<p>I want to major in Civil Engineering in Cornell ED
I currently have no extracurricular activity nor involvement in school clubs.
However I help out my parent's Chinese restaurant. I work 7 days a week from 2:30 to 8:00 in the weekdays and full day (10:30 to 11:00) in weekends. I do not get paid, will this make me standout from other competitors?</p>
<p>My gpa so far UW is around 3.8 and W is 4.4, haven't took SAT and ACT yet.</p>
<p>I know I am pretty much screwed as I saw people with tons achievements and activities in school got rejected with similar GPA as I do.</p>
<p>That’s a lot of time devoted to one activity to help your family. It is possible to make it stand out or at least to be a positive. It’s up to you because it matters how you write about it and what it shows about you as a person. Good luck.</p>
<p>Agree with GrudeMonk. Students who really work (as opposed to dabbling for fun) are evaluated differently. The fact that you put in a full work week in addition to school is considered very seriously by admissions. Make sure that your college guidance counselor knows that you work and how much you work so that can be included in his/her letter and factored in to the decision making. Students who have already had to work hard to help support their family often have a level of maturity far and above that of other students who had plenty of spare time to dabble in hobbies.</p>
<p>It may help. When I applied, one of the things the admissions guy was impressed with when he interviewed me was the fact that I was working nearly full time while going to school (this ended up landing me a Tradition Fellowship). Cornell admissions value applicants who show a strong work ethic while also maintaining high academic success.</p>