first of which offers great financial aid, and the second which has some of the top biomedical research centers in the country. (see below)

[Centers</a> and Institutes](<a href=“http://www.sph.tulane.edu/main/research-centers/centers-institutes.htm]Centers”>http://www.sph.tulane.edu/main/research-centers/centers-institutes.htm)

Emory could also be considered if money is not a concern–although it’s about as far from a safety as you can get except for HYP.

Best of luck to you.

jcll2002 · May 30, 2008, 9:03am

Thanks so much for the encouragement guys! I really appreciate it. I want to do a sort of business/science combination in college. I’ll definitely check out the link you provided as well as UCSB/JHU.

Calcruzer, that was one of the nicest things anyone’s said to me (in regards to this subject matter). Just made my day :)

Calcruzer · May 31, 2008, 3:30am

Well, I’m glad I made your day–although it’s easier to do so when someone’s done a good job in preparing for college–as you’ve done.

Best of success at whatever college you end up at.

jcll2002 · June 4, 2008, 8:09pm

Bump. (comments welcome about other colleges also)

How is december going to be for me?

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