<p>SAT: 1430 (740M, 690V)
SATII: Math IIC - 800, Writing - 720, Physics - 760
GPA: 3.82 Unweighted</p>
<p>Decent extracurriculars (editor on yearbook, newspaper, etc...)
Pretty good recs + essays</p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>He probably has as much as a chance as anyone else, but what schools is he looking at besides Cornell?( SAT scores are a little low particularly writing and Verbal)
Is he a junior?
Any of the competitive schools are a crapshoot particulary the Ivies, a better question would be after determining what type of school he is interested in, would be to ask what schools fit that profile.
For example if he likes Cornell, he may want to look at Colgate.</p>
<p>Thank you very much emeraldkitty -
My son is currently a senior in high school. His first choice is cornell, but in case he does not get in ED, do you know any top colleges with strong pre-med programs?
Also, does anyone else have an opinion on my son's chances at Cornell? It seems that he really wants to go there, and I know he would be devastated if he gets rejected. So if it's not likely that you think he will get accepted, perhaps I should tell him not to get his hopes up. Thank you.</p>
<p>Actually, I think your S stats seem in the ball park to me. Sat V is a little bit low. If he is applying RD, he could retake. Just getting over the 700 hump would make a psychological difference, although statistiscally, there is none. His SAT II math and physics are strong, which is good for a pre-med. The fact is that the more selective schools are crapshoots and it is unwise for students to get so invested as to be devastated if they are not admitted. They need to think about alternatives where they could feel comfortable spending the next four years. </p>
<p>Some good schools with strong premed programs are John Hopkins, Washington in St Louis, Case Western, Wesleyan. I think CMU also has a strong premed program.</p>
<p>Look at Johns Hopkins, Tufts, WUSTL, Emory, Michigan, Northwestern, Rice, Case Western, NYU and Wisconsin.</p>
<p>It is always very difficult to tell with any top colleges. Please know that for most kids, the devastation will disappear within 3 days. Figure the odds like the average applicant - what is it, 25% or so?</p>
<p>There are at least 200 colleges with programs that will prepare one well for med. school. In fact, since premed is essentially only 11-12 courses, large numbers of students major in subjects having nothing to do with medicine. (At my alma mater Williams, a higher percentage of music majors in the past 10 years attended med school than biology majors.) There are schools that aren't even particularly difficult to get into - such as Hope and Kalamazoo - that have stellar records in getting students into med school (there is more undergraduate research published in peer reviewed journals in biology coming out of Hope than out of Harvard, Yale, or Princeton.)</p>
<p>Still more -- the student who finishes in the middle of their class at, say, Cornell or Johns Hopkins, might have finished at the top of their class at a good state university, and thus had an easier time getting into med. school. Less competition in the school, and likely, because he is a star, more individual attention, more research opportunities, etc. So in the case of the average student, which one actually had the "good" program?</p>
<p>The reality is that med school is not hugely difficult to get into any more for the truly motivated student. The real difficulty is how to pay for it. Tell him to find a range of schools, don't get his heart set so firmly on any one of them that another couldn't be a good experience as well, and let him enjoy his senior year and his learning. The med school grind will come soon enough.</p>
<p>Carolyn is not here to say this, but Juniata in PA has a good pre-med program that supposedly has great med school placement percentages.</p>
<p>Mini has stated what a couple of friends who also are on admissions at two highly regarded med schools told my daughter when she was starting to make her undergrad college list. </p>
<p>*"Still more -- the student who finishes in the middle of their class at, say, Cornell or Johns Hopkins, might have finished at the top of their class at a good state university, and thus had an easier time getting into med. school. Less competition in the school, and likely, because he is a star, more individual attention, more research opportunities, etc." *</p>
<p>What can you tell a 17 year old?....she ended up picking Columbia for undergrad anyway.</p>
<p>You have been very helpful, and I plan to talk to my son about options other than Cornell. Thank you all very much.</p>
<p>Am I the only one that think's Marbury's Son has a good chance at cornell? Look at all he has done, his GPA and his SAT's. If he's applying ED, he's definitly getting accepted. If you want to argue with me, I'd be happy to argue with you!!!!!!!</p>
<p>I think your son has a decent shot if he applies ED.</p>
<p>I still think it's worth it to go to a challenging school like Cornell. Will he end up with a higher GPA almost anywhere else? Probably. But I doubt he would do as well on the MCAT's nor will he learn as much since most other premed programs are not as rigorous as the one at Cornell. Furthermore, med schools know what the average GPA is at different schools. If you are an applicant with a 3.4 GPA at most schools, the med schools will not even consider you. Yet, Cornell loves to brag that it has an 88% acceptance rate among its applicants with 3.4 GPA and above.</p>
