<p>A friend of mine was a sophomore at a 20~30th best national university majoring in business when applying to Penn. He is an international student from Japan. GPA: 4.0/4.0
Rejected by Penn School of Arts and Science.</p>
<p>what the h*ll? If 4.0/4.0 gets rejected, who gets in?</p>
<p>What do you think are the possible reasons?</p>
<li>His essay was not very impressive</li>
<li>Penn is not very open to junior transfers</li>
<li>His TOEFL score was too old (three years old. It was not on the official report from ETS but on the high school transcript)</li>
<li>He sent a midterm grade report issued by his school, not a mid-semester grade report form required by Penn. Penn accepts the grade report issued by school, but it prefers the Penn Form.</li>
<li>Other reasons</li>
</ol>
<p>The bottom line is that there are too many talented students looking to transfer and a limited number of spots. Also, most colleges take a holistic look at the applicant - so being perfect with the numbers (4.0 GPA) doesn't guarantee anything. It is likely that Penn's transfer class was a mixture of some students with a 4.0, but many others with modest (but generally good) GPAs. Look at Stanford, for example - they published their 2007 transfer class SAT scores... and while they only took 20 people, MOST of them did not have perfect SAT scores... and it is likely they turned down applicants that had 4.0 transfer GPAs, etc.</p>
<p>Reasons could include almost anything. Many colleges try to find a "balance" of students of different academic and social and extra curricular strengths as well as a balance of majors. It could simply be there were too many business majors already (either existing on the campus already or in the transfer pool). Other reasons...</p>
<ul>
<li>they already had plenty of international transfers</li>
<li>they were looking for different types of personalities to balance out the transfer class</li>
<li>they only had X numbers of spots and just couldn't take every qualified student</li>
<li>his essay didn't pique the interest of the committee and/or they already had plenty of his style of student on campus or in the transfer pool</li>
</ul>
<p>I doubt it was TOEFL or Midterm grade issues. Not saying it wasn't, but it is on the lower end of possibilities.</p>
<p>In short - your friend should just really keep working hard at school no matter which college he is at - and there's always grad school at a more competitive college if transfer doesn't work out for him.</p>
<p>What is weird is that it was not Wharton but CAS that he applied to, but he didn't get in. I am not saying that CAS is not prestigious, but it is true that CAS is a little easier to get into than Wharton.</p>
<p>Well, his SAT1 was not very high(2000~2100), but it would not have mattered much because he applied for junior transfer and he had perfect SAT2 (three 800's).</p>
<p>I second Annika's post. It is unlikely that he was rejected because of a technical problem with his TOEFL or Midterm Report, as the University surely would have given him advance warning. Rather, his rejection could merely have been (and likely was) the product of any combination of arbitrary circumstances mentioned above. It is frankly pointless (and foolish, I might add) to second guess admissions decisions given their capricious and murky nature. I assume he was accepted elsewhere?</p>
<p>Penn is ranked US news 5th. There's no science to getting into a top 5 school, you're really just shooting and hoping. That goes for EVERYONE. Good luck to your friend wherever he ends up going.</p>
<p>Most likely the essays. I think they want to see if you will succeed academically on campus, of course. But most importantly they also want to see what you would bring to the table in terms of new ideas, passions, etc. and the best way they can judge that is by reading your essays. All a 4.0 means is that you are qualified and can handle the workload. But there are numerous people that are in that category. They also want to see how you would contribute to campus life, a specific reason- maybe you will start a new organization, or have a really cool idea for a senior thesis you want to explore, or want to collaborate with a certain professor on some research project- for letting you transfer so late in the game.</p>
<p>It could also be that the guy reading it was just in a bad mood that day. There are a lot of other reasons beyond your friend's control.</p>
<p>You made it clear in your other threads that this "friend" is actually you. There is no science to this, stop trying to find excuses. You are at a good school, and if you are transfering just to be at a "better" school, maybe you should rethink your current situation.</p>
<p>EDIT: You've also posted many "hypothetical" students and asked how they would be viewed by adcoms, and they almost all closely resemble yourself. You got 800 Math 630 Reading 610 Writng and you talk about a student who scored 800 Math 630/650 Reading 630/650 Writing. They also all have perfect SAT IIs, like yourself. Just give it up. You didn't get in, and there is now no way to comfort yourself. You weren't what they were looking for. That doesn't mean you weren't smart enough.</p>
