<p>I’m an applicant from an underrepresented country (Finland) and I am applying to Wharton/M&T this fall. I will NOT be asking for financial aid, would this be considered a hook?</p>
<p>And while your at it, could you please chance me as well?</p>
<p>Caucasian male
No legacy</p>
<p>SAT: CR 640, M 720, WR 650 (1360,2010), will retake
SAT II: Math IIC 770, Physics 790, French 680</p>
<p>HS: IB school with competitive entry
Full IB diploma with 4 HL subjects: predicted probably 44/45
Rank: 1/~40</p>
<p>ECs:
In a board of 8 members (board members are elected) of a student organization for all IB students in Finland, I am in charge of organizing an overnight cruise for about 400 IB students
Actively participate in an Economics/Politics club in school
Representative student of my class
Advertise my IB school to middle-schools in the area</p>
<p>Work experience:
Worked for the local university’s student housing, 1 month in July 2007
Internship at a national bank in 9th grade for 1 week.</p>
<p>plainly said no. a hook is something that you do not something that you are born into. so a hook would be being an athlete in a sport, being great at an instrument, etc… </p>
<p>what will help you is that you are from finland, however not asking for money will neither hurt nor help your chances. penn does like internationals from underrepresented places but i dont think that the committee will be jumping with joy when they see that you don’t need fin aid - they reject plenty of millionaires who will probably make great donaters in the future.
You have good marks and if you improve your SAT’s ill say you have a good chance.</p>
<p>But shouldn’t not asking for money help me because Penn has limited financial aid for internationals? At least according to their website my chances would be slimmer if I did ask for aid, as there is more competition in the pool of internationals that do ask for aid.</p>
<p>I understand that there are many applicants who do not ask for aid and get rejected, but I would specifically want to know whether the fact that I’m both international and I do not ask for aid helps my chances.</p>
<p>it may help slightly since Penn is not need-blind for internationals as you have said, but it hardly qualifies as a ‘hook’ - something that will significantly increase your chance for admission that few others have. So, again, the answer to your initial question is no.</p>
<p>Fin-IB: I think most I.B. teachers do not give out 7 for predicted grades, and your SAT IIs and your predicted do not really correlate. The rigor of your teacher will be raised for questioning. My suggestion is to retake French, just to corroborate the knowledge you’ve gained in I.B. French.</p>
<p>^ I received FA, but I do know of other internationals who would have probably gotten in had they not asked for any. On the other hand, I know this girl who got in with a full ride…she must have had an insane app.</p>
<p>you sound so much like me about an year ago. I too thought that I had a real edge over other applicants just because i was an international not seeking aid, but found out that this is far from the truth. my admissions representative told me that when looking at an international application, they don’t look at whether or not you asked for aid. they FIRST see whether or not you are qualified to enter, and if you are, they will consider admitting you, THEN they’ll check if they can offer you the aid, and THEN you will be admitted/rejected on the basis of how much aid u asked for and whether or not they can offer it to you. so it’s not like they’re first going to pay attention to the fact that you didn’t ask for aid and give you some sort of special consideration.</p>
<p>What he said is totally true so dont think not asking for aid= admission as most ppl in my school thought (nobody got in this year compared from 5 last year)</p>
<p>Our teachers predict what they think I will achieve. With many of my subjects with straight sevens on my transcript (we grade each class with IB grades) it wouldn’t make any sense for them to predict me sixes. In the past our teachers have predicted fairly accurately, even though our graduating classes have had averages of 36-37p and thus the teachers have had to predict sevens as well. The reason my SAT II scores do not correlate that well with my predicted is because I am very unfamiliar with the test format. None of the school staff (teachers, GCs, IB coordinator…) knows anything about SATs because our school has never sent students to the US, or at least no one seems to remember. The entire school staff seems to think that applying to the US is nonsense. I’m waiting for asking recommendations with horror.</p>
<p>@Everyone,</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. Do you still think that I stand a chance at admission?</p>