chances and social life at CU

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>Lets get the irritating part out of the way first...</p>

<p>what are my chances:</p>

<p>Stats:
demographics:
*I am an Asian Indian Male (most likely won't help)
*From a competitive public high school in Oregon: Beaverton High School, which was also rated the best AP school in Oregon, so yeah, its a smart school. (being from oregon isn't going to help either)
*student body at school = 500+</p>

<p>The Numbers/ECs
*ACT Composite 30 (haven't gotten essay yet, but it doesn't affect composite from what I've heard)</p>

<p>-English 30 (Usage/Mechanics 15 Rhetorical Skills 16)
-Science 24 (ouch..my chances)
-Reading 31 (Social Studies/Science 17 Arts/Literature 15)
-Mathematics 34
(Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra 18
Int.Algebra/Coord.Geometry 16 (again ouch)
Plane Geometry/Trigonometry 18)</p>

<p>*Freshman year:
Language Arts (Honors): A/A
Social Studies 9: A/A
Advanced Algebra 2: A/A
Bio/Chem/Phys 10 (Honors): A/A
SAT Math Prep: A
SAT Verbal Prep:A
Spanish 1:A/A
Team Sports:A
Health 1:A
Web Design:A
Computer Programming:A</p>

<p>*Sophomore Year:
AP Chem: B/A
Lit Comp 10 (Honors): A/A
Physics 2: A/A
Pre-Calc: A/B
Social Studies 10 :B/A (can explain this B)
Spanish 2:A/A
Symphonic Band: A/A
Team Sports: A
Health 2: A</p>

<p>*Junior Year: (Projected Grades for second semester)
Human Anatomy: A/A
IB Biology: A/A
Spanish 3: A/A
IB Calculus: A/B (might be able to get an A, but our teacher is hard)
IB Psychology: A/A
Team Sports: A
IB Seminar: P (pass, no credit class)
IB English: A, A
Study Hall: P (pass, no credit class)
IB TOK 1: B (our TOK teacher is sooo hard!!)</p>

<p>IN SUMMARY: I should finish high school with around a 3.85, or at very worst 3.8 UW for fresh-senior year.
*I know however that stanford, UCs, and Umich weight grades differently, so this number should go down slightly for these schools</p>

<p>*class rank UW right now = 38/515. Weighted = 30/515 (will go up because not many kids have taken hard classes yet)
*IB Diploma Candidate (to be)
*NHS (2 years)
*Varsity tennis 4 years (will have 4) (possibly captain next season)
*Science Team 4 years (will have 4)
*World Quest Trivia 4 years (will have 4)
*Science Club Treasurer (1 year)
*Science Club VP (2 years)
*Math Club (4 years) (VP 2 years)
*Portland Youth Philharmonic (2 years)
*Mathfest Algebra 2 1st place freshman year
*Oregon Invitational of Mathematics Tournament Participant Fresh Year
*Mathfest Participant (will have 4 years)
*6th Place at World Quest out of 32 10th grade
*Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Rising Star Program (will have 150-175 volunteer hours done)
*Mathcounts Tutor (about 50+ volunteer hours)
*Want to major in either Biomedical Engineering, Economics, Math, Physics, but then go on to med school, dental school, or investment banking/B-school</p>

<p>Now for the more important part.</p>

<p>How is the social life at Cornell? Its always been one of my top choices, but I've been a bit apprehensive lately because I've heard that:</p>

<p>a. It is immensly competitive and extremely hard to get a high GPA
b. The social life is horrible.</p>

<p>Can anyone comment on either of the those aspects?</p>

<p>thanks</p>

2

<p>I'm not sure about your chances, but your resume there is way longer than mine was so I guess you've got a good shot. You say "you can explain this B," but seriously just relax. If you are "explaining" B's on applications I think you'll only lower your chances. You've got nearly all A's and a ****load of ECs so you certainly don't need to "explain" the couple Bs.</p>

<p>Anyway, Cornell is NOT ultra-competitive (as an engineering student, the vast, vast majority of my classmates are more than willing to help others out and work on problem sets and all that together). In fact, I haven't met one person that I'd label as "competitive" academically. It's also not really hard to get good grades and a decent GPA. Like anything in life, if you work hard and just try your best (within reason) then you'll do fine. I am still deciding on whether to major in ECE (electrical engineering) or AEP (engineering physics, widely considered one of the hardest majors at Cornell), and even in AEP (my advisor is an AEP prof) the average GPA for seniors is a 3.4 (about the same in ECE), meaning that more than half the students in it have GPAs above that by the time they are seniors.</p>

<p>And the social life can certainly hold its own against most schools, especially smaller ones. There are almost always open frat parties Thursday-Saturday nights (Cornell has the 3rd largest Greek scene in the country with over 3000 Greek undergrads) and normally multiple parties to choose from on any given weekend (Th-Sat) night. Besides the party scene, there's Collegetown and the Commons, with tons of little restaurants and bars and whatnot (for your later years). There's also not too bad of a music scene for such a small town, with Castaway's, the State Theatre, the Nines, and The Haunt all having various live acts on any given night. And our Concert Commission (which I'm on) brings about 4-5 large (2500+ people in general) concerts right to campus every year (last semester we had Motion City Soundtrack as a free show during orientation week, then the Strokes in September, Trey Anastasio (former frontman of Phish) in November, and our annual rap show with Twista and Lupe Fiasco in December and this semester we are having one huge show featuring All-American Rejects, OK-GO, and The Whigs in April). There's also then slope day, a huge free concert following the end of the classes in May (where in the past we've had Snoop Dogg, Ben Folds, 50 Cent, and many others).</p>

<p>All in all, you have no reason at all to worry about the social scene here.</p>