<p>White Male
Average/Decent Public HS
Class of 2011</p>
<p>Numbers:
UW GPA: 93/100 (90/93/96 each year)
Class Rank: ~25 of 300, but of those ahead of me only 5-10 had a similar schedule
SAT: 800 CR, 690 M, 800 W (2990)
Subject Tests: 790 World History, I'll find out about Bio, US, and Literature next week
ACT: (33 C) 33 E, 34 M, 35 R, 29 S (I don't know if I should retake for the science section, I took the ACT after the SAT so I didn't really study and I didn't know what I was doing)</p>
<p>Soft Stuff:
Courses: Taking the hardest possible schedule all 4 years.
EC's: 12 seasons of varsity sports, I am pretty good but certainly not recruit material. I also focused heavily on peer mentoring/toturing (in school and out of school) and have a few leadership positions (student council, national honor society, etc.) Nothing too major here though.
Awards: An essay contest, Science Olympiad medals, and I am likely to be a NMF (NMSF for sure).</p>
<p>Recs and essays are impossible to know but my writing has been considered very good by college profs and newspaper editors I have worked with briefly.</p>
<p>My choices for EA/ED are:</p>
<p>Cornell CAS (ED)
SUNY Binghamton (EA)
U Chicago (EA)
Georgetown (EA) (Maybe)</p>
<p>I realize that if I am accepted by Cornell I would have to withdraw the other applications. I would like to use the early round to apply to reach schools to potentially get the admissions process over with and get a good safety (Binghamton) already done with so if I don't get into my reaches I will at least not need any safeties during the RD cycle.</p>
<p>You can’t apply to Georgetown if you apply to Cornell ED (Is that why you have the Maybe there?)</p>
<p>I think you have a really good chance at Cornell ED, you’re in at Binghamton, you have a good chance at Georgetown but I don’t know if you’re strong enough to get in EA and Chicago is a bit reachy but you should have a fine chance if you’re a good writer with all of their quirky essays.</p>
<p>Well GPA’s a tad lower for Cornell, but SAT’s are superb**** for Cornell.
EC’s lack. I guess they’d kinda understand your sports and all but no clubs, no leadership, you should catch up on those. </p>
<p>As of now, it’s a halfway between Reach and High Reach. Mostly b/c of a lack of EC’s.</p>
<p>A lot will come down to whether your high school is really average. If it is, your rank is low for top schools. It will really help if you’re from an underrepresented state, are first gen and/or low income. ED at Cornell, however, is worth a shot.</p>
<p>I was not aware of Georgetown’s EA policy and I put maybe because I wasn’t unsure of whether I wanted to apply. If I cannot apply to Georgetown and Cornell then Georgetown is out for sure.</p>
<p>I probably should have noted that I am first gen and income is quite low (<40k). I know those help but I didn’t think it was that significant. On the other hand I am from NY and due to the state funded schools NY’ers are anything but underrepresented at Cornell. Unfortunately my class rank is deflated by the fact that the “honors track” is much harder than the regular classes at my school but there is no grade advantage. Not much I can do about that.</p>
<p>My EC’s are more extensive than I bothered to list, but they aren’t fantastic or noteworthy. I don’t know of anyone in my class who has markedly better ECs than me but I haven’t done anything amazing either. Seeing as I don’t expect them to help or hurt me I minimized emphasis on ECs in my post.</p>
<p>I have taken community college classes and my college GPA is a 4.0. Are grades in college courses considered in admission?</p>
<p>I’m sorry if this sounds a bit rude, but why are you applying to Cornell ED when you have a 2290 SAT? You’ll almost certainly get into Cornell whether it’s ED or RD, and you’re just restricting your options since you’ll almost certainly get in ED. I think you would have a fair to good shot at schools that are considered slightly better (and probably have a bit better financial aid), such as Penn, Columbia, and Chicago.</p>
<p>UW GPA: 93/100 approx 3.7
SATs: 2290
ACT: 33
Top 10% of Class
Most/Very Rigorous Schedule
1st Generation College
Sufficient ECs and awards</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Your ECs are fine. ECs are useful to showed commitment and a well-balanced personality. Barring a truly spectacular EC, e.g., Olympic athlete, they’re all pretty much the same. The most overrated aspect of applications on CC are peoples’ ECs. To think that your profile would make you dramatically more appealing to colleges if only you were Treasurer of The Key Club is farcical.</p></li>
<li><p>Your profile is a good one, though by no means a slam-dunk at the top level schools - if you really want to parse the profile, look at the fact that the OP’s math score is “only” 690, which is just above the mid-point at Cornell. If you like Cornell and really, really want to go there then apply ED, I agree with other posters who feel that you’d have a very good chance at acceptance.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>^^^^
He could ‘reverse’ the 690 easily by studying and getting a 750+ on SAT II’s math (forget what its specially called, they’re 2 parts) you know</p>
<p>As far as math scores are concerned, I got a 34 ACT Math and I am submitting both tests so maybe that will help. I don’t really feel like taking a 5th subject test especially seeing as I’m not great at math anyway.</p>
<p>I appreciate the suggestions about how to shift things around but I am quite sure that I want to apply to Cornell ED. I am quite certain that I would not regret limiting my options by agreeing to go there and their financial aid is adequate for my situation (that, because I am in their >60k bracket it should be much cheaper even than a state school). Something about Cornell just worked for me, I wasn’t really interested at all until I went there because I thought of it as being only math/science focused, but I liked it a lot once I visited. My interest just grew from there and now I’ve been there a few times.</p>
<p>Will it help or hurt if a lot of students from my school typically apply/are accepted there? Last year 5 people got in and 1 person get rejected I believe. This year I imagine as many as 10 people might apply.</p>