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Hey,
My name is Jake from Long Island. I've had my career sights set on business for a long time now and, of course, what better school to suit my needs than Wharton? I'm pretty hardworking and i get the good grades, but applying is starting to scare me. Everywhere i look on this board, people seem to be *perfect.* And the fact that those perfect people are scared of applying only makes me more scared so...do i have a chance?? Please...honest-but-not-too-hope-shattering opinions...

Academics

GPA: 5.0 - 5.1 out of 5.5
Rank (unofficial): 1 or 2 out of 300
PSAT 210 National Merit
SAT I 1460: Math 710 Verbal 750
SAT II: Math IC 720, Math IIC 790, US History 760, Writing 760, Chemistry 720
AP tests: Chemistry, European History, Physics, American History, Calc BC (All 5's)
AP Classes senior year: Government, Spanish, English, Bio, Statistics

A few words:
-Our school's GPA is msessed up. Its out of 5.5 but its IMPOSSIBLE to get that...4.9 is considered extremely competitive. Our school doesn't rank but the stats are available (i am either 1 or 2)
-I will take SAT I again in October

Extracurriculars
1. Mock Trial (11 - 12) President for 12. Our team finished 2nd in our county. This is probably my biggest activity. I love business but i also love law. In 11th grade - my first year in the club - i got the position of chief witness for the defense. I worked very hard, putting in 8+ hrs a week including Saturday and Sunday meetings. My devotion and hard work made me President for 12th grade.

2. Chess Team (9-12) Co-Captain for 10-12. I dont see many people on this board who are on a chess team (or maybe they just dont bother putting it) I dont know whether this club is particularly important...feedback on that? Anway, chess is my favorite game. I started playing when i was 6 and got pretty good. I played in many tournaments in elemtary school and was captain of my 5th grade team (winning 2nd place for the team overall and a 1st place for myself). In 8th grade, i won 1st place in my towns chess tournament (in which kids from high school participated) And, of course, i continued my involvement in the club through high school. In 9th and 10th grade, the team was a joke. We lost most games and no one took it seriously. But in 11th grade, for some reason, things changed. People started taking it seriously. We had "chess pride" if you could believe it - we had the best team that we had had in years and won 2nd place in our county. I dont know if Penn has a chess team. Im not crazy-beating-international-masters good (and i say this b/c i know some people who are) but im decent and i would join. Im hoping i could play this up as something interesting, but i dont know. There you have my rant on chess...feedback.

3. Staff Writer for my newspaper...i wrote many articles for my features section and maybe this year i will be asst. editor...i always wanted to be on the actual staff but competition for positions is so intense in our school that i never got anywhere.

4. USA Math Talent Search (9-12) I got bronze and silver awards. Myabe this will count for something since wharton is very math-oriented.

5. Co-captain of our Quiz Bowl team (10-12)
6. National Honor society (11-12)
7. Foreign Honors Society (11-12)
8. Young Scientists Club (11-12)
9. Model UN (11-12)
10. Cross Country JV (9) Track and Field JV (9-12) - i know people will say that JV track is just a filler..but im really devoted to the team and i join and stick with it every year even though i dont make varsity (does that count for anything?)
13. FBLA (11-12)- won 3rd place in a local competition
14. Matheletes (11-12) hopefulyl will be Captain this year

Work - nothing special..ive been working at my public library for the past year and plan to continue

No community service - maybe i can get some hours in between now and November - any suggestions?

Summer experience - this year, i did the National Student leadership conference in business in Washington. DC. Is it true that this means absolutely nothing to colleges?

Right now, im trying to get an internship position at a real estate firm for this year.

Some Awards
-Im part of my school's Science Research program where we do original experiments and compete in competitions (you know Intel right?) Throughout 10th and 11th grade, i got Highest Honors at Molloy Fair, 2nd Place in Chemistry at the Shipley Invitational, 3rd Place in Physics at some other competition and so on and so forth
-Principals Honor Roll every quarter
-I have some other awards but you get the picture.

By the way, i was born in Russia and moved here when i was two. I speak Russian fluently.

In my opinion, i think i have excellent academics (and sex appeal) But i dont know about my extracurriculars. Extracurriculars were never stressed at my house - only grades were - and i never really realized the important of ECs until 11th grade (honestly!)

I reallyyy want to go to Wharton and i will put all my effort into my essays. I think i have good recs from my teachers. So, do i have a chance at ED?

By Knightmare (Knightmare) on Tuesday, September 07, 2004 - 02:19 am: Edit

You have a good shot at admission.

By Bigjake587 (Bigjake587) on Tuesday, September 07, 2004 - 11:49 am: Edit

Hey knightmare thanks a lot...do you rly think i have a shot?
I look at other applicants and they have the 1580 SATs and the editor-in-chief, internships-galore extracurriculars...and it seems like my stats dont compare...what do you think my hook can be?

By He1lo (He1lo) on Tuesday, September 07, 2004 - 01:46 pm: Edit

No volunteer work? I think that may hurt your chances if your other EC's don't make up for them (which I think they do in your case) but it's still...well it's not a plus. I just say this because my friend who was really well-qualified had little volunteer work (under 50 hrs in a two month period) and when he talked to admissions officers after rejection to see why they kind of hinted at that point.

Oh yea but if you don't have volunteer work...it's not worth it to cram it in NOW, it's obvious what you're doing. It's better to just concentrate & do better at what u're already doing (which is a lot!) =)

By Bigjake587 (Bigjake587) on Friday, September 10, 2004 - 09:51 pm: Edit

Not that i would do this...but what would happen if i just made up community service on my app. I work at the library. Let's say that i also put down that I volunteered at the library for 100 hours. What would happen? I doubt UPenn double checks every activity for each one of their applicants.

By Pcahill99 (Pcahill99) on Saturday, September 11, 2004 - 05:13 pm: Edit

i can comment on chess.

it's a nice thing to put down, but don't play it up too much. penn may still have some of the finest high school chess players in the country. while it's great that you got "2nd in the county", my roommate freshman year was the national high school chess champion. the club (or team) at penn had other similarly ranked people. this was almost ten years ago - i don't know the status of the chess team now.

that being said, by all means try to join the club and pursue chess at penn if you get in.

i think the russian thing is kind of cool, personally. you're stats are good. don't sweat the community service thing too much (I hardly had any myself).

good luck.

Pat

By Pennhomie33 (Pennhomie33) on Sunday, September 12, 2004 - 08:07 am: Edit

Jake - although you are right, think about how many kids are doing that? It's since become the standard, to include certification of your volunteer work. I, for example, am including a letter of recommendation from my hospital supervisor, as well as from my library admin., where I've gotten 460, and 144 hrs respectively. It's easy to bluff, sure. But only if you can back it up are they going to really accept it.

By Bigjake587 (Bigjake587) on Sunday, September 12, 2004 - 01:16 pm: Edit

What about a job? Should i ask for a letter of recommendation from my job supervisor at the library for them to accept that? It really wont help me because my supervisor is dumb as hell.