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Hey, I am just looking for some feedback and/or advice. Thank you for your honest (even if brutal) comments; I appreciate your help a lot!

SAT I:
Overall - 1580
Math - 800
Verbal 780

SAT II (I just took them...these are predictions):
Writing - 710-750
Math II-C - 780-800
US History - 740-770
(I may take Chemistry - I should be in the 720-760 range)

Curriculum - most vigorous possible (including 9 AP classes by the end of senior year and 3 years of coming to school 50 minutes before anyone else to take an extra class - 0-mod)

Unweighted grade - 92%
Rank - by the end of this year, my weighted rank will be in the top 10%, but my unweighted rank may not even be in the top 15%....my class has 515 people and my school is a highly competitive public school in New Jersey....I believe we have some type of "consent release" policy which means that my awful unweighted rank may not even be released (I'm not sure)....the problem in my rank is in my freshman year, when i earned straight 88s because i was too stupid to do any work....my last two years have been decidedly solid

Other academic stuff -
top 10 in my school in the Chem Olympiad and American Mathematics Competition (AMC-12)

Extra-curricular -
National Honors Society member (for which I tutor other high school students)

Futre Business Leaders of America member - placed 7th in the state at "Mr. Future Business Leader" event (the most competitive and comprehensive event); I will probably be Treasurer next year

DECA (Marketing) member - placed 1st in South Jersey at "Sports and Entertainment Marketing" both in overall and role play; won top award at state competition for the test portion for the same event

Community Service - over 1,300 hours of helping the elderly with computers at the Golden Age Senior Care Facility; helped the school and library; participated in events with the Jewish Relief Association

World Affairs Club - Steering Committee member; Lenape Model Congress – earned highest award, “Top Speaker”. Moorestown Model United Nations – earned highest award, “Best Delegate”. Participated in the following mock International Court of Justice, UPENN Model United Nations, Rutgers Model United Nations, two (2) South Jersey Model United Nations (once as a chair), two (2) Eastern Model United Nations, Rutgers Model Congress on an advanced committee, succesful fund-raising.

Sports - Captain of South Jersey All-Star Volleyball Team (17s). Started JV for Freshman and Sophomore years for Eastern Volleyball. 2004 Varsity player for Eastern Volleyball (as a Junior). Bob Bertucci Volleyball Camp participant. Eastern Volleyball Camp participant. Karate – black belt; assistant instructor. Decorated ballroom dancer (won a total of six (6) gold medals in amateur career).

Arts - played piano for 7 years, mostly for fun; selected as one of four instrumental soloists from Eastern High School to participate in Arts for Teens; I DJ for fun; also, I have a CRAZY music collection of 4,000 songs

Work - I worked as a special marketing consultant for Horn and Handart Bakery Cafe in Philly; also, I made my own company under my dad's name to create websites and ads for companies

I have an extensive knowledge of Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Windows.

This summer, I will be in the Camp Business summer program (sponsored by Commerce Bank and Drexel Business School - LeBow)....this program only takes 100 people from the tri-state area....upon completion of the camp, I will work at Commerce for the rest of the summer.

Also, I was born in Ukraine and moved here when I was 5. I speak/read/write Russian fluently.

My essays should be fairly good.
My recommendations are coming from the Vice-Principal of the school (who taught one class all year: my AP U.S. History class), my Econ teacher, and my guidance counselor (who graduated from UPENN)

In addition, my girlfriend (of eleven months) 's parents offered to write me recommendations (both of them graduated top of their class from UPENN medical school). I am not sure if I will use their recommendations yet.

O yea, I also know a few of the admissions officers at UPENN.

I am fairly sure that my two glaring weaknesses on all my apps will be my unweighted class rank (because of freshman year) and my lack of any legacy (except for my cousin at MIT).

I will probably apply to UPENN/Wharton Early Decision (with Marketing, International Business, and foreign affairs as my interests), these are some other schools I will probably apply to for Regular Decision:
Princeton (Woodrow Wilson program, eventually)
Yale
Harvard
Columbia
NYU - Stern
MIT - Sloan
(I am not sure if one applies directly to Stern and Sloan)
Rutgers
The College of New Jersey

Please give me any comments/feedback/recommendations you have (be as brutally honest as possible!)...THANK YOU!

