Chance Me: Cornell ED (and others)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey Everyone,

Cornell is my dream school, especially since I grew up in NY about 20 miles away. So I want to apply ED.
Wanting to major in neuroscience, aiding elderly. This means I will apply to College of Arts and Sciences

Will take any constructive advice, Especially regarding EC’s …

Objective:

Current High School Junior

SAT I (breakdown): 2380 (800M, 780W, 800CR), 2390 superscored – took sophomore year
ACT (breakdown): did not take
SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Biology M, will take Chem
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.97 UW/ 4.68 W
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School does not rank, probably top 5-10% ish
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Calculus BC (5), AP European History (5), am currently taking 4 though [Bio,Chem,Spanish 4, Statistics], taken CL courses in Computer Science (C++) too
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load (projected): AP Environmental Science, AP Macro/AP Gov, AP Physics C Mechanics, AP Psychology, Multivariable at Community College (ran out in school lol), AP Spanish Lit
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): 99% gold for National Spanish exam (only boy in grade to get from school, don’t think that matters …), Presidential Volunteer Service Award, Gold

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Founder of Senior Aid Organization (President, since 9th): Aids 300+ seniors who are cognitively impaired in emergency situations
Programming: know Java, C++, MATLAB, and parallelization coding libraries (something unique, i guess)
Chapter President (since 9th) of a Homeless drive, aids roughly 500-1000 homeless, though only do in winter.
Science Olympiad (since 9th) – Secretary 11th grade, some regional and invitational medals, nothing too special
Badminton: played for 4+ years, Varsity Captain for Team, Coordinator for club 1 year

  • was MVP in JV, also got Scholar Athlete and 1st League Player award … blah blah blah
    CSF, NHS, National Spanish Honors Society.
    Violin for 4 years, a few regional awards though nothing special.

Research:
Internship at Fairly Selective 6-week summer research program 10th grade summer (about 20-25% accept rate), published paper (computational biology) and gave presentation in symposium and conference

Research Intern at Start-up developing new tools for diagnosing neurological conditions (11th) – kind of what the paper lead to. (100+ hours, just started a few months ago)

Volunteer/Community service:
Senior Aid organization relating to seniors (400+ hours)
Alzheimer’s Fundraising, raised $750 dollars for cause, got put into specialized recognition club + certificate
Volunteering at (really) prestigious clinic, shadowed clinicians who specialized in neurodegenerative diseases + attended didactics for fellows (150 hours) (summer of 9th grade)
Volunteering at Senior program, contains roughly 60% people suffering from cognitive decline (50 hours roughly)
Tutoring Spanish, usually to seniors (about 60 hours so far), for them honor societies

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): Projections, but probably accurate

Teacher Rec #1: (Biology) 9 , have known her for two years, asked me if she could write it
Teacher Rec #2: (Math) 8-9 also have known for two years, really like me (and I am only kid in his classes in lower grade level (: )
Counselor Rec: 10 , visit her every month, constantly give her updates, again volunteered to write letter of rec.
Additional Rec: 8, director of that summer research program, said it was “very, very strong”

Interview: Probably will go well, since I have good interpersonal skills (and have had much practice XD)

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Nope, probably don’t need ):
Intended Major: Neuroscience
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public, not too competitive
Ethnicity: Asian (rip)
Gender: M
Income Bracket: >300,000 (double rip)
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.) Double Legacy (father and grandfather on same side)

Reflecting: I probably need to get more EC’s and awards, but I have strong scores and my EC’s are at least focused with what I want to do. Plus the legacy, though not sure how much that helps.

Colleges I want to apply to: (please say if reach, match, safety low/high etc. even though I want to apply ED to Cornell)

Cornell (obviously)
All UC’s, especially UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCD
UPenn
Georgetown
CMU
Johns Hopkins
Harvey Mudd
Dartmouth

Just for fun, also
Brown
CalTech

2

You look like a very competitive applicant and have a very good shot at getting into Cornell ED if you apply.

I would reconsider applying to all of the UC’s as you will not have your Cornell ED decision by then and I’m sure you don’t really want to go to all of them, you’re competitive enough to get into the 4 you emphasized (at least 3/4).

Since you’re a junior start deciding how you want to sell yourself to colleges, I personally decided to sell myself as a leader as that was what all of my EC’s are based off of, but your wide breadth of activity gives you many choices of what you would like to emphasize.

Sure being an Asian applicant is a disadvantage, But that is mostly for the other Asian applicants who are being compared to people like you!

3

Thank you so much. I really appreciate your insight.

