Any, even slightest chance for ED, international applicant?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
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<p>This is my 1st topic I ever held in CC, so good luck to me... Lol</p>

<p>Applying for Engineering in Cornell (I wanna apply for material engineering tho)
Info:
Gratuating in July 2010, (class of 2010)
Chinese, Male, living in Beijing
To mention, I was Born in Beijing, moved to Korea at 2, came back at 3 and went back to Korea at 5, came back at 7 and went to Phoenix the same year and came back at 10, now I'm 18... not sure that crazy experience would help me out or not. Probablly a bit more internationalized?
Studying in a very competitive school (ranks about top 5 place in Beijing)</p>

<p>Academics:
GPA: 93/100 or about 3.7(if 90+ is A) and 4.0( if 85+ is A ,like it is said in the bottom of the score report card, but I'm not sure how Cornell would read it)
Never had a chance to take the APs.
ranking About 25/400...
But too bad, I don't think US universities would acknowledge these results of hardship in school too much since I am a Chinese applicant... :(
Tests:
Oct. SAT 1950 I sent these scores first
Nov. SAT: 2050 CR 600, M 790, W 660 Essay 11 and then when these scores just came out yesterday, I sent them right away to Cornell. Hope this will increase my possibilities for Cornell。。 I really LOVE Cornell!
SAT II: 2310 Physics 800, Chemistry 800, and Math2 710 (I know... I probably mis-filled the blanks)
TOEFL:105, Reading 26, Listening 28, Speaking 25 and Writing 26.</p>

<p>Activities: (Its all I got, and everything is pretty average)
founder and captain of the football club, championing the league titles among four highschool teams, and considered the one of the best operated clubs in school.
Rewarded excellent Model Union member in school.
3nd Place in the Speech Competition by Eton-BRS Summer camp 2007
Organized a fund-raising program for Wenchuan Earthquake.
Awarded outstanding leadership in Eton-BRS Summer camp 2007
Awarded excellent student award in Eton-BRS Summer camp 2007
Initiated a campus tour for folk video exhibition
did research in a university lab for over an year, doing biology experiments and helping out the professor about his project after school. (of course, not every day)
Worked for a studio as a translator in my spare time. lasted about an year
Raised over 500 books and donated to a poor elementary school in a poor province with other few other friends. And we gave them lessons mainly on Math and English for about two weeks.
Did an internship in a bank for a month.</p>

<p>There might be some things up there but I'm not sure if they would work. I don't have much about academic since the school won't advertise us to attend extra competitions unless the contest is useful, but again, extttrrreeemeelly competitive.</p>

<p>By the way, No Financial aid applied.
and if Cornell won't admit me, I wanna try some LAC with some FA's, any suggestion?
I was wondering about Furman University, Whitman college, Lafayette college, Colgate Univeristy (I like their toothpaste, lol), Trinity college Dickinson collegeand University of Richmond. With probably 30k FA each year. Any any hope?</p>

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<p>If you are wealthy enough to attend Cornell without financial aid, you are unlikely to qualify for FA elsewhere. You expect 30k FA from LACs? Not happening.</p>

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<p>greennblue, My family would use up nearly all our bank deposits if I payed for Cornell without FA, and the income in China is way lower than that of US, below the US average income. besides, I have a sister, she’s only 9, how bout’ her? She is borned in US, but I can’t be a cruel brother who made her school-less because of the financial problems. So I am definitely qualified to apply for 30k FA from LAC. no doubt. But why I applied for Cornell? It has always been my wish and my parents’ as well, for me to attend a top university, and especially outside China. (since the starting salary after gratuation is somewhat like 5-8k USD!) And since I have this great intrest in Engineering, I applied for Cornell. Probably paying back half the money in 2 years or so…~</p>

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<p>Oh, by the way, I don’t mean football, but soccer~~</p>