By Sarasote (Sarasote) on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 05:02 pm: Edit

hmmmm lol....not much to say besides you have a very very very good chance considering all the whartons at my school have worse stats than you do. you are probably over-qualified

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 05:10 pm: Edit

wow! thanks, but i really believe that my horrid class rank (currently not in top 15% unweighted) will hurt me...because i am sure that a few of my friends with top 5% rank will apply (I did, however beat them on the SATs by a lot)...I am just not sure if i can get in despite that rank....
here are a few questions i would like to add:
How many recommendations would you "recommend"?
Should I attatch a two or three page resume with my app?
What other schools should I be considering??

By Sarasote (Sarasote) on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 05:41 pm: Edit

my friend had 3 recommendations. usually resumes are 2 pages max. usually 3 pages is too much and seems a little "over-load"

those other schools mentioned are good to. i dont think u aply directly to sloan/stern but i am not shure about that

By Wiilll25 (Wiilll25) on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 09:00 pm: Edit

you apply directly to stern undergrad sara

otherwise you're placed into the cas pool

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 09:46 pm: Edit

any more feedback on my chances??
thanks

By Lauraanne (Lauraanne) on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 09:56 pm: Edit

hopefully the rank won't hurt too much if you have a rising trend grade-wise. Maybe get your GC or one of your teacher recs to delineate that fact and talk about how you've really improved since freshman year.
It all looks good and you sound like a fairly typical Penn student - I don't know if that's a good thing or not - maybe they recruit people like you or maybe they are looking for different types of people.
If you apply ED you've definitely got a great chance at Wharton, but of course nothing is guaranteed.
For perspective - I'm at Penn (CAS though) and my stats were nothing like as impressive as yours in terms of rank, ECs and SAT I scores...

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 04:35 am: Edit

thank you for the advice, I will talk to my guidance counselor about mentioning that

o yea, and one more thing that I did not mention quite clearly in my description: I am from New Jersey
How do you think my location will affect my chances for Wharton?

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 06:57 pm: Edit

anything guys? It would be huge for me...I REALLLY want to go there...thanks!

By Shaka (Shaka) on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 07:31 pm: Edit

grrr, i have lower stats than you and im applyin ED to wharton to attend in fall 2005...

i think you got a so good of a chance that even applying RD, you would still get in

By Mysticaura (Mysticaura) on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 07:49 pm: Edit

hmm Camp Business isnt very competitive at all...I'm attending PA governor's school for entrepreneurship this summer but everything else looks good

By Monekit (Monekit) on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 10:08 pm: Edit

I think you have a really good chance and if you are sure you want to go there, apply ED. But I hope you don't put things like, "I have an extensive knowledge of Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Windows....I have a CRAZY music collection of 4,000 songs," on your application because they don't count for much, if anything.

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 10:42 pm: Edit

o yea....of course, those things are just interests of mine that may possibly by incorporated in an essay...I will not make a resume that is longer than two pages; i will spend MOREEE than enough time on this application....i WANT to get in lol

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Thursday, May 06, 2004 - 10:34 am: Edit

Do you think that UPENN/Wharton know the specific grading and ranking policies of each school?

By Penn3047 (Penn3047) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 03:23 am: Edit

From what I hear, New Jersey is the state with the highest number of matriculants to penn... so they probably will know a great deal about your school. Your resume looks fine... perhaps I would try to add a few business courses at a local community college. Thats one thing that I did and I'm into Wharton (ED)

By Aeg315 (Aeg315) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 06:22 am: Edit

nobody is overqualified for Wharton... but yeah, you have as good a chance as any person, probably better than most!

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 07:17 pm: Edit

What else should I do (be it on the app itself or before I even start writing the app)?
i REALLLLLLLLLY want to go there!!!

