Chance me for Cornell ILR ED

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
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<p>**Please don't jump down my throat if this is formatted incorrectly; this is my first CC post! </p>

<p>Regardless, I was just wondering if anyone could provide me with the average GPA & SAT/ACT scores of a successful applicant to the ILR School at Cornell. </p>

<p>I'm an under-represented minority (Hispanic & gay if that matters) with an SAT composite score of 2180 (780 W, 750 CR, and 650 M) - or a 1400/1600 CR + M (kind of low, I know), and an ACT composite score of 31 (34 E, 34 R, 29 S, 28 M). ILR does not require SAT II scores to be sent, but I received a 730 on the Lit subject test anyway. </p>

<p>My GPA is on the low-side (freshman + soph. year GPA = 3.66, but with all A's my junior year, my GPA is definitely a 3.70 or higher, still waiting for confirmation) - I am an IB Diploma candidate, meaning I took all IB classes my Junior year and will take all IB classes next year; every other class I have taken in high school as been at the Honors level. My school (ranked #2 in NJ) does not rank students, and has an average SAT score of 2100. </p>

<p>EC's: NHS / member of school's select, nationally-ranked Chamber Choir / Fundraising Director of school's chapter of The Supply, an organization that raises $ to build schools in sub-Saharan Africa / Co-President of school's chapter of Girl's Learn International, which raises $ to fund the educations of impoverished girls in countries that do not support female education --> also serve on a regional board of chapter leaders / SAT writing tutor for underprivileged children at local youth center as a part of Accelerate Academy (start-up organization that received a $10,000 grant for its work) / Co-owner of YOUnique Nail Designs, LLC / 4th place in 'Entrepreneurship: Growing Your Business' at DECA States conference / Management Assistant at local Kumon Learning Center / multiple hours of volunteering at local food pantries, Meals on Wheels, etc. / private voice lessons for 4 years / 4 years serving on Class of 2014 Council (student government) </p>

<p>Honors: National Silver Medalist in Poetry at the 2013 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards / current semi-finalist for admittance into the National Student Poets' Program, the nation's highest honor for young poets (1 of 40 semi-finalists out of thousands of applicants, awaiting results) / 1st Place Winner of All-State's 'X THE TXT' 2012 marketing campaign</p>

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<p>URM helps considerably and your SAT is pretty good. I’d say with a good essay your in ed. Just curious, why ILR?</p>

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<p>Your math is super low, but we have basically the exact same scores. I’d say retake it. If you nail it, write good essays, and apply ED, you could be competitive.</p>

<p>By the way, the guy above me is totally wrong. No one is “in” for the ivies until they actually are - even for the most qualified candidates. They get tens of thousands of apps every year, and have to reject plenty of qualified candidates. It’s a complete crapshoot, so all you can do is make sure YOU do the best you possibly can.</p>

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<p>@BreakingGrace: Thank you for answering! I didn’t think anyone would :stuck_out_tongue: As for why I’m interested in ILR, at my high school, I declared a “major” of sorts of Business & Finance; as a business student, I have taken classes in marketing, advertising, PR, and economics - all of which relate to ILR in one way or another. Additionally, I am seriously considering pursuing law in the future, and ILR contains a pre-law track as part of its curriculum. But most of all, I am interested in studying workplace discrimination on the bases of gender, race, sexual orientation/expression, etc.</p>

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<p>and @Ruprex: Believe me, I know that my math score isn’t up to par with my CR or W. I do intend to retake the ACT, and most likely the SAT as well, but I don’t know how significant an improvement I will see in my math score. Never having taken geometry, I find myself at a bit of a disadvantage, but hopefully practice will help. I’m getting my Honors Calculus/IB Math SL teacher to write one of recs, anyway, which will hopefully make admission counselors see that I excel at the math that I’ve formally learned.</p>

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<p>If you look online there are some great practice books for the SAT math (and the others but you don’t really need those.) Subscribing to the CollegeBoard’s SAT Question of the Day is also helpful.</p>

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<p>Your 31 ACT score is within the average range for admission & will nullify your SAT math score. Your admit will likely come down to essays & letters of rec.</p>

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<p>So @csdad, you think I’d be better off submitting my ACT score, rather than my SAT score?
Or should I submit both?</p>

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<p>I would submit both. Although your 1400 combined CR / M is better than a 31 ACT : [Compare</a> ACT and SAT Scores | ACT](<a href=“http://www.act.org/solutions/college-career-readiness/compare-act-sat/]Compare”>http://www.act.org/solutions/college-career-readiness/compare-act-sat/) because just the composite score is reported on ACT, the lower math score doesn’t hurt you. I would retake the ACT, if you get a 32 you’d be in really good shape.</p>

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<p>Ah that makes sense! I thought only the composite ACT score was reported, but I’m glad that you reaffirmed that belief. I will seriously consider submitting both scores, especially if I can raise my ACT a bit. Thank you!</p>

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<p>@Ruprex I’m not saying there is a 100% chance this guy will get in, just that if you offered to bet 10k on whether he’d get in ED, I’d take the bet.</p>

