So… My dream school is UPenn and Amherst. Personally, I think my app is too lacking… Do I even have a shot in these schools or is it waste of my time? I am considering ED for either one… Oh, I am aspiring Bio major.
ACT - 33
SAT- 2000
SAT 2 score- 800 Kr, 780 Math 2, 710 Chem, 720 USH
AP scores: AP Euro - 4
AP Psych- 5
AP Eng - 3
AP USH - 5
AP Macro - 4
AP Chem - cancelled score
AP HUG - 4
GPA: Unweighted: 3.96
Weighted: 4.6
(Had 2 B’s 1 AP Chem (1 semester) and Trig (one semester)
Class rank: 6/847
Senior classes: AP Stat, AP Calc AB, AP Bio, anatomy, AP Physics, ASB, AP Gov
Awards:
School awards, AP Scholar, Science Olympiad 3rd regional
Overall Community service hrs: ~350 hrs
Extra curricular:
ASB - 2 years class VP, 2 yrs commissioner
Animal hospital Internship - 40 hrs: surgical assistant, learned to draw blood, assist with ultrasound… etc.
Animal hospital volunteer
Animal Shelter Volunteer
Science Olympiad- 3rd regional
San Diego Homeless Project
NHS
Youth Advisory Council- SKIP (special needs dances/ family nights), can food drive
Ambassador from school to China (hosted by PRC cultural and art ministry under full scholarship)
Ethnicity: Asian…
Financial Aid: will apply…
Location: CA
I’ll start off by saying what I’m sure you’ve heard about UPenn and Amherst a thousand times, it is nearly impossible to predict who will and won’t get into these schools. However, it’s obviously still worth taking a look. To do this, I’ll make it simple and talk pros and cons.
Pros: You have a good unweighted GPA (ignore your weighted GPA, colleges don’t care about it, rather they care about the overall difficulty of your courses). Your ACT score is very high, it falls seemingly above the 50th percentile for UPenn admitted students from 2013. Your ECs are decent in the fact that you have a good amount of them and it looks like some leadership positions. A very good amount of community service hours, so long as you can provide solid evidence of your work when asked.
Cons: Your ethnicity, unfortunately. It’s becoming much less of a secret that it doesn’t help you in college applications to be Asian, again, unfortunately. Your SAT overall (2000) is not great when you consider that you need a score of 2100 to be the “top 10%” in the nation. You seem to lack a big hook, something that will make you stand out. The most I can see for a hook from what you provided is that you’ve had experience as a surgical assistant with an animal hospital, but that still isn’t very much.
To conclude, yes of course you should apply! These are your dream schools, you’d really regret not at least submitting an application. You have a chance, as small it may be. You never know what admissions officers might like about you. You’re not wasting your time chasing your dreams. Sure that last line sounds a bit generic but, it’s very true. I wish you the best of luck.
I wouldn’t submit your SAT score, your ACT is much sufficient and much higher. Your unweighted GPA is good, and if if you continue to differentiate yourself with EC’s like volunteering at the animal hospital, I don’t see why those schools aren’t possibilities. Obviously, they’re a reach for everyone, but there is nothing in your profile that would knock you out of the running or isn’t strong enough to make you competitive for admissions at your chosen schools. Good luck, and definitely apply!
San Diego! That’s a huge class size so let me guess… El Camino High? Carlsbad? Torrey Pines? Maybe I’m way off. Anyway, you should definitely apply to both of those schools! If those are your dream schools then you shouldn’t give up! Your course work, ACT score, and GPA are all very competitive, and those are some solid EC’s. Kudos to you for being so passionate about pursuing higher education as a rising junior, that’s fantastic. Keep it up!
UPenn requires that you submit ALL scores that you have ever taken. They take it very seriously if they find an applicant hasn’t complied with the rules.