Cornell ED Chances- please be honest!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

Hi, please let me know what you think and if there’s anything I can do to improve my chances (though I’m a senior now so I’m aware there’s barely any time.) Thank you so much and good luck everyone!

Intended major: Policy Analysis & Management (College of Human Ecology)

Demographics:
Gender: Female
Nationality: US (Hawaii)
Ethnicity: Asian (Chinese & Japanese), Native Hawaiian
-I can speak English and Mandarin fluently, and Japanese quite well. I also took some Hawaiian classes but not anything too intensive
Income: 150,000 ish? (I’m going to apply for aid though since my brother is also in school)

Academics:
GPA: 3.7 (W) -low GPA 9th grade bc of prolonged illness specified in counselor’s LOR
SAT: N/A
SAT Subject tests: Bio M 700 (I took this 9th grade)
ACT: 34 (35 in everything except for math- 31); one sitting
AP: Japanese, Gov, both this year (school only allows sophomores to take 1 AP class which I didn’t take, and I was abroad my junior year)
IB: school doesn’t offer
-taking an online class from Stanford, expected to finish with certificate before deadline
Senior course load: pretty easy tbh except for the 2 APs

Extracurriculars:
-Foreign exchange program in Taiwan (11)
-Model UN (9, 10, 11, 12)
-International Relations Club (9, 10, 11, 12)
-Board member of a major activist organization (10, 11, 12)
-National Honor Society (10, 11, 12)
-Japanese National Honor Society (10, 11, 12)
-Volunteer Experience: approx. 300 hours total at Special Olympics HI, 12 hours at Special Olympics Taiwan, will volunteer at a hospital next week (fall break), around 40 hours
-Varsity tennis player, JV team manager (9, 10, 12)
-Co-founder of Japanese club (10, 12)
-It’s Academic (a local trivia show) team (10)
-Academic WorldQuest team (12)

LORs: (waived FERPA for all)
Teacher 1: My AP Gov teacher, has a PhD, well respected in academic community. I have him also for Honors Hawaiian history, doing very well in both classes. We’re not super close but we have a good academic relationship. Lots of experience writing LORs.
Teacher 2: My English teacher. Not very close but I did well in his class.
(note: I can only use senior year teachers since my teachers last year can’t speak/write in English very well)
Counselor: College counselor that I’m very close to, hopefully it brings something new to the table for me.

2

I don’t think you have a great chance. is it your dream school? Or do you just want an Ivy and think this is your best chance at one?

3

Thanks for replying. My counselor recommended Cornell to me based on my intended major (I was originally going to apply for the IRL school). ALSO I just noticed that I made a typo and that my 3.7 GPA is unweighted, not weighted, oops. But I agree anyways. Is there anything you think I could do to raise my chances a bit?

4

I agree that your chances are not so great. Is a 3.7 about an A- avg at your school? You do not have many AP classes so the UW GPA is hard to justify as 3.7. Your subject test is ok and your ACT score is also ok (scores are just one thing). Your EC’s don’t show many major awards or leadership as well. I don’t rlly know what you can do to raise your chances if your heart is set on Cornell. Maybe harp on the board member in the activist group position in your supplement.

5

Thanks for answering! Since posting this thread I’ve actually decided to apply to Georgetown EA as it has a better program in international affairs (which is what I originally wanted to do.) I realized it wasn’t smart to apply for a binding contract to a school that I had a minimal chance of getting into and change my major to something that was different from what I wanted to do, just to try to get into an Ivy League school. I’ll still be applying to Cornell RD, though I’d agree my chances aren’t great.

My UW GPA from 10th grade-now is a 4.0, it’s just that my 9th grade GPA was extremely low since I was sick for such a long time… :frowning: my counselor’s LOR explains it a lot more in detail so hopefully it’ll be a bit more understandable. I don’t think I’m going to send in that subject test since it’s mediocre and isn’t related to my minor at all. I’ll definitely mention my activism work since it’s what I spent most of high school doing. Thanks for the advice!