<p>The chances that my parents will let me apply ED are very slim, so treat me as a Regular Decision applicant. I want to apply to the College of Arts and Sciences as a History major. Will I be competing with others applying to the CAS, or only with prospective History majors?</p>
<p>Objective:
ACT: 32 (English 35, Math 32, Reading 31, Science 31); first and only try
SAT II: US History 750, Math II 680
AP: English 4, US History 5
GPA: 6.1/6 weighted (I think the highest you can get is 6.57; an A in an AP counts as 7)
Senior Courses: AP English, AP Calc AB, AP Econ, AP Gov., AP Environmental Science, Photojournalism, Accounting, Money Matters (all the AP's will appear as AP/GT on my transcript; GT means Gifted and Talented; does Cornell know about the GT program?)
State: Texas; had a few people go to Cornell from my school in the past few years.</p>
<p>Subjective: pretty weak, inconsistent
Republican Club: Junior Officer, then President
National Honor Society
Student Council: only one year
Academy of Finance
Business Professionals of America
Tennis team: only two years; went to state championship twice</p>
<p>Work Experience:
Lakeside Country Club: bag boy for about 4 days before getting fired; I'll put "summer job"
Invesco Mutual Fund: one week
I then interned with a state representative for 1 week</p>
<p>I'm definitely going to stress my upward trend in GPA. I also had familial problems sophomore year and my grades took a hard dip. Without that, I'd be around top 5%. Now, I'm barely top 25%, but I made all A's junior year. I will choose not to have my class rank included on my transcript, but I know they're pretty good at placing you based on GPA. Will including Student Council for one year hurt me more than it would help? It shows inconsistency and inability to commit. My parents really want me to major in Finance so that's why my high school career revolves around it, but I really want to study History. I want to do whatever it is I want, at least for 4 years of my life.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response,</p>
<p>Invilliers</p>
<p>Also, concerning my low class rank, I come from a very wealthy, conservative school with try-hard kids who might have 3 different tutors throughout the week. Texas schools know the competitiveness of my school, but I worry Cornell doesn’t. I won’t be ranked on my transcript.</p>
<p>The brilliant kids from my school usually go to Texas, UVa, or Vandy. It’s sort of strange that even though they get into Ivies or MIT or Stanford, most will prefer to stay in the South.</p>
<p>Cortana, csdad, mikey, zephyr, I’d really appreciate your thoughts!</p>
<p>None of your work experience listed belongs on ANY resume or application you might submit ever. The student council helps. If your school made it to the state championship in tennis, that means you’ve been playing for many years and are quite dedicated, no? That’s something to emphasize. </p>
<p>It’s hard to give chances for really competitive high schools. Top 25% normally means you won’t get in, but a GPA of 6.1/6 seems like it can’t be out of range. I also have a hard time with GPAs that aren’t on the standard 4.0 or 100pt scales. How do you compare to the people from your school who were accepted to Cornell? If you are similar, your chances are good, otherwise, likely not. Your essays will have to be excellent for any sort of realistic shot. Make sure they are well-written (see “Elements of Style” by Strunk and White and follow the rules outlined).</p>
<p>Why does the work experience not belong on there? Would it belong on a Finance applicant’s? And I’m obviously not going to write that I was fired on it. I was fired for yelling at my supervisor because all my coworkers were poor minorities and I showed up to work everyday in a Porsche, and they always taunted me with vulgar words like “n<em>gg</em>r,” ironically. I’m white. I decided not to file a complaint or anything with HR or the club board because I hated that job and and I didn’t really need it anyway and I decided I would never do manual labor every again in my life. The only reason I got the job was because my parents believe in discipline and independence, and they would only give me allowance and a car if I had a job to get to and a little bit of money of my own. My coworkers made me do their jobs and I was still only paid minimum wage! I should write a book about reverse racism and prejudice!</p>
<p>I was naturally good at tennis, but I wasn’t that dedicated and I didn’t actually play in the championship; only 4 or 5 people got to.</p>
<p>My GPA converts to a 4.07 on a 4 point weighted scale. It’s nothing special, but again I’ll stress my strong upward trend and explain why it took a dip sophomore year. Thanks for the essay tip.</p>
<p>Work experience in general applies, but not when it only totals 18 days…A job you held for a week or 4 days doesn’t enhance your application at all, and may in fact hurt you. Seeing a bag boy for 4 days on your resume more questions about you than it answers. </p>
<p>A piece of advice, you deserved to be fired, even by your own presentation of events. I read what you say as a false sense of entitlement. Many people more deserving than a 16-17 year old teenager don’t have Porsches (or any car) and you shouldn’t complain about having to put up with a crappy job to keep nice things you haven’t earned yourself. You come off as entitled . People are working a lot harder in a lot more prestigious jobs and are still unable to drive a Porsche. You can hardly claim to have done manual labor when you were fired after 4 days of being a bag boy. I have my Ivy League degree and I’ve still done some manual labor type work before I graduated. And guess what? It’s because before you get your degree, you actually aren’t qualified for any well-paying jobs. You aren’t qualified for anything much more than minimum wage. It shows incredible naivety that you think you can write a book about reverse racism because you were taunted a few times by “poor minority” coworkers for a few days. Maybe you appreciate all the luxuries in life you appear to have been afforded, but it certainly doesn’t come off like that. And I’m not against your parents giving you a car or anything like that, but you seriously come off as entitled.</p>