ACT: 31. (Will retake.)  

AP: 4, 4, 5, 5. Taking four more of them next year (a pretty rigorous course load).

Editor-in-chief of the school newspaper.

Four years of the tennis team.

Mostly A's, with scattered B's, and a highly ranked private school.

I'm a UPenn legacy.

Post edited at 12:13 pm on June 29, 2008 by Anonymous

Let me be blunt and honest - UPenn was my dream school, and to this day I'm in love with it. I had a 31 ACT, numerous music distinctions and scholarships, and fencing team captain with a B+ GPA, 6 APs, beautiful essays and recommendations, and a recommendation from a Penn chairperson.

I didn't make it.

With a school like this, it's almost impossible to predict. I suggest you aim for a 33+ on the ACT's (which isn't all that hard), and take more AP's your senior year. I believe my average was what really pulled me down, but I may be wrong. A few scattered B's won't hurt you very much. Continue on your extracurriculars and work your ass off on the essays. I wish you the best of luck, and I'm sorry if I'm a little cynical, but  I had to wake up and smell the coffee, and I'd hate if the same happened to you.

Best of luck.

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www.myspace.com/composer2008
6/19/08

One of my older friends graduated from Harvard because he competed in US high school national swim and ranked third. His grades were decent.. 4.6GPA, straight A's, swim captain, president of several clubs, and so forth. SATs were 1400s/1600...

It's not about grades... more so of everything.

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But you have a legacy, so your probability of getting in automatically shoots up.

It's still a crapshoot though. You never know with ivys.

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I saw you there so unaware,
Those hummingbirds all in your hair,
Elementary, son, but it's so...

I'm actually headed into my senior year at the Wharton School, so I'm not sure how the new SAT averages work out.

But if it helps at all heres a breakdown of what you can expect. I've listed the schools available at UPenn ranked from least to most difficult.

Penn Nursing: Consistently ranked in the top 5 Nursing Schools in the country.  It was started as a result of a shortage of nurses in the US and around the world.  Generally considered the easiest of the four schools to get into.

Penn College: The bread and butter of the university.  Most of the more general degrees are available in the College.

Penn Engineering: Highly ranked specifically in Bio-Engineering and Nanotechnology.

The Wharton School: consistently ranked #1 undergrad business school in the nation, and in the world for that matter.  A lot of the time people apply to the college or even nursing in hopes of getting ridiculously inflated GPAs in order to transfer into Wharton.  If you are completely sure you want to major in some type of business then you should apply.  However, if you want to experiment more with some of the other classes available I suggest fucking around for your freshman year while at the college and then transferring.  Take classes that are fun and easy.

With the economy in such shit right now its hard to tell how admissions will turn out.  It seems like you're a smart kid and your grades will remain rather consistent throughout the rest of high school.  The best advice I could give, and i know it sounds cliche, but make them want to accept you.  Explain how you're different in any way you can.  Be creative! Research as much as you can about UPenn, and not just that ranking bullshit.  Research the smaller things, the idiosyncracies of being a student at the university.  I'm sure you can ask your parents all about the smaller things that they miss.

Let them know that you're intellectually and emotionally attached to their school.  Oh, and apply early if you're absolutely sure you want to go to UPenn.  Almost 50% of each incoming class are accepted early.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

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back in the day...