Chance me for Cornell!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>Hey, I'm a male senior in an international school in Hong Kong. I am Chinese-Indonesian with Australian and British citizenship. I have lived in Hong Kong for 13 years.</p>

<p>SAT 1
2000 (600 CR, 760 M, 640W) - I just retook them today! </p>

<p>SAT 2
Chemistry: 740
Maths 2: 790</p>

<p>Straight A and A* in GCSE. I am taking the IB Diploma right now and I am predicted a 40-42 out of 45.
HL Chemistry - 6
HL Maths - 6
HL Music - 7
SL English - 6/7
SL French - 6
SL Economics - 7
TOK - 2/3</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Competitive swimming training for 10 years, member of the National Squad and the Junior Squad and high school captain, have represented Hong Kong at many international competitions and am nationally ranked. Received club's MVP 4 years in a row, ESF best male swimmer award, international honors and hold 10 inter-school and school records.
Finished 4th at Hong Kong Olympic Trials.</p></li>
<li><p>Piano for 8 years, achieved grade 8 with distinction and an Associate Diploma in piano performance from Trinity College, UK. Regularly take part in local concerts, festivals and competitions. Bronze in Composer of the Year 2010 competition. Once played in front of a crowd of 5000 people (plan to carry on in uni)</p></li>
<li><p>Violin for 7 years, achieved grade 8 with distinction. Played in the school orchestra for 6 years which has won three international awards. Played in the ESF orchestra for 3 years. Representative and opening act for my school in the International Conference on Climate Change Hong Kong 2007 (plan to carry on in uni)</p></li>
<li><p>Teaching English to mentally challenged and local non-English speaking students for 2 years, then completed a service project of teaching English to local and disadvantaged students in Beijing.</p></li>
<li><p>Runner Up of international business competition 'Media-Saturn International Retail Management Competition'</p></li>
<li><p>Play in a band, Kiwi Pilot, as a keyboardist. We play in many local charity concerts to raise money, like Winterfest and Charity Rock Concert in our school.</p></li>
<li><p>Teaching piano as a private piano tutor (1 year)</p></li>
<li><p>HKAYP Bronze Award for community service</p></li>
<li><p>Junior Reporter for the Young Post in South China Morning Post, biggest newspaper chain in Hong Kong. Once aided for a live interview for Adam Lambert, American Idol runner up.</p></li>
<li><p>Swimming coach. I have created my own swimming team in school and coached for two years.</p></li>
<li><p>Australian Mathematics Competition for 4 years.</p></li>
<li><p>UK Mathematics Competition 4 years.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>LEADERSHIP ROLES</p>

<ul>
<li>swimming coach, high school swim captain</li>
<li>piano tutor</li>
<li>Stride for a Cure Project Leader (organized hike to raise money for charity)</li>
<li>Scott House Head of Action</li>
<li>Year 7 student leader in the School Council</li>
<li>Year 7, 9 and 11 Scott House Action Representative</li>
</ul>

<p>SUMMERS STUFF</p>

<ul>
<li>Oxford Royale Academy, 2010 (Medicine Program)</li>
<li>Hong Kong Polytechnic University Summer Program, 2010 (Health Science)</li>
<li>Hong Kong University Summer Program, 2008 (Popular Music Composition)</li>
</ul>

2

<p>You have a good chance of acceptance. Did you apply Early Decision? Which undergraduate college are you applying to?</p>

3

<p>ec’s and sat II are good. sat I is bad. hopefully you have better sat I results.</p>

4

<p>1st choice - Engineering
2nd Choice - agriculture</p>

5

<p>Engineering is tough to get into. But I think that if you improve your SAT score, you should have a good chance, provided your essays are good. Are you applying RD?</p>

6

<p>Engineering is one of the most competitive programs at Cornell. Also, as an international student coming from Asia (no less Hong Kong/China) it is even more difficult. Furthermore, your SAT scores are rather low for Cornell (approximately in the 25th percentile). That being said, your extracurriculars are very good. Have you tried getting recruited by the Cornell swim team?</p>

7

<p>I have contacted the coach and he said he would love to have me on the swim team, but he can’t do much with the admissions process.</p>

8

<p>It helps a little bit; I was told by an admissions officer (albeit one from Uchicago) that coaches typically send a little note to the readers that a person is being recruited. I would suspect that is a similar advantage to being an URM or Legacy (this is all speculation).</p>