Chance me!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>Hi. I am currently an Asian-American male junior going to a pretty competitive public high school in Virginia. Going to major in engineering. Please chance for Cornell</p>

<p>Objective:
* SAT I: Math 800, CR 690, CW 760 Total: 2250-one sitting *retake in September
* SAT II: 800 (Math II); 760 (Chemistry); 800 (Chinese)
* PSAT: 239 (National Merit Finalist)
* Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.78 (Yes very low, I’m well aware)
* Weighted GPA (out of 5.0): 4.40
* Rank: Top 25%
* AP (place score in parenthesis):
European History: 4
Calculus AB: 5
U.S. History: 4
Chemistry: 4
Psychology: 5</p>

<p>Subjective:
* Extracurricular (place leadership in parenthesis):
-National Honor Society, National English Honor Society, History Honor Society, Math Honors Society
-Math Club, Invisible Children Club, World Culture Club
-Varsity Indoor Track
-Varsity Basketball
-Varsity Scholastic Bowl Team
-Varsity Football
-Leadership Class (Sophomore-Senior Year)
-Piano (10 Years)
* Awards:
-Honor Roll all years
-Piedmont Virginia Regional Science Fair Winner (Math Category 2010)
-National Merit Finalist
* Volunteer/Community service:
Habitat for Humanity (100 Hours)
Local Library (50 Hours)
Projection Work (100 Hours)
Hospital (150 Hours)
TOTAL: 400 Hours
* Summer Activities:
Summer Internship at Pathology Department assisting in Lab experiments (2009)
Junior Tennis Team (2009)
* Teacher Recommendation: One from English teacher (11th) and AP Chemistry teacher (11th)
* Counselor Rec: Loves me
* Additional Rec: N/A</p>

<p>Other
* State (if domestic applicant): Virginia
* School Type: Public
* Ethnicity: Asian
* Gender: M
* Income Bracket: >250,000
* Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation</p>

<p>COURSES TAKEN: (TOUGHEST COURSE LOAD POSSIBLE TO MANKIND.)</p>

<p>7th Grade:
Honors Algebra I: A/A
8th Grade:
Honors Geometry: A/A</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
Honors English 9: A/A
Honors World History I: A/A
Honors Algebra II: A/A
Honors Biology I: B/A
Spanish I: A/A
Info Tech Fundamentals: A/A
PE/Health: A/A</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Gym/Health: A/A
Honors English 10: B/A
AP European History: B/B
Honors Math Analysis: A/A
Honors Chemistry I: A/A
Spanish II: A/A
Computer Science I: A/A
Leadership I: A/A</p>

<p>Junior Year:
Honors English 11: B/A
AP U.S. History: C/A
AP Calculus AB: B/A
AP Chemistry II: C/A
Honors Physics: A/A
AP Psychology: B/A
Spanish III: A/A
Leadership: A/A</p>

<p>Senior Year Course-load:
AP English 12
AP Government
AP Calculus BC
AP Biology
AP Statistics
Astronomy
Honors Spanish IV
Leadership III</p>

<p>How do these stats look? I might have forgotten something, so if there are any questions, feel free to ask. Also if there's anything I need to improve on, please say. THANKS!</p>

2

<p>I don’t like your two C’s. Off to a good start. Try to get involved outside of school. And, since your asian try not to do all your volunteering at a hospital. </p>

<p>Keep it up and you’ve got a shot!</p>

3

<p>You’ve got an meh-okay chance considering your ranking</p>

4

<p>thanks guys. I’m thinking about applying ED to Cornell. Is there a better chance I will get in if I do?</p>

<p>@Iheartschool12 yeah I don’t particularly like them either…hopefully it won’t hurt me that much.</p>

5

<p>ED for Cornell helps pretty significantly, so if you want to improve your chances, yes. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get in though. Work hard on those essays and try improving that CR score since it doesn’t really help that you’re asian.</p>

6

<p>Very competitive applicant at the very least.
Just keep your grades high. SAT, can improve on CR, but still very good.
You have a great shot.</p>

7

<p>you definitely have a good chance for ED, but just make sure you do it because you really want to go to Cornell. you’re smart ;)</p>

8

<p>Cornell’s engineering program is extremely difficult to get into. Thus, it may be difficult, but you’re not out of range. However, being Asian, frankly, will serve as a major disadvantage in engineering simply due to the sheer number of qualified Asian engineering applicants, as will your sex for the same reason. However, provided you can improve your UW GPA you’re definitely a candidate who is competitive.</p>

<p>Also, a SATII in Chinese is looked at as a joke/unfair by most schools. So I would suggest you take another one, maybe Lit or something, which would also demonstrate your advanced English abilities, for since you took Chinese and got an 800, I presume that English may not be your mother tongue, and I suspect the Adcoms will have the same suspicion, given your low CR score.</p>

<p>Similarly, you’re not a national merit finalist. You’re a junior. You don’t even know for sure if you’ve made Semi-finalist. Weird stuff happens with NMSC and the finalist cut-off, so do not put that on your application until you have the certificate in your hand.</p>