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<p>Being a Chinese Male will hurt your application.
Your science SATs are great, math one not so great. SATs aren’t stellar, either.
A 93 is about a 3.7-3.8. By normal standards, you need a 95+ to be a 4.0 student.
The fact that you’re not applying for FA will help - Cornell is need-aware for intl’s.
If you were applying ED, I’d say you have a shot. An ok one, not a great one, though.
RD, dismal prospects, sorry. Asian males really have a bad deal when it comes to engineering.</p>

<p>In case you didn’t know, Cornell doesn’t look at writing scores so your scores will be looked at out of 1600.</p>

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<p>Lafayette College has a financial aid calculator on the admissions portion of the website. This should help you determine how much aid you will receive. Good luck to you!</p>

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<p>Thanks for the advice, I wasn’t looking foreward to Cornell so brightly cuz I am in fact a Chinese international student and lots of people around me are as good as or much better than I am. I applied for 15 schools and I was somehow expecting a match somewhere between 20-50 ranked in US News. But I was wondering, about other schools that I applied that can use superscores, or combined scores, since I took the SAT 3 times, everytime I took it, every section score of that test was better than the previous that section scores. e.g, I got 790 on math this time, and on Oct, I got 770, and on January 2009, I got 740, so its a upgoing trend. Same for the W, CR and even essay part. So, should I send them all three scores to show them my good trend or should I send the last score.</p>

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<p>Thanks FamilyKCT, I didn’t find that financial calculator yesterday, though I’ll check it out later. Big thanks anyways.</p>

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<p>can i ask what does being a chinese male have to do with being very disadvantaged?</p>

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<p>Because Chinese seems to be good at tests, competitions and stuff. There is a misunderstanding in China that one’s life is determined by which college u go to, so everyone is good at academics and whatever that can make them into college. In this case, there are soo many excellent Chinese, and since they have to balance the international students by race, region, and culture,(all about diversity), AO’s have to exclude some less-excellent Chinese in their application pool. Especially when the Chinese applicants are growing exponently.</p>

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<p>I don’t know about your last comment, irondragon, but the truth is just that a LOT of asian males apply for engineering schools and they need to keep a balance, which puts them at a disadvantage.</p>

<p>Also, Cornell requires you to send all of your scores for the SAT and all SAT subject tests.</p>

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<p>I see… I thought most of them apply for economy or finace… I guess we love engineering too…
I got a even lower score on Jan 2009 than the oct one, so I guess its a good trend? since every section of the scores has a growing trend.</p>

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<p>Ok chance being international applying w/o FA. They admit like 2 students each college each year (intl applying with FA).</p>

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<p>^but now that they merged the funds, it’s hard to tell how many people they’ll admit now</p>

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<p>^ agreed. The international chance game just got a whole lot harder to predict.</p>

<p>With merging funds for Canadians and Mexicans with that for Internationals, we will have to just wait and see what the new policies for admissions are for internationals applying with aid.</p>

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<p>^It’ll be funny (and good for me) if they admit too many at ED and find out in regular that they admitted too many =P</p>

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<p>Irondragon,</p>

<p>On the financial aid page look under “costs and awards” and click on financial aid calculator. Also, if you look on the admissions page, go to international students, a wealth of info there.<br>
lafayettecollege.edu</p>

<p>I agree with the above posters, the dynamic is somewhat changing for FA in the current economic climate. For Lafayette in particular, I know they did divert some scholarship $ to all ready matriculated students last year. This allowed all students to stay and graduate, regardless of what financial turmoil was happening at home. For the coming year however, it still looks like they have $35 million allocated for FA and scholarships. Not bad!</p>

<p>Irondragon, from your postings it sounds like you are under some peer pressure to attend a “big” name school i.e. Cornell. Gentle advice here, know that you can receive a quality education, good job prospects and nice hand holding from many of the second tier and third tier institutions in the U.S. The best strategy I think would be to apply to several schools with generous FA money to expand your chances of acceptance. Best of luck to you!</p>

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<p>Going to top colleges is overrated in mainland China. Don’t apply to Cornell without FA if doing so will greatly affect your family’s financial situation. It’s not worth it.
If you really do want to go to a “top” college, try those which are completely need-blind for internationals, such as Amherst, Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Applying for financial aid to these schools will not affect your chances.</p>