UPenn Class of 2021 RD Results

TikopiaRock28
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 06:18:05 +0000

Decision: Accepted

College of Arts & Sciences

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2360 (800 Math, 760 CR, 800 Writing) after three tries lol
SAT II: 790 US History, 780 Math II, 730 Biology M
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): ~3.9
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 5%
AP (place score in parenthesis): Biology (3), Euro (5), Calculus AB (5), Human Geography (5), Chemistry (3), US History (5), Calculus BC (5), English Language (5), Psychology (5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP English Literature, AP Statistics, AP US Government & Politics, Fine Arts and PE to graduate lol
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): 1st Place local Academic WorldQuest, 13th Place National Academic WorldQuest, Gold Level President’s Volunteer Service Award, National Merit Commended (didn’t include)

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): online flu/disease map aimed to educate teens on public health developments (Founder/Developer, 11-12), annual high school medical publication (Founder/Editor-in-Chief, 10-12), community health advisory board at local university (Youth Chair, 11-12), Future Doctors of America/HOSA (Founder/President, 9-12), medical explorations class at local K-8 school (Teacher, 10), Jr. HOSA at local middle school (Founder/Club Mentor, 9-12), Superintendent’s Student Advisory Committee (STEM Chair, 11-12), Peer Tutoring (Founder/President, 9-12), Peer Ambassador (11-12)
Job/Work Experience: cardiac stem cell research at local university (coauthored a paper, 10-12), adolescent cardiovascular health research at local community health center (11-12)
Volunteer/Community service: N/A
Summer Activities: Wet lab and public health research, took a class (got an A!) in Global Health at local university

Rate out of 10
Essays: Common App (9.5/10) - definitely my best essay, I told a very creative, quirky, and purposeful story about how learning what band-aids are (I grew up in a hippy-dippy eastern medicine household, didn’t know what band-aids were until I was about 7) inspired my passion for problem-solving and medicine. Make sure your essays tell a story, are not boring, and reinforce the theme/spike to your application, because that’s what makes them stand out.
Why UPenn (9/10) - talked about getting excited about interdisciplinary ideas at my dinner table, showed how different programs/departments/overall opportunities at UPenn make the school another dinner table. Talked about non-academic pursuits at UPenn as well, how one of my goals is to “cultivate an interest in muenster cheese and focaccia bread” at some notorious food trucks there haha. Have fun with these essays!
Recommendations:
Teacher Rec #1 (rating 1-10, details): 9.5/10 - AP Lang, my teacher and I were so tight. We’d have awesome philosophical talks and she mentioned how I’d rap book reports or socratic seminars in class, so that probably made me stand out as the wacky nerd I am.
Teacher Rec #2 (rating 1-10, details): 9/10 - AP Bio, teacher wrote about the endless number of questions I’d have about material both during and outside of class time. We really hit it off, I love my bio teacher, and I believe she reflected my curiosity well in the letter.
Counselor Rec (rating 1-10, details): 10/10 - ok my counselor is literally the bae. enough said.
Interview: Didn’t receive one

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Health & Societies
State (if domestic applicant): CA
School Type: Public ~2000 students
Ethnicity: White (Middle Eastern)
Gender: XY
Income Bracket: $150,000-$200,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None!

Reflections:
Strengths: extracurriculars extracurriculars extracurriculars, make sure to show a very clear spike/theme in these (9/10 of my extracurriculars were related to medicine or public health). Also my essays were very strong, make sure to tell a story that supports your spike/theme in a quirky way.
Weaknesses: LOL grades and AP scores in general. I got a C in AP Physics (hate that class) on my midyear report first trimester of senior year, so I was REALLY worried that would tank me completely. The C was due to family circumstances (heart arrhythmia with my dad, I actually tied the explanation to my extracurriculars/passion quite nicely, really lessened the blow of a crappy midyear report, got counselor to support it in an additional update). I thought as a pre-med my threes in AP Bio and Chem would have also wrecked me. Thankful it worked out!

Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Huge medical/public health spike that was supported by my quirky and narrative-like essays

Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: UC Berkeley (Regents), UCLA, UCSD (Regents), UCI (Regents), UC Davis (Regents), UCSB (Regents), USC
Waitlisted: JHU, UChicago, Harvard, Dartmouth
Denied: Duke, Rice, Princeton, Brown, Yale

General Comments (if any): It’s all just so crazy looking back. Loved high school, can’t believe the growth I’ve seen in myself and friends. You’ll see it too! Do things that you love, things that keep you up at night thinking. If you go about high school that way, the rest (grades, acceptances) will come.
Looking forward to Quaker Days, and UPENN '21!!!