Would you please also rank the other colleges that I listed too, if I do not get into Cornell ED.

4

You shouldn’t even be worried lol, the 75th percentile of Cornell is 2270, and you are way above that.

You have a crazy amount of passion for what you’re doing, and if you just continue with that, you will get accepted to a lot of the colleges you’re aspiring for.

Cornell - Reach—as with any ivy—but honestly you’re not that far off because you have a lot of ECs and your volunteering work will definitely demonstrate your devotion. I personally think you’ll 100% get in, especially since you are doing ED and your SAT scores are crazy good.

All UC’s, especially UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCD - Safety for pretty much all except for some of the more competitive UCs such as UCLA, which is just a low reach/match for you.

I’m not going to continue this list because you honestly have nothing to worry about. You’re an extremely competitive student, and almost all the schools you listed are matches/low reaches for you. You have nothing to worry about, you have a bright future ahead of you and you shouldn’t let the Asian stereotype bring you down.

Gl.

5

Oh come on. This is simply not possible. There is nothing 20 minutes outside of Ithaca!

Are you making this up or are you cattle?

But seriously, you are a shoe in for Cornell if you want to be there. Less so for Penn, Hopkins or CMU but strong for each anyway. You have not provided enough information about career plans to discuss Caltech. Your background isn’t screaming CalTech or CMU. I’d guess you’d get into Brown though.

6

What’s your plan for this summer? Are you going to continue working in the start-up or are you doing research elsewhere?

7

I think you’ve got as good a shot as anyone at Cornell and to be honest I’d be surprised if you didn’t get in ED as you are a very competitive applicant and a legacy. As for the others the UCs I think you’ll get into all especially as a CA resident. Georgetown, JHU, Dartmouth, and Brown I think you’ve also got as good a shot as anyone can have applying to such competitive schools. I agree that your profile doesn’t scream CMU or Caltech but you’d be competitive at both. Best of luck!
Chance back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1851091-chance-me-please.html#latest

8

You had me at "double legacy’! My friend had similar stats to you (except she’s not rich lol and no legacy) and she got in ED. Hey, if money’s your problem I’d like a Tesla and enough money to cover my college tuition at my door, anything to relieve your burden LOL!

As for UCs you’ll get in because they love rich kids and non-Californians because you can pay in full and pay more! Don’t worry. Focus on finishing high school strong!

9

I have another internship lined up already (relating to biomedicine), but am waiting for more applications – responding to falcon1

10

No doubt are definitely qualified for at least one of you upper choices with scores and extracurriculars like those. Write some stellar essays and I definitely think the majority of your schools are low-match or even safeties. Honestly I’d be surprised if you didn’t make Cornell ED. Good Luck! :slight_smile:

11

Your SAT and EC’s, and coursework are superb. They demonstrable your potential, studious attitude, and compassion for others. I believe you should lay back, relaxing, realizing Cornell wants you as much as you want them.

12

Whoa, you’re getting in. Decent scores and passionate ecs.

13

Only on CC would someone refer to a 2380 SAT and perfect SAT IIs as ‘decent’.

14

A 2380 is an awesome score. Best of luck to you.

15

Honestly, you’re amazing.

16

High GPA and SAT, multiple EC’s that are focused and relate to major…wow. I honestly see you getting to a lot of the schools you listed and if you don’t it won’t be because of your stats. also, how did you get into programming? i’m interested in it.

17

That’s quite a story. And no Cornell is not like the other Ivy’s. It is much larger and far less competitive. And part state school. And part hotel school. And part farm school. And part labor relations school. Etc… I would really love to know how it is remotely similar to Harvard, Yale, Princeton. Or Penn orColumbia. Or Brown. Or Dartmouth. Those are all very different schools than Cornell.

And ED as a legacy is not ultra competitive at Cornell. That’s the one “Ivy” admit that is far easier than the others. It’s freshman class is as large as Harvard + Yale + Princeton + Columbia combined I believe. And the admit rate is about double the others (more for a legacy). So …

The question becomes:
Can someone with the stats you shared above be in the top 1000+ applicants for ED at Cornell as a double legacy and full pay?

18

I think each IVY is unique in itself and they are all great. Getting into any one of them is impressive.

To the OP - I think you will get into Cornell.

19

Just an update: For the summer, I am going to attend a research program (6 week) at Cornell in which I will be working with a professor specializing in computational neuroscience. I am extremely excited about this opportunity.

20

Dude you’re pretty set for anything. Of course, Ivies and the like are a toss-up and your demographics are a little overrepresented but I think you’ve done your part. Good stuff man, all the best!