UPenn Class of 2021 RD Results

loz4life
Sat, 01 Apr 2017 20:19:14 +0000

Objective:
Decision: Accepted College Arts and Sciences
Rejected: Huntsman Program

SAT I (breakdown): 1500, 770 math, 730 reading/writing
ACT (breakdown): none
SAT II: 800 Spanish, 750 US History
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.99
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1 out of 35 (super small school)
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5 Spanish Language and culture, 4 US
IB (place score in parenthesis): none
Senior Year Course Load: Accelerated physics, Human Anatomy and Physiology, AP Calc AB, AP Stat, Honors English
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Place in my age group in a couple of big city running races

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): 4 years cross country/track as the only member of the team… not much time for anything else running 40-50 miles per week
Job/Work Experience: Neo-Latin script editor, translation coding
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteer at local church
Summer Activities: Running, said work, Spanish immersion in Costa Rice going into junior year and went to China before my senior year

Rate out of 10
Essays: Common App: 8/10, about how I used foreign language to discover myself, but some have told me part of my essay is insensitive stereotypical because my first line was something like “I hate it when foreigners use Chinese to pick up native Cantonese girls” #老外, Why Penn 7/10, started saying I’ve been eating sushi since I was an infant and how I could fulfill my passion for the Orient at Penn, Huntsman Essay 6/10, wrote about how foreign businesses exploit the native people in Costa Rica, wrote it all the night before, so not spectacular
Teacher Recommendation: First was Latin teacher, she’s said I’m one of her best students in over 25 years of teaching, 9/10, second was freshman and junior English teacher, one of top two students he has had in 15 years, the other studied at Oxford 9/10
Counselor Rec: 8/10, decent relationship with counselor, but not like teachers
Additional Rec: 7/10, from my cross country/track coach, most likely spoke on how I trained with the local public school team and led the team
Interview: 8/10, interviews don’t matter much because anyone applying to an Ivy also knows how to be personable, but it went well and got to talk about the Steelers and Antonio Brown
Other:

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: East Asian Languages and Civilizations on application, but don’t think that’s gonna happen.
State (if domestic applicant): PA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 50-75k, but I guess because my father is an oral surgeon they decided to give no aid…
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): my dad works part time in the dental school, but I don’t think that helped

Reflection

Strengths: Non-Hispanic who learned Spanish without ever taking a Spanish class at school, can handwrite Chinese characters, letters of rec?? but I feel like everyone as good letters
Weaknesses: average test scores, your typical middle class white boy in the Philly area applying to Penn, no major awards, my school rarely sends kids to elite schools
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I found out what a “spike” was a little over a year ago, and I pushed my passions hard. Everything was about learning languages or running in my application. Those are what I have “extraordinary potential” in—quoting the acceptance letter. Nonetheless, it took a little bit of luck. Someone must have loved languages reading my application, and that’s all I needed.
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: Accepted: Boston College (four years of housing), Villanova, Lafayette, Tufts, and Penn; Waitlisted: Lehigh (lol no demonstrated interest, they don’t want to be a “second options”), Middlebury, Williams, Georgetown; Rejected: Amherst, Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, Princeton

General Comments: It’s a crapshoot, but you can help yourself to make it less of one. Find out what you like, I work tirelessly to become truly special at your passion. Don’t waste time playing JV soccer to pad your application. Sure, I only got into 5/14 schools I applied to, but you only end up going to one school. You’ve heard it before, but colleges want people who will change the world, so you gotta have something you bring to the table because 4.0 and 1600/36 likely won’t cut it. It’s an emotional roller coaster, but it’s worth it is truly a dream come true to say I will part of the Class of 2021!