<p>Chance me please...Cornell ECE ED
Personal Info:
Taiwanese, Class of 2009, US Permanent Resident
School:
200 (1A) boarding school -Utah
70-80 people class of 09
Academics:
GPA: 3.7 (or 4.1 out of 4.33)
Rank and %: School does not officially rank or %, but around top 10%
SAT:1st-1850, 2nd: ? (find out in 4 days), 3rd: ? (probably get to 2100-2200)
SAT II: Chinese 790, Physics 700+, Math IIC: 750+
7 Honors, 6 APs (not included: AP art)
Plenty of electives
EC:
Honor Council VP, Founder of Student Congress and Student Government system, International Club President, Chess Club Founder/President, Local Youth Council, NHS, Math Team, Language Prefect, Dorm Prefect (3 years), Honor Roll (4 years, 3.8+),Tiger's Club (Perfect Citizenship), Scholarship, 250+hrs Community Service, Math Tutor.
Awards:
Student of the Year Awards: Ceramics, Biology, Physics.
Sports: 3 years Varsity Tennis Team, MIP in 08
National Latin Exam Award
Presidential Classroom Law and Justice Program
Recs: (my strongest point)
All of them very strong, especially outside the classroom.
Probably over 20 Recs..including Headmaster, Dean of Students, Dorm Parents, Teachers, etc.</p>
<p> Dream Schools:
1. M.I.T.
2. Princeton or Columbia
3. Cornell Early Decision*
4. Johns Hopkins University
Practical Schools:
1. Carnegie-Mellon University
2. Northwestern University
3. Rensselaer Polytechnic
4. University of Michigan
Safety Schools (?):
1. U.T. Austin
2. University of Washington
3. Georgia Institute of Technology
4. Purdue University</p>
<p>ill UPDATE as i go along i guess..thanks all</p>
<p>oookkk…this is going to come off pretty mean but I’d rather be truthful than give you false hope. Your uw gpa isn’t stellar (although I do understand that it’s probably very tough to have an awesome gpa in a school like yours) but your satIs are definitely not close enough to par. Hopefully you’ll get them up there the next time around. At the moment you’re looking like the kid who tries to spread himself thin and do everything. You don’t seem to have a clear focus of even something as broad as science, let alone a specific activity such as research or completely focused community service extra curriculars.</p>
<p>On another note, Northwestern and Cornell are just about equal when it comes to difficulty of getting in. Plus, it’s easier to get in early decision to Cornell, so don’t count on Northwestern if you believe Cornell is a reach. That is definitely not saying that Cornell is a ****ty school…I’m Cornell class of 2012 and VERY proud.</p>
<p>About the recommendations, i would try to figure out which 3 are the best and send those. My guidance counselor once told me, “The thicker the file, the thicker the kid.” So having 20 recommendations from the dean of this and the president of that doesn’t make you Cornell material. You have to find what you like and be extremely focused in making things happen for yourself in that area. I would recommend spending this summer doing something focused like research or community service that you are GENUINELY interested in.</p>
<p>I’m sorry if this came off really harsh but I wish I had someone to tell me some specific things I could do to increase my chances when I was a junior. At that time I was so focused on SATs and thank god I only had to take them once and that was that. I’m going into engineering and I did a 3-year research program that culminated in researching at Yale for 9 weeks this summer. Having something specific like that also makes writing your essays a lot easier because you have something that is both academic, yet extra curricular and that you’re genuinely interested in to write about.</p>
<p>GOOD LUCK, and I really am sorry about the ranting =]</p>
<p>Thanks for all the comments so far…
Im not quite sure what you mean ^^^ though
My GPA is probably average for Cornell right? 3.7-3.8ish?
My SAT Im not too worried…im pretty sure i broke 2000+ this time and 2200+ the next…
Well I have 20 Recs to choose from…but I’m involved in a lot of stuff so im not sure which ones to pick:
like the Dean of Students runs Honor Council which is like a Judiciary Court…
It’s the highest honor any student at our school can achieve (only five members). So i really want to get that one in.
My English teachers.umm… have mostly left…and the current one is kinda like a sub teacher. But if i can get my old teachers (one of which was a Cornell graduate student) to write then that would be pretty strong.
Math teachers have also left who taught me for two years (my current teacher is good but doesn’t know me that well).
But my science recs also excellent. biology and physics student of the year…
And the headmaster knows that I am one of those few leaders at our school…
I mean I founded a Student Congress and formed a checks and balance system for our school. In the eyes of faculty and students that’s a giant leap for our school…</p>
<p>BTW…what do you mean by spread out…?
Sorry for all the long comments but im just kinda confused…
Keep the harsh comments coming.</p>
<p>sorry if i sound harsh, but a couple of the ECs seem like fluff (i.e. perfect attendance). that said, ECs for the most par appear pretty decent for high caliber schools. for aspiring engineers, I’d imagine your Math IIC and Physics/Chem scores should be hitting the 800 mark. GPA is a little on the low side, but i dont think it’ll hurt you too much given the rigor of the school. SAT I score leaves much to be desired. definitely aim for > 2200. even with say a 2300+ your shot at Princeton, MIT, and Columbia is not too good (sorry for sounding mean). if i were you, i’d look to write killer essays and organize the app in a highly focused manner. </p>
<p>i’ll agree with the earlier responses about northwestern. i was rejected with a 2340, a marginally better gpa, and more APs. go figure.</p>
<p>anyway, good luck with the SAT score release in 4ish days</p>
<p>yea…every EC on there is all really strong stuff…not fluff…
Dorm Prefect is pretty big and Honor Council is over the top…so…
If i did put all the fluff on this it would probably be a page and a half…
well anyways my friend got into NW but he was a math genius…
It’s funny because im not really interested in engineering…I really want to do corporate law…so yea…not the science geek..haha..
