Rejected by CALS - Plant Science (with a concentration in Plant and Human Health (Phytotherapy))
School attended before transferring: Community College
College GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9
Any grades below a B?: No
High school senior year grades (give GPA or just good/bad): 3.6
Courses for the Transfer Requirement: all completed
Extracurriculars:
Essays, if any (rate them 1-10, details): Personally, its a 10 but I guess not LOL (wrote about how my grandpa owns a botanical garden in Thailand and I grew up falling in love with plants. My grandmother gave me her homemade dried flower book that included poem verses of the traditional Thai medicine corpus. Also wrote about how I discovered a dream to integrate herbal medicine and conventional medicine to find new health solutions and how Cornell can help me achieve the goal (also how I want to later pursue an MD degree at Weil Cornell Medical School). I mentioned my current research project on the anti-cancer properties of a bioactive compound in ginger (in vitro) and how I will be presenting the project at my school STEM expo (public event) and at a joint meeting of two plants-related organizations in Wisconsin. I also mentioned 3 Cornell plant science faculty members I have been in contact with for half a year and 1 plant science alumnus.
Hooks (URM, first gen): first gen
Letter of Rec: 3, one of my current prof who was a part of a drug discovery (very close since I volunteer in his lab and helped led the classes during lectures), one from my high school teacher (very close to her. She knew a part of me that is kind of unique, like how I can play leaf flute, do traditional Thai fruit carving, and make Thai flower garlands etc, and one from the plant science alumnus who had the same concentration as me (phytotherapy)).
Any other comments about your application: On the “additional info” section I elaborated the activities I organized as an “activity coordinator” at my previous dental school (where I attended in prior to the community college). I organized many activities which united over 2000 students together and wrote down how the results significantly affect the students (medical students were helping dental students with gross-anatomy, more group studies were observed, etc).
Why you think you were accepted/rejected: I really had high hope so I don’t know what went wrong. But maybe the fact that I still can’t see my mistakes show that I am lacking some self-evaluation skill LOL.
General Comments: I really did try my best for Cornell. Reached out to their professors and alumni and still am in contact with them. I will keep these connections for the future as they are lovely people. I do not regret anything and am not upset because I do believe in Cornell admissions. They probably had their reasons.
I will be committing to Wellesley College where I can attend half of my classes at MIT! Really excited since they also have a Botanics garden on their campus! Best wishes for all the others who are still waiting for their decision! <3
