Are my stats good enough for Harvard or Wharton?

Answered

Since you are newbie, you probably didn't read the posting rules of conduct. Asking a chancing questions like can I get into Harvard/Wharton with my list of ECs, Stats, Etc., is not allowed. Nevertheless, I'll be quick with some notes. This post might be taken down so just letting you know.

Notes:

-I think your ECs and Leadership roles are good, sort of in the middle of the sweet spot. Students who are Student Body Pres./Editor of the Newspaper/Team Captain of a Varsity Sport/Board Member of some City Council would be the next tier of leadership roles.

-96%+ of admits usually are in the top 10% at these schools so top 15% is a bit iffy. I would aim to get a 3.90+ UWGPA and get mostly As in your APs/Honors classes and score 4s/5s getting AP Scholar w/Distinction honor. I'm assuming you have 4 years each of English, Sciences (incl 2 labs), Language, Math and 3 years+ of history (including US and EURO, Harvard reqmts). A new Harvard requirement is they want to see you are skilled at "expository writing".

-Where are your SAT or ACT test scores? Although both schools are test optional approx 75%+ admits have submitted test scores. UPenn prob.cares more about higher 99%+ scores than Harvard.

-There are 2 areas where I'm not sure where you stand which is evidence of intellectual curiosity/vitality and athleticism. Harvard actually gives applicants a score of 1 through 5 on both of these areas. This would be something academic outside of your HS coursework. Things like independent or supervised research projects, academic internships, getting published in some academic journal, taking non-DE college courses that are outside of the HS curriculum. Although you do not have to be a recruited athlete, such applicants have a bit of an edge at both schools.

-Also it's very common, that many Ivy admits have some artistic talent whether that is playing a musical instrument in band/orchestra, dancing (modern or ballet), theater acting, or visual arts.

-If your "Spike" or "Wow factor" is your personal interest in investments, non-profit work and writing that teen book, I would continue developing that so you can talk about some "measurable impact" your work has done.

The best thing you can do right not is to carefully input your stats and personal info and create a CV profile. Then you can use the Chancing Engine and see if these schools are a "hard reach", "reach", or "hard target". Since you haven't disclosed your course rigor and which APs you took, your AP test scores, your SAT/ACT score, your UWGPA, your actual class rank like 330/2100 something like that, your Awards, Commendations, Honors, and your demographic information like race, orientation, zip code, etc, it's hard to know if where you exactly stand. I would say you have some clear gaps in your narrative from what you initially disclosed. The chancing profile will capture your data better and give you an accurate assessment.

Good luck.

Hello!

My goodness your extracurriculars are incredible! I’m not sure what grade you are in, but they still are fantastic.

One of the things that caught my eye is your “spike” (finance and advocacy), which is clearly evident in all your activities.

As for Wharton and Harvard, I think your classes are great, your GPA is fine (given that you are in the top 15% - but try to work on getting higher up the scale as this percentile might be too low), and your activities are very good.

All I could maybe say is try to get your foundation for poverty in Afghanistan recognized (if it hasn’t already - I don’t have too much information on it). Maybe reach out to your local newspaper to write about what your foundation does and how others can help (then you can say your organization has been featured/published in newspapers on your college app.).

Another idea is that you could donate some of your books to lower-income schools which, regardless of college, could really make a difference.

One last thing is that, while competitions are awesome to do, try to really strengthen the extracurriculars you already have. You know the saying “quality not quantity”? That is really the best I could describe it.

You have such a strong application and, as long as your essays are strong, I don’t see an obvious reason why you would be rejected.

Best of luck!! :)

Ranking somewhere around 300 out of 2000+ students would not be good rank for UPenn or Harvard so I would disagree that with accepted answer that you have met the threshold for grades. If your school uses Naviance, look at the scatter plot for the last 5-6 years of applicants from your school for Harvard and UPenn. I would be surprised if there are many admits have have a top 15% GPA or no test scores.

I also disagree that your ECs are amazing. For Ivys, I think they are okay. No SAT/ACT test scores, no athletics, no arts (music, dance, theater). If you put your profile through the chancing engine, you will get a much better answer.

A self-published book is not an achievement for Harvard or Wharton.