btw if i really wanted Columbia I have a really close relative who has gotten tons of people in…im just applying to leave an option.
but of course there are only 7 or 8 APs at or school offered so almost no one has 6 or 7 AP’s here.</p>
<p>sorry about the ECs…after looking at quite a few chance threads, many of them begin to seem mundane. </p>
<p>and lol if you wanna do corporate law, then why ECE? i’d imagine it be in your advantage to apply to the best fit program at cornell.</p>
<p>as for columbia connections, it’s great you know someone with so much influence, but i’d still really work on that SAT and Subject Test scores if you want to have a realistic shot at the upper echelon of the schools you’re considering.</p>
<p>i’m sure that you’re excellent in the local context of your school, but keep in mind there are thousands out there with > 12 APs with mostly 5s</p>
<p>although ur current SATs are pretty low for cornell and other top schools, if u get new good SAT scores around 2100+, you have a decent shot. especially in engineering, there will be tons of applicants with stellar scroes. additionally, i am not sure if your your ecs demonstrate the interest, commitment, or capabilities in the field you are applying for. based on these, I would say that Cornell is a reach. MIT, Princeton are big reaches even with 2200+ SATs unless you have won significant awards in the fields of your interest.</p>
<p>“My SAT Im not too worried…im pretty sure i broke 2000+ this time and 2200+ the next…”
***? how can u predict what your SAT is going to be…raising your SAT 200 points is hard as hell…i dunno why you’re so confident. Those practical schools are not practical at all…they’re all pretty much reach for you…</p>
<p>Asianxtreme: I think you should listen to the opinions others give and improve your overall portfolio/application. Some of your ECs ARE becoming extremely mundane; please abridge some of them.</p>
<p>Your SAT scores are far too low. Same goes with your GPA. You’re not from New York. Some New Yorkers can have lower GPA/scores and get in colleges like ALS or Hotel because those receive direct funding from NY.</p>
<p>I completely agree with rollercoaster and i am also Class of 2012. In fact, I also did a lot of research and in total I put down 6 ECs on my application. I did not send an official resume either. What I am trying to say is that Cornell is a very pre-professional school which really wants ur interests to be focused. This application might be amazing for a school like princeton or stanford but definitely not for cornell (unless u apply to A&S undecided) .</p>
<p>Also, engineering cares a lot about ur gpa/sat scores so u need to work on that.</p>
<p>i agree with raj about your sat scores. for engineering, as long as you have high math (750+), you can get away with a mid to high 600s on the cr and a low 700s on writing. keep in mind that over 50% of the students admitted into cornell engineering got 800 on the math satI.</p>
<p>and u dont need a near perfect SAT score either. I have actually heard that there is a higher acceptance rate at ivy league schools for people scoring between 2150-2250 than for people scoring from 2250-2400.</p>
<p>question…if MIT is listed as your #1 dream school, why arent you applying there early? and if you want corporate law…why not apply to ILR? cornell admissions counselors can see through a bs essay if you half a** your way to explain why you want engineering…they can definitely tell if you really arent passionate</p>
<p>i honestly think people here are grossly overestimating how hard it is to get into cornell, raise your SATs to around 2100 (high math score is most important for engineering) and you’re very likely in Cornell ED (i’d bet you’re in). oh and your GPA is not low for cornell.</p>
<p>Wth are u talking about? have u heard of substantial amount of Cornell engineers who were admitted with SAT under 2000 or not ranked top 10%? Also, Cornell cares a lot about applicant’s interest, commitment, passion as reflected through ecs and essays. and, i would say that op’s gpa is borderline at best.</p>
<p>i said he needs to raise his SATs. i agree that 1850 is a deal breaker…and he said he isnt ranked. and “passion” and “commitment” are really ambiguous terms that don’t really translate into admissions decisions…i know plenty of people accepted to cornell engineering who didnt do anything out of the ordinary in their ECs to show they had a dying need to study engineering in college. howeverrr thats not to say they arent qualified to be in cornell engineering…just that you don’t need to be a crazy rocket scientist genious to be accepted to cornell engineering.</p>
<p>^no. u can get near perfect stats and get rejected from cornell if the cornell colleges feel that u did not produce a thoughtful, honest application that states that your interest lies in that specific cornell college. your account of those who got into cornell ‘easy’ way isn’t reflective of the broader admissions practice at cornell engineering college. Your statement towards others, saying that we “are grossly overestimating how hard it is to get into cornell”, is pretty laughable. no one said that u need to be a genius to get in. It is, however, the fact that what people on this board have been saying accurately describe the admissions process at any top college, not just cornell.</p>
<p>ok…well CC is known for overestimating how high your stats have to be to get into top schools. you also have to consider this guy is talking about applying ED…which gives him a considerable boost. besides, i’m not sure why everyones ripping on him, his stats are fine as long as his SATs go up. and i didnt say it was easy for anyone to get in, just that you guys are being unfairly critical of what looks like a solid applicant (again, as long as the SATs are higher). and the fact that people with near perfect stats get rejected while people with lesser stats get in proves that this person is well within the range with higher SATs. and besides, i dont get why you guys say this person doesnt have “passion” and “commitment”…seems like kind of an unfair judgement call. He (or she?) did a lot more than me in high school…and I got into Cornell ED</p>