<p>For the record, I am currently a Cornell student and, yes, premed is difficult. I received a 78 on an organic chemistry prelim (mean was a whopping 57%) only to receive the lowest of A-'s. But at the same time, I have the satisfaction that I have earned everything that I have received at this school.</p>
<p>BTW: Research opportunities are plentiful at Cornell. I started looking for research after dropping a class 1 month into the school year and found one within 3 days.</p>
<p>Thank you, Norcalguy. My son will without a doubt rise to the competitive nature of cornell. His unweighted GPA in high school is a 3.82, and if you take away his freshman year, his GPA is a perfect 4.0 unweighted. Now factor in that he has taken/is taking 7 AP's total and that he goes to one of the top high schools in New York. My son will strive to do his best, and he is a very hard worker. If he sets his mind to it, my son will acheive success at cornell. The only thing he and I are worried about is if he can get in ED. Many of you parents have said he only has a "decent shot." However, 70% of the applicants from his school are accepted ED. Furthermore, the average GPA and SAT of those accepted early is 3.6 and 1360, and his GPA and SAT are 3.82 and 1430. He also has pretty good extracurriculars, recommendations, and essays. He doesn't plan to start his other applications until december 15th, and this worries me because everyone here only thinks he has a decent shot. I guess I will need to encourage him to get working on those other applications right away, because according to you guys, his chances for getting into cornell are slim. Thank you.</p>
<p>We just want to be cautious. We want to avoid the kind of statements we see on "What are my chances?" forum that suggest either "You're in" or "You're screwed." We're not adcoms, we can't make categorical statements.</p>
<p>I happen to think your son has a very good chance of getting into Cornell. Having said that, I also want to encourage him to start his other applications now as a matter of prudent planning. First, the time lag between Dec. 15 and the Dec. 31 deadline is very short. If he needs recs from his teachers, for example, he will have little time to line them up, and practically none to chase after the teachers to send them in because of the Christmas vacation. Second, writing new applications while dealing with rejection is very, very hard.
My S applied EA to a college where he has several hooks; but he also knows that admission there is a crapshoot. So he is filling out rec forms to hand his teachers next week and has begun thinking about essays. While he is generally a good writer, he found that writing application essays was rather hard. So he is giving himself plenty of time to write them. Your S could consider doing something similar. At the very least, I hope he has a list of alternatives to Cornell.</p>
<p>I certainly wouldn't say slim, especially if he applies ED. Since he seems so dead set to go, there's no reason not to apply ED. His academic stats are pretty good (probably even a little better than average at Cornell). I guess, elaborating on his EC's will help us make better assessments.</p>
<p>my son also applied ed to cornell.. but is not waiting until Dec.15 to apply to other schools. For example he is is applying to another college who offers an honors program with a scholarship but the apps need to be in by dec. 1 to be concidered. Make sure you check out options from other schools or you may lose out if not accepted to Cornell.</p>
<p>USNWR rated Rhodes College as "most likely to suceed" for very high percent of pre-meds/pre-law accepted to med/law schools.</p>
<p>For the average student, Cornell has nowhere near the number or depth of research opportunities in biology as....Hope College. They have less than a tenth the number of undergraduate research projects published in peer-reviewed journals as Hope, and they are 15 times larger. </p>
<p>So if it is learning from research he is looking for, it isn't even close. But the reality is it doesn't matter much. I hope he gets into Cornell, and loves it. And if he doesn't, I expect he'll get in somewhere else at any one of 200-300 top colleges, and (if he's done his homework before January 1), a week into term will love it just as much.</p>
<p>Listen, I am and adcomm and I'm just telling you what I think will happen. He's defiintly getting in.</p>
<p>Wow, really? I really hope so. But to be on the safe side, I'll take the advice from all these other parents and tell my son to get started on his other apps asap.</p>
<p>It is silly to fixate on only one school, esp if it is so highly selective. You have to figure there are tons of kids who are qualified who won't get in. The more real thing to do is to dig deeper in order to learn enough to find 5 or 8 schools schools that have interesting things to offer and that suit you and your interests and likes. Then if you are deferred, you will feel in control with your backup schools being equally interesting choices.</p>
<p>He clearly has a good shot at Cornell (and Leadership positions, such as Editor, are more than decent), but won't it be nice if he's deferred, applies to 5 others, gets 4 great offers including Cornell,and the ball is in his court? You should have mentioned his school's admit rate and that has a good deal of bearing on his chances, and his GC and can tell you much more than random ppl here. Cornell is a large school so the numbers are in his favor too.</p>