9

<p>I think you’re a very competitive candidate, and Cornell RD is a target for you. Remember Cornell is all about fit, so do something engineering related this summer/school year, write creative essays with lots of personality, and I think you’re set. Also, applying ED really helps. Take it from a Cornell ED acceptee, my ECs are better than yours but my grades and SAT scores are all lower - I still got in! Don’t bother retaking your SAT it will not increase your chances of getting into CoE at all, most people who go there have lower CR scores.</p>

10

<p>thanks all!
Does Cornell Superscore the SAT?
Also, if there are any current undergrads, is Ithaca a boring town? It seems to be in the middle of nowhere New York</p>

11

<p>sparky u can’t compare ED to RD. That being said, you are definitely a competitive candidate in ED, but your chances are not so good in RD. Your reading score is not so great and neither are your class ranking/grades and you are up against an extremely competitive pool with other people of your race (science, math, engineering are favorites).</p>

<p>Cornell does superstore SAT
Ithaca is okay-ish. Depends on preference. It’s rather difficult to access though in my opinion.</p>

12

<p>How do you know you’re national merit if you’re only a junior?</p>

13

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<p>Although I don’t like Ithaca, I like the school and the people here. I had a good time here, but I do believe Cornell may not be for everyone. I suggest you visit before committing to ED.</p>

14

<p>I know some of the other posters disagree with me on this, but that is OK. My opinion is that if you are completely unhooked, no way do you have an ed advantage. Remember this: Cornell releases its own numbers that show they take about a combined total of 1000 recruited athletes and legacy. Ask yourself this: if, as is often the case, a recruited athlete goes ed if the school offers it, and legacy, if you want to show loyalty to the school, usually go ed. say about a total of 750 of the 1000 admitted go ed. that makes the 500 or so spots left out of 2700 for ed unhooked applicants - a percentage that is much, much lower than the rd pool. if you are unhooked, look at cornell’s own numbers and decide if you think ed or rd gives you a better chance. and don’t forget that cornell is the only school this year that did not have a large increase in the rd pool, which also helps people who applied rd to cornell. This is just food for thought. (Last year at Stanford 400 or so of the recruited athletes were almost all EA.) At Penn, they say every athlete they spend time recruiting goes ed. You do your own analysis and decide what is best. Don’t rely too much on cc, it is often the opinion of neurotic and anxious students who think they know everything, sometimes something that I am guilty of. Anyway, you do what is best and I wish you very good luck.</p>

15

<p>englandern, I think they accepted about 1200 ed this year so if 1000 were hooked (legacy , athlete, etc) you may be correct for us unhooked applicants. I was deferred so I guess im an rd candidate now. Do you think that deferred is at a disadvantage in the rd pool???</p>

16

<p>I really hope it works out for you. I am glad you see the issue with the possible cornell ed myth. Nobody can say for sure how many of the 1200 ed admits were athletic recruits or legacy, but 75% has to be reasonable by any estimate. I don’t think deferred is a disadvantage, esp. given that cornell did not increase in rd apps this year. my sister got in to her college from a waitlist (similar I guess to defer) so if you pm me I would be happy to tell you the extra things she did to help her waitlisted application in the class of 2012 at Amherst, which would probably help at cornell also. If she did not get in there, she would have gone to cornell or columbia or princeton to which she was also accepted. Amherst is a real hard school to get in and she got lucky. they are great for premed and that is what she really wanted.
good luck</p>

17

<p>ED is a boost for everyone, hooked or not. Yes, there are more hooked applicants, but here is the logic behind ED: You, the applicant, sacrifice choice for a better chance at admissions and the college is willing to accept weaker applicants to improve yield. If englander is correct about the quantity of hooked (and I believe he is) then what this means is that the ED bump is smaller then most people make it seem, but there is still a bump regardless.</p>

<p>Also, the two Cs are a trouble spot; however, I don’t think it completely screws you (especially since one of your Cs is in chemitry yet you got a 760 SAT Subject and a 4 in AP, this hints at grade deflation not incompetence on your part). As far as SAT, improving CR would help (Cornell doesn’t look at writing, which in your case hurts you because you have a good writing score). Cornell requires you to submit all scores, but they superscore. Regarding SAT subject tests, you don’t need anymore. I believe that Cornell only requires two subject tests and Engineering requires a math and science. So, since you have good scores in Math and Chem, that is all they need (they will see the Chinese score, and it will simply be an extra that can help but not hurt)</p>

18

<p>jalmoreno, I do not disagree, I’m just not so sure how much of a boost there is ed at cornell for the unhooked. at least we agree it is not as big as a lot of people make it seem because of how many recruited athletes and legacy they take from the information they released last year.</p>

19

<p>england my school stats have a 40% acceptance rate for ED as opposed to 12% for RD, the average ED accepted GPA is 4.0 while RD is 4.4. And most of us applied unhooked. ED is a big boost, and Cornell explicitly says ED helps on their website. It is not a “myth” don’t believe those threads.</p>

20

<p>Wow, I have like the same stats, except 780 M, 670 CR, and 800 W (and 800 M2 and 760 Chem). And my unweighted GPA is like 3.74 lol.</p>