<p>International applicant (Indian, male)
Small private international school</p>
<p>SAT 1: Math 780 CR 670 W 740
SAT 2: Math 1c 700 Lit 640 (Retaken literature and gonna take Biology M)</p>
<p>4 GCE-A Levels (considered very challenging): 'Predicted' grades (which are sent to colleges for evaluation) are History 'A' Economics 'A' Biology 'A' and Math 'B'</p>
<p>IGCSE Results:
first language english A
history A*
economics A*
chemistry A
biology A
hindi A
information and communication technology A*
math B
Accounting B</p>
<p>EC's
School President (2005)
Global Young Leaders Conference- delegate (summer 2005, USA)
Harvard Model Congress, Thailand- delegate
Worked with a journalist to write and publish a biography on my great grandfather (a pol. leader)--took about 1 and a half years (got a good recommendation letter from the journalist)
Class Representative to the student parliament (2004)
Model UN press corps.
School Editorial Board Member
School Enterprise Club member
school soccer team (for one year)
Work experience with the Washington DC-based QED Group on economic research in India
Work experience/training in sales and marketing at the India Habitat Center
intramural soccer and basketball
school athetics
play golf and squash (as a hobby)
volunteer work with disabled children one summer, and with autistic children the following winter</p>
<p>Academic awards
Best IGCSE Results in school
Principal's award for outstanding academic performance in junior year
Certificates of merit-history economics firstlanguageenglish chem bio (11th)
-chem bio eco (10th)
good teacher recommendations/good essay/no financial aid/not so great internal assessment results (mostly A's (about 60-70%), the rest are B's and about 5% C's and D's!)</p>
<p>applied early d upenn (college of arts and sciences), regular D- Dartmouth, Columbia, cornell, boston college, tufts, northwestern, williams, swarthmore, and one more (havent picked yet)
upenn takes kids from our school about 1 or 2 every year (out of a class of 50)...no other ivy has taken anyone...
what do u think my chances are like?</p>
<p>despite being indian, i think you still have good chances, your verbal score is quite good for an international student, and your writing scores you do have aptitude in the english language, and your math is in the upper echelon of scores.</p>
<p>your courseload is difficult, and you have good recs. as long as you come off as a down-to-earth, motivated, GOOD person, you should definitely be going at least to one of the top-tier colleges you are applying to. who knows- maybe you'll get into more than one (tufts and BC seem like locks to me) and you'll have the tough choice to make!</p>
<p>for you 'other school' how about a school like johns hopkins? you seem very math-science oriented and if so, johns hopkins has one of the best overall academic programs in the world, not to mention probably the best medical program tied with harvard, upenn, and wash u stl. just food for thought.</p>
<p>i think you are highly qualified...good luck!</p>
<p>this is just a general question...why do people chose to go to cornell? i heard it is a very isolated place....cold.... what do you see yourself doing?</p>
<p>thanks...although im more keen on the humanities (politics/history/international relations/economics etc but still undecided)....is there a 'safety' school you could recommend as none of these r really very sure bets....oh and im doing stanford (but just for the heck of it)...</p>
<p>i think probably because it is one of the greatest universities in the world, an ivy league school that is much more of a realistic alternative to harvard, princeton, yale, etc, which accept under 10% of applicants, obviously rejecting other incredibly qualified students. ithaca is not so isolated, it is considered an 'urban' location and is actually in a city with another college and a metropolis, not to mention it is withing 3-5 hours from many big cities such as phili, pitts, ny, buffalo, albany, etc. it's cold in the winter but not as cold as massachusetts (where many of the best schools are), new hampshire, or the rest of new england. it snows in the entire northeast, where all of the ivy leagues as well as many other top schools are- so i think singling out cornell as cold is misleading. </p>
<p>don't get me wrong, weather is a big issue for me. if one was to get into both stanford and harvard, stanford is the OBVIOUS choice to me solely on that weather basis; </p>
<p>sorry for the long response, it just seems like you don't see why someone would want to go to cornell----
it's cornell! maybe the better question would be: why WOULDNT someone want to go to place like it? ;)</p>
<p>Nice to finally meet a fellow indian, hehe... I think u have good (if not great) chances and the A Levels will help u a LOT. Also, the ECs and awards are pretty good.</p>
<p>lixuelai, why do you say Jewish people face the worst odds? Cornell has one of the biggest Hillel organizations on their college campus. Aside from which, that'd be discriminating against personal beliefs. Oo;</p>
<p>What lixuelai meant by " Indian, Chinese and Jewish ppl face the worst odds" is that even though those groups may be a small percentage of the nation's population, they are not UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITIES at colleges. </p>
<p>Existentialpony: even though Cornell may have a large Hillel, that doesn't mean that it's not harder to get in for a Jew, expecially one from the Northeast. Remember, colleges are all looking for a DIVERSE student body, and if they're inundated with the same geo & ethnic applicants, they turn alot away. I can't be angry about it - it's just the way it is. Same goes for coming from a "high achieving" high school. If a college receives 30 applications from the same school, & all are "qualified", they can't accept them all. The same applicant from a low level HS, stands a better chance of acceptance.</p>
<p>Being an international applicant from India makes it next to impossible to get to the States...especially into an Ivy. Nevertheless, your stats can get you into a lot of fine schools here. As reiterated above, apply because if you don't you'll never know.</p>