UPenn Class of 2021 RD Results

existingperson
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 02:07:31 +0000

Objective:
Decision: Accepted CAS

SAT I (breakdown): 2210 - Maths (750), Reading (770), Writing (690 lol) all one sitting (only ever took it once)
ACT (breakdown): N/A
SAT II: 760 Literature, 700 Chemistry
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): Don’t have GPAs (I’m Australian, but I got straight As from yr 10 - 12)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/180 (although my school didn’t submit a rank for overseas applications)
AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A
IB (place score in parenthesis): 45 --> History HL (7), Geography HL (7), Chemistry HL (7), English A SL (7), Maths SL (7), French B SL (7)
Senior Year Course Load: Full IB Diploma (see subjects above + ToK/EE)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): a few state linguistics olympiad silver medals, state finalist for french speaking competitions, IB subject awards for Maths/French/English, one national leadership award

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): School Captain, Co-Pres/Co-founder of school’s first social justice club, magazine editing committee (head of writing), NGO poverty/gender equity ambassador, year long research paper with a university professor on feminism, 4 years of Netball, Acapella choir (leader), member of my state’s youth council (there’s 1 or 2 more but I can’t remember)
Job/Work Experience: N/A
Volunteer/Community service: see above
Summer Activities: French language exchange

Rate out of 10
Essays:
Common App - maybe 8? hard to tell since it was very out of the box/creative. I wrote humourously about hating cheese and how that became a problem when I was on French Exchange. I related it back to cross cultural bonding/connections which worked well with my proposed major (International Relations)
Penn Essay - 7 definitely not my most interesting writing but it illustrated my diverse experiences well and my love for social justice came through, was a very boring read though in my opinion and I wrote it in 3 hours (literally was the reason I was so sure I would never be accepted here)
Teacher Recommendation: First one was from my History teacher who said he’d written me the best reccomendation he’d ever done so probably at least a 9? Second was from my French teacher who adored me but had only written a few recommendations before so possible a 7 or 8/10.
Counselor Rec: probably an 8. Had a really good relationship with her and she knew me really well, but she was a bit disorganised and did all the recs in a rush.
Interview: 6/10 It was actually terrible - the guy just talked about himself most of the time and barely asked me any questions, I got a free coffee out of it though so I can’t complain

Other:
Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: International Relations
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant): Australia
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: Indian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 200k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none sadly

Reflection

Strengths: definitely my IB 45, also probably my ecs - they showed my passion for social justice/leadership/advocacy work, maybe also my common app essay? but I still have no idea whether it was objectively a good strange or just plain weird
Weaknesses: Indian, International applicant, low test scores (esp that 690 in writing and my Chem SAT II), interview, boring Penn essay
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: really not sure to be honest, but I think my application did show a single ‘focus’ on social justice work and my common app essay really strongly portrayed my voice/humour
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: Accepted- Berkeley, UCLA, UMich, NYU (all my safety schools); Waitlisted - Cornell; Rejected: Duke, Brown, Stanford REA (rip)

General Comments: I had a really weird time during this whole application process esp as an international student because I literally had no idea if what I was doing was too weird (re: common app essay) or if I was on the right track/if I actually had a chance at any top tier schools. In hindsight, college apps are so random - I was 100% sure that if I was going to go to any ivy it would be Brown (because of fit/my interview went spectacularly) and I though Penn would reject me no doubt, but it turned out to be the opposite. It goes to show that legitimately there is no rhyme or rhythm or pattern of any kind to admissions and if you just focus on your passions throughout highschool/in your app some college will see something in you that they’d like in their freshman class.