<p>What are my chances of getting admitted into Cornell AEM Early Decision?</p>
<p>City: Memphis, TN
GPA: 4.0 unweighted
ACT: 32
Class Rank: 6 in a class of 500
Rigor of schedule: I will graduate with 4 AP classes and many honors classes under my belt.
Extracurriculars: My weakness... I don't have a large amount of extracurriculars, just one main one. I am an advanced classical pianist and have been playing for about 10 years now. I practice about two hours a day and have won several competitions. I also have some little extracurriculars (National Honors Society member, Latin Club member, Mu Alpha Theta member) to compliment my piano playing.</p>
<p>Also, do I have to take the SAT subject tests if I send my ACT?</p>
<p>Very good stats overall. However, your EC’s do seem a bit dull. Try to have a focus in your choice of EC’s. But if you apply ED and write a awesome essay, I’d say you have a good chance of making it. Don’t forget about your rec letters either.</p>
<p>negative: better write some compelling essays on why you want to do AEM…none of your EC’s seem to indicate that you have any interest in the field at all!</p>
<p>positive: “Geographic diversity” will help you</p>
<p>As for the SAT thing I have no idea…you’d better send cornell an email about that</p>
<p>^Well, that’s what I hate about my EC’s. Nothing official I’ve done (meaning I could list it as an EC on my application) indicates my intense passion for finance. Yet, over the past year, I’ve devoured any book I could find on the subject of the capital markets. I’ve invested in the stock market, and I intend to play around with agricultural futures and stock options when I turn 18 (most custodial accounts prohibit trading of derivatives). I’ve poured hours into researching the college that provides the best chance of propelling me to Wall Street. I know more than most high school seniors do about high finance. Yet, I will have a smaller chance at getting into a top business school because I didn’t join a trivial high school investment club (which my school doesn’t even have).</p>
<p>I hope my piano accomplishments demonstrate to the college my discipline and commitment to one of the many things I love, piano. After all, how much discipline is really required to run for SGA president? Hardly any.</p>
<p>You should write in the additional information something about how your school does not offer an investment club. They can not penalize you for something that you were not offered.</p>
<p>not true. talk about EVERYTHING you just said in that post - talk about your passion for the stock market, talk about what you’ve done to forward that passion by yourself, despite the meager resources you have, etc. etc. etc. if you write all of that, it will show “fit” and “passion” more so than just any old club like DECA or FBLA. AEM/CALS doesn’t exactly care about vanilla-clubs like those. i didn’t do DECA/FBLA/any business club and i still got into AEM - i talked about how what i HAVE done in my high school years can be applied to what i want to do in the future and what cornell can do to further that. </p>
<p>to be perfectly honest, a little part of me just died at the line: “propelling [you] to Wall Street” but that’s just personal - there are far too many wall street wannabes in AEM for me.</p>
<p>zab, my point is that even if my school did offer an investment club, the knowledge I would gain in the club would be elementary compared to the knowledge I’ve gained via internet and library books. Yet, just being in the investment club (and learning nothing) would increase my chances of gaining admission into a top b-school. I hate this aspect of college admissions.<br>
And jocer, thanks for the info. 1475 is really high. What were your stats like?</p>
<p>OP: I agree with the poster above, you need to fit what you just said into your essay somehow. If its true that you’ve tried your hand in the market and have dabbled in commodity futures and equity derivatives, then that by definition is a business related extracurricular. While it may not be an official “school-club”, you would be putting the nails in your own coffin if you failed to let the adcoms know about these activities.</p>
<p>Also, your excuse that “your school has no investment club” is weak. Why not found one?</p>
<p>I was actually in a similar predicament to you when I applied to AEM. My extracurriculars were laced with either math-sciency things (math science teams/olympiads, etc.) that would seem to indicate “engineer” or law things (mock trial, legal assistant job) that screamed “ILR”. In order to show my interest in AEM -and business in general- I created an investment club my senior year and taught underclassemen investing basics (so its not too late for you)…and for my essay I used a hypothetical “future me” successful-professional persona where I “reflected back” on my high school years (and thus was able to include my AEM-pertinent activities) as well as my joyful years at Cornell (where I showed my “fit” with the school).</p>