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Saturday, May 08, 2004 - 10:27 am: Edit

bump

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Saturday, May 08, 2004 - 11:46 pm: Edit

no1 has ny more comments (especially the bad ones, i wanna hear those)??


seriously, PLEASE, any advice would be welcome

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Sunday, May 09, 2004 - 06:32 pm: Edit

bump

By Jasontoff (Jasontoff) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 09:08 pm: Edit

dude-- you have, by far, the best application i've ever seen...and I've seen some amazing ones...(specifically a ms. ashley chay: http://prstats.com/display.php?user=schlebbes).

some of my more notable stats are on: http://prstats.com/display.php?user=jasonfolds5 .

anyways, you don't need to worry...just maintain a life...penn likes kids with lives.

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 11:24 pm: Edit

dude, you kill me with your stuff....your RANK!!!!...wow....plus you have the whole founding of PALS....o yea, and you were prez of like 5 clubs, ur crazy sayin that my app is gonna b better than urs....ill b lucky to get in...VERY lucky

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 02:59 pm: Edit

yo....lil update: i got a 740 on SAT II writing and a 760 on SAT II U.S. history.....is that stuff good enough? should i retake one of them (only one, cuz im doin math ii-c and chem in june, and i have one more spot open)?....thnx every1!

By Jollyapplepie (Jollyapplepie) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 05:03 pm: Edit

4000 of YOUR OWN SONGS?

anyway, I think you've got a good chance.

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 07:47 pm: Edit

nahhhh hahhahaha....4000 of OTHERS ppls....from classical stuff to eminem to spanish guitar to justin

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 11:12 pm: Edit

bump!

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Saturday, May 15, 2004 - 05:57 pm: Edit

im gonna retake that 740 in writing....will it look bad or good (if i get a 780)

By Conker (Conker) on Sunday, May 16, 2004 - 02:02 am: Edit

"dude-- you have, by far, the best application i've ever seen...and I've seen some amazing ones...(specifically a ms. ashley chay: http://prstats.com/display.php?user=schlebbes)."

Wow, 'tis a small world after all. That girl goes to my school.

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Sunday, May 16, 2004 - 12:21 pm: Edit

haha....thanks, i've seen ashleys application actually, but hers is way more impressive....she worked at good companies, took college courses (although my marketing course in school gives me college credits at the county college)....also, she has a 3.85 GPA...and her school does not rank...my 92% unweighted average will be undoubtedly blemished by my bad rank (because our school gives out As to the lowest level classes while the AP kids have to work at least 100x harder to get the same grades)...even for my weighted rank, the difference between the lowest classes in my school and my classes (highest) is 7 percentage points, which is a paltry amount considering the work required for my courses....o well, im venting, but thank you....

By Shaka (Shaka) on Sunday, May 16, 2004 - 12:36 pm: Edit

private international school eh...damn if i didnt move to the US i would be in a school like that in china...

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Sunday, May 16, 2004 - 01:30 pm: Edit

o and btw, neither of my parents went to college (we moved to the US when they were 22)...should this affect my chances? (the fact that im a first generation college student)

By Shaka (Shaka) on Sunday, May 16, 2004 - 01:40 pm: Edit

dude you are in, no question about it

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Sunday, May 16, 2004 - 01:44 pm: Edit

yea i know i have a good chance, but im soo nervous, for the first time in my life....its weird....o well....its my rank thats freakin me out...o well....but im gonna apply to the huntsman program, and they take like 50 ppl a year (less actually)....so yea, there are NOO definites about it....ny1 have an huntsman-specific advice/stories?

By Theshadow0710 (Theshadow0710) on Sunday, May 16, 2004 - 10:24 pm: Edit

You are sooo in Wharton, this kid in my school got in and you are 500% more then he is, also rank doesn't truly matter if you have a good hook, and as a business major at Wharton, don't get all faklempt, as a fellow Jew and Russian, I say this comrade, we will have another Jew in WHARTON!!!

By Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky) on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 12:13 am: Edit

haha thanks....wow, this is kinda unexpected, i didnt think i had a chance at wharton or huntsman...now, at least i know i have a chance at wharton...yay!