Brown or Cornell

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I really want to go to Brown (A friend and I are currently writing business plans for a small shop, hes going to brown in the fall, we'd open the shop after i get out of HS) or Cornell or another medium or small sized school with a good strength in Econ. I heard cornell's is good but I'm not sure. I'm only a freshmen (sophomore in the fall) so it might be too early to tell? I go to one of the top schools in California so I'm not sure if that counts for anything?
Also: My school doesn't rank</p>

<p>Summer before freshmen year (classes at the local college):
Microecon- A
Intro to Business- A
Spanish 1 -A</p>

<p>Freshmen year
Unweighted Academic GPA: 3.53 (was 3.78 after first semester however grades dropped due to family problems)
Schedule:
PE
H. World History
H. Coordinated Science I
H. English I
H. Algebra II
Spanish 2
All my Bs in the year were B+(no difference in our school's GPA calculations) and my weaknesses were Coordinated science (mostly bio) and Spanish
(I'm bad at memorizing, reason why im not good at bio or spanish, should that be mentioned on an app?)</p>

<p>ECs:
Key Club (Did about 50 hours of service with them)
JSA (Ran a campaign for senator of my region. Close but lost)</p>

<p>Awards:
2 Best Speaker awards
semifinalist at district science fair</p>

<p>Summer:
Health
Speech I
(As on both)</p>

<p>Sophomore year
Schedule:
H. Chem
AP US History
H. Coordinated Sci II
H. Eng II
H. Precal
Spanish 3</p>

<p>(will also be doing self-study of AP Psychology for the AP test)
ECs:
Key Club (President & Tech chair at school level, assistant to the lieutenant governor at the divisional level, possibly will get a best pres or most improved club award) (club was weak, I'm focusing on fixing it) (At end of year, approx 250 hours done)
JSA (I'm a deputy director on state board and publicity at my school)
Madrigals (school more "elite" choir, invited to carnegie hall each year)
Comedy Sportz team
Democracy Matters(founder of the only HS chapter & president) (now one of schools larger clubs)</p>

<p>Accomplishments:
Persuaded my school principal to change our schedule system and start school later on a daily basis by pushing the schedule back an hour. (summer meeting with him)</p>

<p>Summer:
JSA Summer SChool at georgetown (4k tuition, all will have been fundraised)</p>

<p>Junior year:
Schedule:
AP Chem (or maybe AP Physics)
AP Euro
H. Eng 3
AP Calculus BC
Spanish 4 (or maybe AP Spanish if i get a reccomendation)
PE</p>

<p>EC:
JSA (Probably going to be mayor of region or have a higher position on state board & President of chapter)
Key Club (LTG of division) (prob 250-300 hours of volunteering)
Democracy Matters (president)
Madrigals Choir
Comedy Sportz</p>

<p>Senior year:
Schedule:
AP Chem or AP Phsyics(depending whcih I didn't take)
AP Polisci/AP Econ(possibly not econ if i have credit from JSA Summer school)
AP Literature
AP Statistics
AP Spanish(Or AP Computer Sci if I take AP Span during junior)
ASB (period if you get elected or appointed)</p>

<p>EC
JSA (Hopefully LTG or governor, if not, chief of staff on cabinet)
Key Club(District cabinet) (About 250 hours of volunteering)
Democracy Matters (president)
Comedy Sportz
Madrigals</p>

<p>I took a "diagnostic" test for SAT that included writing but not the essay
Math: 720
Writing: 640
Critical Reading: 480 (ouch. getting prep at Elite to boost scores) </p>

<p>Thx for the help!!!</p>

2

<p>You're a freshman what are you thinking? Im glad I didnt go through my whole high school career just trying to add bullet points to my college "resume." Have fun at test prep!</p>

3

<p>Well, your ECs are good so far. You are showing leadership. Continue doing the best you can academically, study for the SATs, excel in one or two ECs, and show focus. Brown is tough to get into - it appeals to many students. Read their catalog carefully to get clues to what will impress them in ECs, sports, and academics. For instance, do they have a competitive debate or speech team? Continue to look at other schools too. Check out U Chicago- very highly ranked in econ.</p>

4

<p>If I read this correctly, you're only a rising sophomore.</p>

<p>As I say to all freshmen/sophomores looking for chances on this board... relax! Work hard, enjoy high school, and STOP planning for college. A lot could change in the next two years before you apply to schools, and the next three years, before you decide where to go. Do what you want to do, study as hard as you can, and when you're ready to apply to colleges, your passion will shine through. Take a break from CC for a year or two.</p>

<p>That said... shameless plug alert! I'm a current Brown student and I absolutely love it. If you have any questions about the school or the application process, feel free to PM me or swing on by the Brown board.</p>

5

<p>PS -- Brown's econ department is very good, but not the best in the country. If you're looking for absolutely top-notch econ departments at medium-sized schools, you should consider the University of Chicago and Harvard. Then again, if you're looking to actually get to know cool profs and get involved in research rather than just be able to say, "I got my undergrad degree at the school where Professor Famous only teaches grad students every other year" then come to Brown!</p>

6

<p>Thanks ILoveBrown, though I know a few people at brown so i've already heard the plugs, why im considering it over other schools. I dont think I stand a chance at harvard though :( and I dont really like U of Chicago. Also, I love browns campus, visited it once :). As far as the first comment of "putting bullets" on my transscript, I'm only in the clubs I genuinly like. I still have free time which, if I wanted to, I could have joined many random clubs like MUN(club at my school), mock trial, Make a wish, Sierra Club, however, I don't have a passion for those organizations and wouldn't join. Plus, how can you NOT love JSA. Anyone whose reading this should consider joining or starting a chapter at their school :) Its a politics/debate club with three overnight conventions per year as well as many one day mini-cons.</p>

7

<p>If you don't think you stand a chance at Harvard, then your chances aren't much better at Brown. It's only marginally less selective (and part of that comes from the fact that Harvard receives many more applicants who have no shot at all and are just applying to Harvard for the name -- these people inflate the pool to make admissions rates look lower). However, I'll say again... you still have two more years to work hard and improve your chances to wherever you want to go. Good luck!</p>

8

<p>Halidaee:
brown and cornell are both significant reaches right now unless u get an SAT score of 2150+ (at least, but the higher the better). btw, u went to georgetown JSA right? do u know arnav chakravarty? whatabout Yejin Kang?</p>

9

<p>nvm...u haven't gone to jsa yet...nvm</p>

10

<p>hrmm. My dad is a tutor and according to him I can most likely move it up to a 2250ish, maybe more. I'm pretty confident in my ability to boost my math and writing so I'm not really worried about getting a high SAT</p>