<p>I'm applying to Cornell's Human Ecology College and plan to major in Psychology</p>
<p>Male
Asian, 1st generation in US
Ohio
Private Prestigious Boarding School
Class size about 200, usually sends 20-30 kids to Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Northwestern, Hopkins, etc.
School doesn't rank
9th grade: 4.0 (Public School)
10th grade: 3.8 U 3.9 W (transfered to the private school)
11th grade: 3.4 U 3.98 W
!2 (1st quarter): 3.8 U 4.28 W
SAT 640 V 770 M 720 V
ACT 29 (just retook dont know score yet)
SAT II
Math IC 700
Chinese 700
Bio 640</p>
<p>APs
Us history 3
Calc AB 3
English 4
Bio
Stat
Euro</p>
<p>Extracurrics:
School Newspaper Editor in Chief
School Magazine Editor in Chief
Student Council President
Honor Code Member
Resident Hall Adviser
Science Olympiad Founder/ Captain: County Finish 3rd, State: 10th
Diversity Club Member
Hospital Volunteer
4 Year Varsity Soccer
All League, All State Consolation Honors
Year Round Soccer Team
OH Athlete Rep. for USA Soccer
OH Soccer House of Delegates
OH Soccer Board Member: athlete division chair
OH Rep at USA Soccer Convention
Chinese School/ Chinese school volunteer, Principal's asst.
Asst. Soccer Coach at Clinics
Piano: American Guild of Music Semifinalist
Art: Scholastic Art Competition Winner</p>
<p>Academic Awards
National French Contest Semifinalist
National Merit Semifinalist
Dean's List
Honor Roll
Journalism Awards (2)
COmputer programning Award
School's John Batten Scholar
Student of the month
Talented and Gifted Program
AP Scholar</p>
<p>thanks! =)
but about the grades...they're a downward trend unweighted, b/c i took e.c., but an upward trend weighted. how do you think colleges will rate those?</p>
<p>I think that you have a chance. The key for you will be how you tie all of those ec's together to create a coherent theme for your app. This means choosing a major carefully and using your essays to support that. Your grades are strong and show a good trend. The AdCom will know the degree of rigor of your school, so that can help compensate for the test scores, which are a little below average for Cornell now.</p>
<p>Was Chinese spoken at home? If not, make sure this is mentioned somewhere in the app. One problem I see with many applicants is that they hurt themselves by taking APs/SATIIs in languages spoken at home. If you do this, you have to do really, really well. Otherwise, it just weakens the application. Just be careful of this.</p>
<p>It seems like journalism might be an area of focus for you. Is that right? If so, do some research on the Cornell Daily Sun or one of the many other publications and consider submitting a sample of your paper or magazine with a brief description of what you did...</p>
<p>Remember: create a theme for your application. If an AdCom cannot describe how you will augment the incoming class in five words or less, you have more convincing to do, in my opinion.</p>
<p>P.S. Do a little homework about HumEc and the Human Development major (only one related to psych, so I'm assuming that's the one). </p>
<p>The grade trend: make sure those 1st term senior grades are good and send the AdCom an update immediately once you have them (if you don't think they will come out in time, have each teacher write a note with your tentative grade and send those). Then it will appear that you are rising to the challenge of more advanced courses - a very good thing.</p>
<p>I know that alumni interviews are going on until the end of November, so applications continue to be reviewed at least until then. I would try to get it in ASAP, because they may not review your app again if they have done so already, even if supplemental materials arrive.</p>