AEM Hopeful Chances???

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>I am currently a junior at one of the best schools in the nation (top 40 according to US NEWS and like top 50 according to Newsweek). Trust me its nothing to brag about, we're all getting our rear ends kicked hard (well at least me). But I just wanted to mention this so that you guys would get an idea for why my GPA is so low. Talking about GPA, here are my stats: </p>

<p>GPA: 3.4 UW (yea heckka low)
SAT I: 2360 (M: 800 CR:800 W:760) Superscore: 2400 (took it like twice)
ACT: 34 (M: 36 S: 35 R: 33 W:33)
SAT II: Math 2: 800; Lit: 770; Bio:800; Chem:780
AP: Comp Sci (5) {Last year}
Bio; Chem; Stats; Micro and Macro Econ {This year}
Class Schedule Junior Year:</p>

<p>AP Stats
AP Bio
AP Chem
Honors English
Honors Pre-Calc
AP US - not takin the test its useless for what I want to do; just did it for weighted GPA</p>

<p>My schedule may seem easy to you guys but I'm taking this at one of the best math and science high schools in the country. (Again not trying to brag but to explain the relation between low GPA and classes)</p>

<p>ECs:
Sports:
2 years of basketball
1 year of track (so far.. probably going to continue)</p>

<p>Clubs:
President of Bio Medical Research Club
DECA
Alternative Energy Secretary</p>

<p>I was a Bio Olympiad Semi Finalist last year</p>

<p>Did a Projects Abroad Program to Tanzania last summer where I had the opportunity to work as an intern in a hospital in rural Tanzania. I pretty much shadowed a doctor for about 2 weeks along with learning about how hospitals are in a foreign country. Along with this we went on a 5 day trip through villages and provided clinical care and helped the people there set up a local clinic available to them 24/7. Really fun!!!!!!</p>

<p>I also shadowed a nephrologist for around 30-40 hours last summer.</p>

<p>300 Hours of Volunteer Hours (Mostly at the hospital)(Got a lot of hours at this science camp for elementary kids)</p>

<p>Also this summer I'm traveling to rural India to plan + build an electrical wiring system that will supply electricity to 5-10 villages. I'm doing this with a non-profit international company.</p>

<p>Got rejected from LBW !!! So I don’t have anything related to business/finance to do over the summer!!</p>

<p>Doing research with a professor at Washington University in St. Louis this summer. I felt that it would be better for me to do something with my summer then just cry over LBW. So I planning to do research which I want to use to compete in Siemens Competition and Intel ISEF. I mean I know how ridiculous these things are in terms of toughness. I probably won’t stand much of a chance to all those science and math wizs out there. But hey its worth a shot and maybe things will work out!!!</p>

<p>Founder of a non-profit organization in which we learn about finance and the stock market while at the same time donating our profits to the local charity. (A little more complex than this but don't really want to get into the details of it just yet (sorry). But in terms of importance and significance, I believe this is by far my best EC. And also I've gotten professors from Haas and Standard GSB to come give a lecture/seminar)</p>

<p>Re-emerged this non-profit organization which deals with marketing. In a really short time my friends and I made got it to be well known by many companies in Northern California. I think this is by far my best extra cause it deals with real world experience.</p>

<p>DECA: I got 2nd place in my event for States but didn't do so well in ICDC!!</p>

<p>Recently got an Paid-Internship to work under a Corporate/Financial Controller (kinda like a CFO but focuses mainly on the accounting aspects of the business) at a mid-size solar cell company. </p>

<p>I know its a lot but I just wanted to know how I was keeping up!! So there it is!!! Please chance!! Thank ya!</p>

2

<p>What is your class rank or estimated percentile?</p>

3

<p>As for the class rank I would fall in the top 15-25 percentile. I agree that this is pretty bad, but out of the 600 or so people that are at my school, only a 200-300 people take more than 4 weighted classes. Everyone else takes like 2 or 3 weighted. So if my school were to weight the GPA, I would be in the top 10% of the class but my school doesn’t weight nor does it rank. So my closest estimate for unweighted class rank would be between 15 to 25 percent. I’m basing this guess off of the GPA distribution that my school released for the class of 2012.</p>