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<p>With that high in reading, you shouldn’t worry about math as much. I got a 610 in math (650 in reading) and I was waitlisted from ILR last year (if that counts) and I’m transferring in as a guaranteed transfer this year. Also I’m white so I didn’t have a minority hook and I applied RD (chances are much better with ED). It’s too bad they don’t break down ACT scores by subject and look at those otherwise my 34 in reading might have compensated, haha. Just focus on writing very good personal statements. I’d never be 100% sure though; there were plenty of other students with much better stats than I who were flat out rejected last year. Admissions processes are very crazy things and there’s no winning formula that works every time.</p>

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<p>@ladyelizabeth429 Just curious, did you submit both your SAT & ACT scores to Cornell? Or just the SAT? I was just wondering because I know that it’s impressive to get a 34 in any of the subsections. Also, on the topic of Guaranteed Transfers, if I happen to be waitlisted from ILR, will I automatically get the option of a GT? Or is there a new application process involved?</p>

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<p>I submitted both just in case. It really doesn’t hurt to send both, they’ll look at whichever one is better (if you get, say, a 25 or something on the ACT but a 2390 on the SAT, they’ll take the SAT into consideration over the ACT; they really do give you the benefit of the doubt). Haha, in my case since my ACT English and Reading are strong but my Science is relatively weak, I got a meh overall ACT score (my 34 in Reading balanced out with my shameful 24 in Science and combined with the other two, I got an overall of 29). My overall SAT score was around a 1970, so you can pretty much see I’m a terrible test-taker. Like I said, I didn’t really have any hooks except for the fact that the teacher who did my recommendation is a Cornell alum who’s part of the Alumni Association and I don’t think that even counts as a “hook”, per se. I’m pretty certain it was my strong personal statement that gave me my place on the waitlist (which, for Cornell’s contract colleges, is actually useful for something instead of being a mere “extended rejection”). Point being, with the advantages you have in your app, you shouldn’t be TOO overly concerned about your test scores enough that you don’t spend enough time improving the rest of your app. </p>

<p>If you do get waitlisted and aren’t accepted off the waitlist for the year you applied, you’re automatically given a GT option. There is still an app process, but it’s not as thorough and time-consuming as a regular transfer process. No personal statements or anything like that, it’s so that they know you’re still interested in transferring. You just fill out the app and send in your college transcripts for your first year. You also have to get your second semester professors to fill in your current grade in the class for your Midterm Report until you can send in a final transcript (so you basically have to send two transcripts; one for first semester when you apply and another one for your cumulative year just so they make sure you haven’t goofed off and bombed your classes). The requirements for ILR are a minimum 3.3 GPA with nothing less than a B and some required (more like recommended) classes like macro/microeconomics (and even with the latter, they’re still pretty flexible if you can’t meet certain “required” classes). </p>

<p>Here’s what the app looks like: <a href=“http://admissions.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/2013FallTO.pdf[/url]”>http://admissions.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/2013FallTO.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>BTW this is slightly off-topic, but going back to test scores, if there’s any “disturbance” during your exam that you believe may have affected your test score, make sure you report it to ACT/College Board. I had an inexperienced proctor (his first time proctoring-- he even forgot to check our IDs and distributed the booklets anyway before realizing his mistake too late) the second time I took the ACT and the clock in the room wasn’t synchronized with his watch so he ended up calling time 5 minutes early and I (and other test takers) couldn’t finish some questions. Some of us spoke up about that but he made up some BS excuse saying he couldn’t do anything about it. That was for the English section; first time I took it, I got a 33 and that time I ended up with a 28 or 29. I don’t recall quite clearly, but I think I wasn’t aware of the fact that it had to be done within 24 hours of taking the exam or something. Anyways, my point is to be on top of that stuff since it can make a difference in your score. Not saying I couldn’t have gotten a 28 if he hadn’t made that mistake, but 5 minutes for me translated to at least 5 questions left blank, so I can’t be sure what exactly caused my score to plummet like that.</p>

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<p>Wow @ladyelizabeth429 thank you for all of that information! I will probably end up submitting both my SAT & ACT scores, especially if I can raise my ACT to a 32 or so. Also, ILR’s GT option seems almost too good to be true! I will certainly utilize it if I don’t make it off the waitlist.</p>

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<p>Hope it could help. I thought so first at too, but I suppose the contract colleges pick out their waitlists more carefully (I’ve heard stories of other universities putting legacy students on the waitlist so as not to “upset” their alumnus/alumni parent(s) and risk donations and such). The admissions committee are a bunch of trolls too; when I found out I was waitlisted online, the first paragraph or so made it sound like a rejection at first with their "We’re sorry"s and everything until I caught the fact that it said they would put me on the waitlist in the meantime. I had one rollercoaster of an experience in the past year. Good luck with your application and don’t give up or doubt yourself or your abilities. Hopefully we can see you at Cornell next year.</p>

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<p>Updated: My end of Junior year GPA, cumulatively, is a 3.77, up 0.11 points from soph. year!! :slight_smile: Hopefully that gives me a better shot at Cornell!</p>

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<p>Definitely better.</p>

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<p>bump???</p>