<p>Hey everyone, I am very very interested in either Cornell or Columbia but I've been told by people that I don't have the extracurriculars to be accepted. Here's pretty much what I have </p>
<p>Junior Year (Current):
AP Lang
AP Calc AB
APUSH
AP Chemistry
Physics H
Academic Decathlon </p>
<p>Senior year:
AP Gov/Econ
AP Physics B
AP Physics C (Self Study)
AP Calculus BC
AP Lit
Academic decathlon </p>
<p>3.93 GPA
33 ACT</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Calculus Club
Chemistry Club
Academic Decathlon (1st in region, 2nd in state, going to nationals next month. Next year will be an even better year)</p>
<p>Going to Boys State over summer and I also want to try to volunteer at an art museum. </p>
<p>My major would be physics by the way. Does anyone know how good Acdec looks on applications? What else could I do to improve my chances?</p>
<p>Forgot to add AP Statistics and AP Macro (Self study) in for my senior year.</p>
<p>Acdec certainly looks good on your application. However, unless you dedicate many hours per week to the calculus club and to the chemistry club and/or have significant leadership positions in both, they don’t look too “impressive” to admissions committees; after all, anyone can just sign up for a club and go once in a while.</p>
<p>I think the best ways to improve your chances would be to a) dedicate yourself to a couple more ECs (at least one), and b) shoot for a higher ACT score (not necessary per se, but getting a perfect or near-perfect score will help balance out your application if your ECs aren’t up to par yet). Try spending this summer finding something you’re truly passionate about and stick with it throughout the college process.</p>
<p>Beyond that, all you can do is keep working hard, write some thoughtful, unique essays, and get rec letters from teachers who adore you.</p>
<p>Good luck! 
</p>
<p>as of now your friends are right</p>
<p>@Thebeatlestoday So should I dedicate more time to calculus and chemistry club or spend the same amount but just participate in 2 others? Acadeca and the extra AP classes will be somewhat daunting (I’m already dedicating hours upon hours to acadeca now) so I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle leadership positions in other ECs. Should I sacrifice some of them for ECs? And what do you mean by devoting myself over summer? Like volunteering? </p>
<p>No, your EC’s aren’t impressive, but do not let that discourage you from applying. Write fabulous essays, get good recommendations, and make it hard for the adcoms to reject you. Don’t be discouraged :)!</p>
<p>You have a very high chance of getting into these two schools. Your ECs could be better, but your stats are great. Which school did you apply to at Cornell though? </p>
<p>Also please comment on my chances post! :)</p>
<p>@MirandaMcGuire
Thanks, I wasn’t sure which was weighted more though; ECs or stats. I haven’t applied yet so I’m not sure which school</p>
<p>@wilguen Stats definitely matter more for Cornell. I had really great ECs and essays and recommendations and I still got rejected from Cornell. </p>
<p>If you want to major in Physics you may have to apply to Cornell Arts and Sciences, which is the hardest school. The easiest is Agriculture or Human Ecology, but you have to REALLY want to go to those schools.</p>
<p>@wilguen:</p>
<p>Do whatever you want, honestly. If you don’t have any time for more ECs, don’t do any more. Definitely don’t sacrifice something you love over something you feel like you should do for college. </p>
<p>What I meant by dedicating yourself to something over the summer is that you should take advantage of the free time you’ll have over the summer by doing something you love and spending a lot of time on it. It could be volunteering, playing an instrument, knitting, babysitting, drawing, etc. Really anything at all, as long as you love it…and as long as it’s not like watching TV or something And then continue doing that hobby/activity after the summer, if you can; it shows colleges that you’re doing it because you love it, not because you want to impress colleges.</p>
<p>And, for the record, stats DEFINITELY carry more weight than ECs.</p>
<p>If you want to be a physics major, why are you planning to spend your time self-studying economics? And doesn’t your school require foreign languages for graduation? Have you checked foreign language requirements for the colleges you want to apply to? You only take 5 classes a year, and yet it takes 2 years to learn calculus? Much about your academics seems very strange to me.</p>
<p>@mathyone I’m self studying Macro because it’s an incredibly easy AP test and I can get another credit for a month of studying at most (It’s usually a half-semester class). Calculus BC is essentially the same thing where you can get the AP credit. Pretty much why I’m doing all the AP classes is for the credit and class rank. BC is the highest math class you can take in high school.</p>
