<p>I’m a Korean/White Male who lives in Korea. I was deferred to Wharton and was wondering if I should retake my SAT 1 or 2’s for the January SAT in order to better my chances for regular decision.</p>
<p>SAT 1: 740 Math, 700 Verbal
SAT 2: 800 Math 2c, 660 Writing, 630 US History
If I did retake Sat 2’s, I would take Writing, US History, and Physics.
Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>Eh, if they deferred you it isnt likely that test retaking would have that great an impact on your decision. However, getting your writing and us history scores up couldnt hurt you.</p>
<p>I’ve been told that I should call to reaffirm that penn is my first choice. But what else can I do? Would sending a newspaper clipping /w a pic of me and my sport help? Write another essay? Get another rec from my counselor? I’m totally lost as to what I should do from here.</p>
<p>I don’t think that you should retake the SAT I; I was accepted with a 1420. I know that Penn puts a lot of emphasis on writing, so you should probably retake the Writing SAT II and hopefully bring it up to the 700 range.</p>
<p>As for getting in RD, just think about what the admissions officers are looking for: students who will be successful in the future who say that they attended Penn, making Penn’s reputation better, making more people apply, making Penn more selective, and ultimately generating more money. Remember: all colleges are businesses.</p>
<p>Keeping this in mind, I would show them something that makes them think that you will be a “mover and shaker” in the real world after you graduate. Let them know about your motivation, determination, etc. I don’t know exactly what you should say because I don’t know about your life, but in my case, I emphasized the fact that I led an MIT $10,000 grant-funded project to create a barcode-to-voice assistance device to help the blind (and from it I was written up in a lot of newspapers and interviewed on national TV). This shows leadership qualities, sensitivity to the handicapped (similar to community service), and motivation to put time into following my passions.</p>
<p>Following your passions is another great thing to show them. For example, I’ve always loved computers and programming, so I got an internship at a software development company over the summer of 10th grade, used the knowledge I gained from that to work at a highly selective internship at a top-ranking cancer center, and eventually worked at Penn’s bioinformatics lab during the summer of 11th grade (coincidentally under the mentorship of the director of the major I applied for). If you show Penn that you are willing to go further than what is required of you to follow your passions, they will definately look favorably upon that.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>