<p>The point is that if you try hard enough you can definitely get around these difficulties you are faced with and show the adcoms you belong in AEM :)</p>
<p>cc102, thanks for the great post. Did you have a lot of other EC’s? And what were your high school stats like? I’m trying to get an idea of how much of a chance I have of getting admitted…
By “propelling me to Wall Street,” I’m talking about the Cornell’s ability to provide me with the opportunity of a position in high finance after graduation, assuming I work assiduously in college. This opportunity is not presented at most colleges, hence my interest in Cornell. So what’s so bad about wanting to work in high finance?</p>
<p>Founding an investment club would be a good experience if I went to an elite private high school with a bunch of finance nerds like myself. Then, we would be able to discuss complex trading strategies like risk arbitrage. However, I go to a large public high school with a mediocre to average student body. If I started an investment club, I would have to spend an enormous amount of time just educating the members on what a stock market even is. Also, since my school would not allow high school students to manage real money, we would have to resort to paper trading, which loses its flavor after a while. Therefore, even though starting an investment club would look good on paper, I would learn nothing in the process, and my time would be taken away from more important things, such as making good grades and making real money in the markets.</p>
<p>For this reason, I believe that colleges place value in the wrong activities.</p>
<p>I go to a large public school to, and due to the economy, my school was cutting honor societies, including the Business Honor Society. So I took the necessary steps to bring it back. I talked with board members, and raised $1800 by hosting events, and going to local businesses. I understand completely what you said before, and I myself have participated in the stock market. However, you can not say for certain that it would be pointless. That is because you learn more about leadership skills, and how organizations are actually run. However, even though you do not have the ec’s you could definitely tie into your essay how you went above and beyond, and you wanted to experience real-life business. I believe that you have a great shot at getting into AEM, and I wish you the best of luck. Hopefully we will be in the same class (I am applying ED to Cornell for AEM too.)</p>
<p>like i said, it’s a personal feeling, but i have met far too many wall street wannabes in AEM who are complete @$$holes. also, as someone who’s going to be working for NGOs (or pseudo-governmental organizations of that ilk), i can’t help but feel sickened by the fact that many people who work on wall street make more in one month than some NGOs have in their budget in a whole year. furthermore, i interned in a small hedge fund over the summer, learned a lot, but, quite honestly, i DON’T respect the profession. you can PM me if you want more info, but it’d really just be a rant and i’ll spare people my feelings.</p>
<p>also, since i want to work in developing nations in Africa, i had a lot of clubs related to international affairs, debate, and helping people, like being on the exec board for Model Congress, founding Red Cross Club, exec board for French Club, etc.</p>
<p>The application essay topic is so vague. The prompt reads, “How have your interests and related experiences influenced your selection of major?” What did some of you guys write about?</p>
<p>They are designed to be vague and general so that each applicant can have his or her own unique approach to the question and avoid any conflicting topics. A really specific and constricting question will not necessarily showcase an applicant’s full potential and/or personality. Hence, the vague essay prompts.</p>
<p>I took everyone’s advice and co-founded an investment club at my school. I won’t be president, but I’ll hold an officer position (the club won’t have a president). </p>
<p>So, having said that, how do I look now for early decision to Cornell AEM?<br>
Revised resume:
GPA: 4.0 (unweighted)
Class Rank: 8 of 456
ACT: 32<br>
Senior Schedule:<br>
AP Statistics American Government AP Calculus BC AP Biology<br>
AP English Literature Economics
Business Principles</p>
<p>EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
-Ten years of Classical Piano study
-Co-Founder of school investment club
-Volunteer to play piano/keyboard for church orchestra (300 hours)
-Mu Alpha Theta
-National Honors Society<br>
-Latin Club
-Future Business Leaders of America
-Manage a personal portfolio of stocks<br>
-Research the capital markets by reading books about finance</p>
<p>AWARDS
-Placed first in numerous classical piano competitions
-Performed two concerts with a symphony orchestra accompanying me
-Commended on the PSAT
-Received gold medal and summa cum laude certificate for a top score on the National Latin Exam
-Placed 2nd in a regional geometry competition and 7th in the state
-Award for achieving a higher grade in Latin than any other Latin student</p>