<p>@Thebeatlestoday I was planning on studying for Academic Decathlon mostly over summer because I want to try to be the top scorer (90% of acadeca is outside of school)</p>
<p>“Pretty much why I’m doing all the AP classes is for the credit and class rank.” That’s part of the problem and I think it kind of shows. If you had not said that you wanted to study physics, there’s no way I would have guessed that from looking at your coursework and activities.</p>
<p>My feeling is that if you’re going to try to sell yourself as an academic star, with not much else to show, then you’d better be an academic star. I’m thinking these schools see lots of kids with a bunch of APs and A averages. For a physics major, isn’t there a physics olympiad? Science fair? What about math competitions?</p>
<p>What about learning more advanced math? “BC is the highest math class you can take in high school.” On your high school campus. Ours too, which is why my daughter went to a local University to take multivariable, and she’s hardly the only one who does this kind of thing. I’m sure you can find it online if a college class isn’t an option for you. Also, one thing I can say about successful physicists is they are not afraid of learning math on their own by reading math books.</p>
<p>Snaps for @mathyone :)</p>
<p>It depends what you are majoring in and which school in the universities you would apply to. I just got a letter from Cornell saying that I would be offered enrollment on the 27th. However, I am a government major. Since you are a physics major, you would probably apply to Arts and Sciences as I did. I did Girls State, took nine advanced placement courses, was speaker of the senate of my student council, did not take the ACTs, played varsity tennis, participated in World Language Honor Society, Math Honor Society, National Honor Society, Academic Quiz Bowl, Percussion Ensemble, and Preserve Our History. Lastly, I am on my way to becoming fluent in four languages. I am fluent in Arabic and English. And I have reached advanced placement levels in French and Spanish. I write killer essays. That got me into Cornell University. </p>
<p>Columbia has a smaller acceptance rate. But to improve your chances, really talk about your passion for physics and somehow relate it to diversity (in life, in fields, in anything). Cornell LOVES diversity. </p>
<p>Good Luck! </p>
<p>look all these people saying that stats are more important than ECs are correct to a certain extent. anyone can get stats. there are plenty of 4.0 gpa and 2250+ sat etc; stats only make you competitive. ECs are what get you accpeted/rejected</p>
<p>@mathyone Well it’s too late to not take BC, but I think the physics C is good right? Should I also take physics C: mechanics? They do have a math competition which is only for seniors as well as a research-based project which I am doing (also for seniors). Academic Decathlon includes math and science subjects in depth by the way. And I’m not sure I understand the college courses thing. Would they count or any merit or would it be solely for my personal knowledge? Like does that class actually show up on my transcript?</p>
<p>Are you aware that this spring is the last time that the Physics B AP test will be offered? Of course your high school can continue to teach the course (ours won’t). My daughter is actually doing now exactly what you propose–she is taking Physics B, but self-studying Physics C (our school doesn’t offer C). I can ask her more, but my impression is that there’s a lot more overlap between the Mechanics than the E&M (and I’m a little worried about the E&M because she hasn’t done much on that yet, and has much less background there). </p>
<p>With regard to college courses, unless your high school has a specific “dual enrollment” policy, most likely you would not get any high school credit nor would it appear on your high school transcript. However, you might get transferable college credit (that will depend on the policies of the college you end up attending) and you can report the grade to colleges. Any grades earned in actual college courses will go on your college transcript, so be wary of getting into anything over your head. Depending on your school, you might be able to get independent study high school credit for doing extra math, or anything else for that matter.</p>
<p>@mathyone Yes, I meant to put Physics 2. Just forgot about that change. My school does offer dual courses, but the math is very low level. I heard from my physics teacher that Mechanics is mostly calculus, so maybe I could do both. I suppose I can search if any of these colleges will accept that extra math credit. Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>A lot of colleges I’ve seen seem to recommend at least 3 years of foreign language. I didn’t pay all that much attention because my daughter completed AP, so I know she has enough. But you should look through all the colleges you are interested in and check on this.</p>