4

<p>Wow…you actually have a very good shot. Assuming you’re applying early I’d be shocked if you didn’t get in.</p>

5

<p>thank you very much for the chance ilr2013. And wow I really didn’t expect that kind of reply. I’m very glad to hear that I have a chance at this school. To be honest, I was almost sure that my GPA would hold me back from getting into any of the really good schools no matter how good my test scores and ecs were. But I guess I still have a chance to make a run for it!!!</p>

6

<p>It can range from an okay chance to a very good chance, depending on what is reported to Cornell/ which GPA Cornell cares about in ranking.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the reply Colene. But the thing is that my school doesn’t report any ranking what-so-ever to the colleges. All they have is my UW GPA and the GPA distribution sheet for my entire class of 600 students. And the distribution sheet tells you like how many people were between 3.0-3.5 and like 3.5-3.9 and then like how many people had a 4.0. So I’m really worried that some colleges (not just Cornell) will think that I slacked off in school and didn’t concentrate on my grades.</p>

8

<p>I really wouldn’t worry a whole lot about your GPA, considering you go to a top highschool (I assume it sends a bunch of people to ivies every year so cornell will be familiar with your grading system). Anyway your extracurriculars are pretty impressive- the paid internship especially- and that’s what the aem admissions office will zero in on. </p>

<p>Good luck and write a killer essay!</p>

9

<p>Thanks for the reply ilr2013!! My school sent like 52 kids to Ivies + Stanford,MIT,UChicago. And like they sent about maybe some 100 kids to UC Berkeley and UCLA. And thanks for the comment regarding my ECs. I concentrated a lot on the ECs and test scores because I kinda knew early on that my GPA would seem low when compared to students from other schools. And yea I have to definitely try to convince the admission guys that I’m worth it through my essays!!!</p>

10

<p>52 individuals or are there overlaps (Some kids get into more than one ivy and that’s counted twice)? if it’s 52 individuals then that’s really impressive for a school.</p>

11

<p>No its 52 individuals who got in to those schools. This number also includes the 5 that got into JHU and the 5 that got into WUSTL. Sorry I didn’t include that in the previous post.</p>

12

<p>Don’t apply to AEM. Apply to some other CALS major and then transfer into AEM – AEM is easily the hardest major to get into with the possible exclusion of some engineering majors at cornell.</p>

13

<p>But wouldn’t transferring to AEM be harder. The thing is that I don’t really want to take any risk because I’ve heard that IBD recruiters are really picky and I’m a little worried that I’ll have lower chances when compared with the guy who did AEM.</p>

14

<p>You can get IBD from literally any econ-based major…AEM, ILR, PAM, CAS econ…</p>

15

<p>Well, it is a lot easier to get into AEM assuming you do very well your freshman year than it is to get in to AEM with a 3.4 GPA.</p>

16

<p>How hard is it to transfer into AEM from CAS after freshman year? Does anyone know if there is an admission advantage for New York residents like in other contract colleges?</p>

17

<p>so many people are looking to transfer into AEM that it’s ridiculous. please don’t backdoor your way into AEM… apply to the program that you want to get into at Cornell from the get go.</p>

<p>there is no admissions advantage for NY residents.</p>

18

<p>It isn’t hard to transfer into AEM if you have good grades in any college within Cornell. And CAS is made for the undecided students to specialize in any field they want to, so it isn’t exactly “backdooring” your way in - especially since CAS is pretty selective on its own to begin with.</p>

19

<p>it is backdooring if you intended to end up in AEM in the first place. CAS is pretty selective, but its acceptance rate is not below 10%. but i was talking more about people applying to other CALS majors with intentions to get into AEM later.</p>

20

<p>Neither is AEM. It hovers around 12-14%. They are pretty much just as selective percentage wise. It’s just harder to get in AEM because a good number of the spots are filled with athletes. But yeah, CAS isn’t the best way to “backdoor” into AEM anyway. Anyway, Cornell has a good number of “backdoors” - In the end though, what matters is how you perform in the school and your individual prowess comes through for most majors (but this may be less so for AEM because the way classes are curved and the focus on networking rather than grades… so you might have a point)</p>