<p>even in low income areas there are things that are unique and amazing were ever you live.</p>
<p>I visited MIT and some kid asked what SAT they needed for admission … the admission officer said they admitted 1 kid that never took them, infact the kid didn’t even have a high school degree… I forget the country but the kid was growing up in a war torn country … and somehow he found himself an English chemistry book … and somehow that kid figured out enough stuff from that book to submit a project that was ranked 6th in a national science competition …the admissions officer said they thought that was amazing that despite turbulence around him he still was able to achieve excellence. They had somebody go talk to the kid and when they where asking him what he did for fun he described a game where they rode horses and tried throwing a headless goat through some sort of goal and he said he was really good at that. </p>
<p>His point was that its not all about the numbers but rather your own special uniqueness that separates you from the rest. </p>
<p>I’m guess what I’m saying is don’t hide behind a lower income label as reason that you didn’t do stuff (that sounds like a huge cop-out)… everybody has fun doing something… and everybody is good at something. and try not to fit the mold of someone rich … communicate the best things that are unique You.</p>
<p>as for me…I did the standard school stuff… but I’m also an undefeated corn husking champion for 5 years, I won a logging championship one year, I won sand castle contest once, I have a pet snapping turtle that I found as a baby turtle…he is now 14 years old and lives in our back yard (small pond)…he has gotten huge and is very social… he comes out of the water and finds where I’m sitting and begs for food. he also likes having his neck rubbed. — There are just weird cool things about each of us — The MIT admissions guy was making a point of trying to get us to stand out as a unique addition in that stack of 40,000 applications.</p>
<p>To whoever asked: A need-aware policy means that international students in need of financial aid have a smaller chance of being accepted than an international student not in need of financial aid. Some top schools, including Stanford and Columbia, implement this policy.</p>
<p>I think it has generally been observed that class XI is a lot tougher than class X.
The checking and marking schemes get more stringent.
So the dip in HelloWorld9’s marks were expected.</p>
<p>^I would like to fill a gap here. I myself being a student in the Indian education system have noticed this dip for years. It’s simply because at the end of the 10th grade, we’re made to take these school leaving examinations. They’re the first public exam we’re exposed to, and serves as a criteria for admission in the event students transfer to another school. So, it’s a pretty big deal. </p>
<p>So I’ve seen that students put in all their effort into maxing these examinations, and are burnt out at the end of it. After the exams are over, everyone takes a breather and slacks off. This carries on to the mid-terms, and many students end up with pathetic grades. The bad grades inspires these students to pull their grades back up in the finals, and so you’ll notice that the dip in grades is not so large sometimes (because high grades in the finals even out the extremely low ones in the mid-terms). </p>
<p>Hope that clears out some doubts about the system.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>You don’t seem to have a valid excuse for your bad GPA
I am also an international application with a bad GPA. Unlike you though, my bad GPA is due to the fact that I had to undergo 3 major surgeries in a year. Moreover one of my surgeries took a turn for the worst and I suffered from a partial memory loss. My grades went went from all As to Cs and Ds. However 1 year later, I’m now back to As and Bs. This is (according to me) a valid excuse.</p></li>
<li><p>Your CR+M score is bad
Cornell doesn’t look at writing scores so your score is 1290/1600 which barely makes the middle 50% of admitted applicants. There have definitely been applicants accepted with that scores, but (most probably) they were hooked. For example, they could have been very good athlete or have had a unique/very difficult childhood … </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Moreover, assuming that Cornell “accepts your excuse” for your bad GPA, there’s nothing striking among your extracurriculars.</p>