Worth taking the UPenn shot?

[Anonymous]

My junior DD attends the governor’s school here in Virginia. She has a 3.8/3.9 uw / 4.2 w GPA with a 1390 SAT. She’s going to take the SAT again in August, but, for this question, assume she’s not able to increase. She will most likely be a.NMSF and attained a perfect math score on the PSAT. She is interested in pursuing engineering. Probably either electrical or mechanical at this point. We toured a ton of schools in Pennsylvania over break. She will apply to plenty of safety schools, but she really loved the vibe and campus at UPenn. Is it worth her taking an ED shot or is there absolutely no way that she will get in given her low SAT score? She will ED1 and we are able to full pay. She has played a varsity for all four years, another varsity sport for two years, has over 140 hours of volunteering, including volunteering with two organizations since sixth grade. She’s in several honor societies and has a part-time job amongst other ECs. She was just accepted into the engineering summer program at Virginia Tech. Would love to hear thoughts. Is it even worth her spending her time applying or should she focus on other less competitive schools. She really loved Pitt as well so a more realistic contender.

[Anonymous]

-I don't mean to be a downer but next to no shot and not just because of the SAT. Kids who get into Penn tend to have remarkable extracurriculars and your daughter's are great but nothing that make her stand out from thousands of other applicants.

[Anonymous]

Her weighted gpa is pretty close to her uw gpa, which suggests that she hasn't taken many weighted classes. Low rigor will hurt her too.

I'm surprised by the nmsf and low sat score. Why was her psat score so much higher?

[Anonymous]

How can you be NMSF with only 1390 sat? Is that a typo?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:-I don't mean to be a downer but next to no shot and not just because of the SAT. Kids who get into Penn tend to have remarkable extracurriculars and your daughter's are great but nothing that make her stand out from thousands of other applicants.

This is exactly what I think.

- varsity sports are not very impressive

- volunteering hours are not impressive (for UPenn)

- tons of kids have honor society memberships - meaningless - already the grades are the best evidence of what this would otherwise show

- part-time job (not impressive for this kind of school)

- not pointy
- no leadership
- no major impact/impetus of change
- no awards

To give you an idea: my kid has a high gpa, high rigor, is pointy, has athletics and art, job, has won national and international awards, major impact (regionally and nationwide) with service work, has been paid to speak to large audiences, has a paid research internship, and a fellowship…and I think chances for an ivy are slim….bc that is the nature of the beast. And my kid also loves and ivy…so I get it.

[Anonymous]

Give the ACT a try, see if she can get 34. That wouldn't knock her out of the running. If she is in the top 5% of her class and you are in a more rural area, I'd give it a shot. If you're coming from a competitive area, no chance.

[Anonymous]

I would try it if you can get her SAT to a 1500. Also, see if she can line up any leadership positions for the Fall or qualify for any awards.

[Anonymous]

Best to have no regrets. Go for it

[Anonymous]

You miss all the shots you don’t take and you don’t want “what if” regrets if Penn is truly her choice. However, it’s not a good idea to fixate on one reach school, no matter how impressive your daughter’s profile is. Have her research and identify several options that are less selective and where she’d be happy to attend. Pitt’s a good one. Va Tech? Case Western? Purdue?

[Anonymous]

There is a discrepancy between the PSAT score needed to be a NMSF in Virginia and an SAT of 1390.

Girls are also usually less likely to score high in Math.

Something probably went wrong. I wonder if she got the wrong answer on the problem that sends you to the harder math assessment track on the digital SAT.

So she definitely needs to focus on improving the SAT score. This may bring higher amounts of scholarship money from Pitt. If the scores go way up...maybe there's a lottery ticket chance for Penn. I agree her profile will be generic for Penn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My junior DD attends the governor’s school here in Virginia. She has a 3.8/3.9 uw / 4.2 w GPA with a 1390 SAT. She’s going to take the SAT again in August, but, for this question, assume she’s not able to increase. She will most likely be a.NMSF and attained a perfect math score on the PSAT. She is interested in pursuing engineering. Probably either electrical or mechanical at this point. We toured a ton of schools in Pennsylvania over break. She will apply to plenty of safety schools, but she really loved the vibe and campus at UPenn. Is it worth her taking an ED shot or is there absolutely no way that she will get in given her low SAT score? She will ED1 and we are able to full pay. She has played a varsity for all four years, another varsity sport for two years, has over 140 hours of volunteering, including volunteering with two organizations since sixth grade. She’s in several honor societies and has a part-time job amongst other ECs. She was just accepted into the engineering summer program at Virginia Tech. Would love to hear thoughts. Is it even worth her spending her time applying or should she focus on other less competitive schools. She really loved Pitt as well so a more realistic contender.

UPenn is one that does not have ED advantage. I would ED somewhere else like Chicago or Northwestern.

Use your ED + ED2 combination wisely!

Also, your DD needs to bump up her SAT score over 1500 line to be in the game.

[Anonymous]

My spouse and I both graduated from Penn, our older kid (hs class 2023) had a 4.75 gpa in mcps, 1590 SAT, 15 APs of all 5s with a few 4s, top rigor incl APs in all 5 core subjects and math thru MV calc, was captain of varsity sports team along with other ECs, strong writer, I believe strong recs, and was not accepted (applied ED). Other equally qualified kids his year had same results, only kid accepted was an ED app and had a hook. We won’t even have younger sib apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My spouse and I both graduated from Penn, our older kid (hs class 2023) had a 4.75 gpa in mcps, 1590 SAT, 15 APs of all 5s with a few 4s, top rigor incl APs in all 5 core subjects and math thru MV calc, was captain of varsity sports team along with other ECs, strong writer, I believe strong recs, and was not accepted (applied ED). Other equally qualified kids his year had same results, only kid accepted was an ED app and had a hook. We won’t even have younger sib apply.

+1 I'm sorry, OP, but without a hook your DC is not competitive.

[Anonymous]

Totally hear everyone on the ECs. Thank you so much for all the feedback. I have no illusions at all that she is a super star. She is a normal kid and enjoys spending time with friends. She has a bit of leadership experience in her two years of robotics (ended up quitting this year, as all of her friends quit and the team sponsor was not a fan of girls) and her volunteering, which essentially involves directing young kids to play a sport and serve as scorekeeper and ref. She also has to interact with hovering parents.

Her weighted GPA should pop pretty significantly this year. Current GPA is only through sophomore year, which includes two APs. She will have a total of 10 APs and 2 DEs by the time she graduates. She attained a 1510 on her PSAT with an index of 224 so will likely be a NMSF. I’m not sure if her SAT score will be enough to qualify her for finalist. For whatever reason, the pressure of the SAT is getting to her.

She is definitely not fixated on UPenn at all and knows that it is a huge, huge reach. Just liked it and thought she would like to try. I have no experience with Ivy’s at all. My younger cousin did get accepted to Penn a few years ago with fairly normal EC’s so I guess anything is possible.She will definitely apply to Pitt, Penn State, Delaware, Virginia Tech and South Carolina among some other schools, so hopefully enough targets/safeties. Would love other ideas for schools if anyone has them. Not looking forward to this process!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My spouse and I both graduated from Penn, our older kid (hs class 2023) had a 4.75 gpa in mcps, 1590 SAT, 15 APs of all 5s with a few 4s, top rigor incl APs in all 5 core subjects and math thru MV calc, was captain of varsity sports team along with other ECs, strong writer, I believe strong recs, and was not accepted (applied ED). Other equally qualified kids his year had same results, only kid accepted was an ED app and had a hook. We won’t even have younger sib apply.

wow. where did DC end up