Demographics:
Race: White
Gender: Male
Income: 300k
State: Colorado Grades: 4.0 Unweighted 4.26 Weighted Finalised semester grades: Ap calc-B AP Physics c-B Ap micro- A Ap gov - A English IV - A This brings my unweighted gpa down to a 3.94 This brings my weighted gpa slightly up to a 4.3
Class rank: 7/506 (Top 5 public school in Colorado) (Probably will drop a bit after semester grades go in but shouldn’t be too bad) Senior Year classes: AP Calc AB, AP Physics C, AP Gov, AP Econ AP Test grades: AP Bio 4, AP Psych 5, AP World History 5, AP Environmental 4, AP Lang 5 ACT: 35 (36 all sections except 33 Math) 10 Writing SAT: N/A SAT II: N/A (get scores next Friday but think I did trash so lets just assume no scores) ECs: Founded my own complementary tutoring company for underprivileged youth in my area (350 hours)
Lifeguard: Life guard 30 hours a week during breaks and part of the year (1400 hours)
Global learners and Leaders program: traveled across europe to find solutions to problems in the American education system and met with famous figures like Sir Ken Robinson. (Explained this horrible on the common app but very well in my interview and she said she would send them the info, do you think they will take that into account)
Science Olympiad state team: Made it to state in Anatomy, Hydrogeology and Helicopter
Youth Congress: Met with the district attorney to present solutions to the high suicide rate in our community
Dog fostering + volunteering: and other 40 hours volunteer for this, nothing special
Leadership intern for national inventors hall of fame
NHS Founder of Investing club at my school
Varsity Swimmer
Awards: Academic all state swim team Ap Scholar with distinction National Merit Commended Academic Letter at school Science Olympiad state
Essays Common app: 7/10 About how I am clumsy and used that to find deficiencies in my life to repair, not great but good
supplements in general: 9/10 I love all my supplement as I gave a very clever approach to the topic that said alot more about me
Letters of Rec Teacher: Both good, didn’t read. One about me from bio, other from my physics teacher about how physics and finance correlate
Counselor: Form/10 there are too many kids so the counselor uses a form, but she gave me the highest marks possible on the form
Supplemental Letter of Rec: 10/10 made my parents cry, 600 words from the mom of a kid with disabilities I tutor where the mom happens to be the VP of a local finance company. This letter was so good it raised my hopes for being admitted so much.
Interviews: Good at interviews but have’t had it for these schools yet
Also I never expressed interest so how much would this hurt me
Just got rejected UPenn so please chance me. Also someone form my school already got in ED to Cornell for CS but they are turning it down for financial reasons if that makes a difference
@daththiccboi I don’t need to tell you your academics and test scores are solid - very competitive and above Cornell averages for the most part.
TBH you sound a little conceited so I hope that didn’t come out in your essays. You have ECs that match 99% of applicants, from sports to founding your own [insert whatever], so unfortunately I’m not reading anything unique. However, your global learners thing sounds really interesting. In my opinion you should have written about that experience and how it “changed your life” and made you want to pursue your major. But that’s me.
Hate to break it to you but your supplemental letter is worthless. They ask for two teachers and a counselor for a reason. They don’t have time to read 50,000 supplemental letters from people who are handpicked to gush about you. I heard that directly from admissions. Also, you admitting you didn’t express interest is a red flag. If I learned anything about the application process at Cornell (or any other Ivy), it’s that you have to demonstrate what you are going to do for THEM specifically while on THEIR campus. Not some generic essay about life. Supplemental essays should drop names like “I learned so much when I visited professor so and so last spring during my visit” so they know you visited or at least did a lot research about Cornell online.
I’m not saying you won’t get in, but there is literally nothing to distinguish you from what you wrote above. Maybe your family income will help because the less financial aid they have to award the better. If you can pay full price, you might earn a few extra points.
Sorry to be blunt, but I remember going through this last year and trying to comfort people who where so shocked when they didn’t get in, only to find out they didn’t work as hard on their applications as they did in their years of high school. There’s no magic formula so you might get good news in the soring. From what I see, my opinion is you have a decent chance, but not more than anyone else just by what I’ve read above.
Good luck.
dath, surprised you were rejected to Penn ED with you stats. With that said, you are a very competitive candidate, again, purely from a stats & achievement perspective. In more cases I would say you are a very strong candidate for admission to many of the most selective schools. However, as you can tell from your Penn rejection, admissions is at best a guessing game. It’s very difficult to know what Adcoms are looking for, in particular, for the most selective schools in the U.S. Cornell’s Dyson program absolutely fits that bill as well. It has the lowest acceptance rate of any business undergraduate program in the Country at 3%. That alone should temper your optimism somewhat. With that said, you stand a very good chance, again, based on stats. The key with Dyson will be your essays. That is critical. You want to convince the Dyson Adcoms that you are a good fit for Dyson. The admission rate to Dyson isn’t entirely about stats, obviously they want the strongest business student candidates, but its likely just as much weighted on your essay. Why do you want to go to Dyson versus Wharton or Ross, etc. If you feel like you did a good job of articulating why you want to go to Dyson in the essays you submitted than you have a very good chance.
Let me make sure I crystalized my answer for you better. You stand as good a chance as possible with a school that essentially admits 3 students out of every 100 applicant… #-o
@cotopaxi Nah honestly I appreciate the bluntness, you are at least legit about how this process works. As for expressed interest, I just mean I didn’t do a visit or online meeting or anything like that with Cornell. In my essay I mentioned a specific professor and their accomplishments as well as a specific program.
@spemmar1 You and me both are surprised about Wharton. I thought I would at least get deferred. As for the essay I think I really like it. I wrote about why I decided to go into finance for the first half then transitioned it by mentioning a professor I like at Cornell and why I want to go to Cornell. I hope it is good enough. Also my school has a crazy good record of peoplez getting accepted into Cornell for some reason.