I am planning on applying Early Decision for Cornell’s engineering program in the fall. I’d appreciate an honest opinion or any feedback.
Info: White male, in state, not first gen
Stats: GPA (UW/4.0): 3.7
Top 10% of class
SAT: 1560 (790 Math, 770 Reading)
ACT: 34
PSAT: 1480 (Recieved merit scholarship)
SAT 2 Chemistry: 780
SAT 2 Math 2: 800
SAT 2 Physics: 740
SAT 2 US: 770
AP US: 5
AP Computer Science: 5
AP Physics: 4
EC: Captain of Debate team (for senior year member 9-12)
NY State Debate championship qualifer freshman and junior year
President of STEM Club (11-12)
Participated and received honors at multiple robotics competition (9-12)
Treasurer of coding club (10-11)
Treasurer of NHS (11-12)
Founder of non-profit that helps elderly use technology
Member of Model UN (11-12)
Member of Key Club (Volunteering, 10-12)
Member of club that raised money for Syrian Refugees
500+ volunteer hours at after school program for kids
100+ volunteer hours for local teen organization that supplied activities for kids
Held 2 jobs throughout high school
Worked at local day camp for 2 years
Varsity Bowling (11-12)
Varsity Basketball (10-12)
Thank you
Your academic profile would be competitive at Cornell; have you checked the NPC and seen what your prospective tuition p/y would be? Make sure you do that before you commit to apply ED. Your ECs are pretty above average; the non-profit especially looks really good. The others are all pretty average, but showing proficiency and leadership in those will help some. I’d say you have a decent shot to get in ED; however, Cornell’s ED and RD acceptance rates aren’t all too much different; if you really want to go there, I’d still ED, but if you’re uncertain or uncomfortable with the yearly tuition you’d have to pay, I’d reconsider and apply RD. GL!
Also, for Ivies, they don’t really consider IS versus OOS for admissions; in fact, being a New York student could hurt you, as they tend to look for students from all 50 states and different countries across the world, plus the New York applicants would be pretty strong and are well-represented in the school already.
Thank you! I checked the NPC and I’m pretty confident with the tuition so I would be willing to ED. I was told, though, that the ED acceptance rate is higher than the RD, but you could definitely be right.
Most schools have a higher ED rate due to them accepting athletes and legacies in this period, which would mean that even if a school posts about a 17% ED rate, you could assume the actual rate would be around 10%.
for the class of 2022, the engineering school accepted roughly 350 students, out of 1600 or so. This data was on a page my student had access to after being accepted, can’t seem to find it now… but either way the ED rate is much higher then RD. Bear in mind around 50% of those accepted are women, and much more then 50% of those applying are men.