<p>My mom went to Cornell as well as some other family members</p>
<p>I will be retaking my SATs. This is without superscoring anything. (Please be gentle).</p>
<p>SAT I
Math: 630
Reading: 630
Writing: 680</p>
<p>unweighted gpa: 3.58
weighted gpa: 3.65</p>
<p>Significant Extracurriculars: Model United Nations
I preform in the schools plays
Leadership positions: Student Government President
Coordinated and Lead the Young Women's Institute of 2013 (state-wide program)
Student Senator - 3 years
Student Ambassador - 4 years
Volunteer/Service Work: I've interned for state Assemblymembers and Senator since I was fourteen.
Volunteered on campaigns of all levels: local, state, and federal.
Honors and Awards: National Honor Society
Award for Scholarship, Citizenship, and Sensitivity
Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Awards
Nominated for RYLA
College Summer programs: Explo at Yale</p>
<p>I have an awesome essay so far and I should have fantastic teacher recommendations along with additional letters of recommendation from a State Senator and Assemblymembers. I also interview extremely well. I have not taken SAT Subject Tests yet.</p>
<p>I also have a piece of state legislation in the works that will be voted upon within a month or so.</p>
<p>Your SAT is low, but you seem to know that already since you will be retaking it. Your GPA is also rather low, how rigorous are the courses you’re taking?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t include recommendations from a state senator and assembly members. What insight could they possibly have into how good of a student or a person you are? Cornell would probably not be impressed with their names and the admissions officers definitely don’t care to read a bunch of additional recs from random political names.</p>
<p>Thank you for your response @Ranza123! I’m taking a challenging course load but not as many ap classes as I’m sure Cornell would like to see. Is it true that the biggest factor for admissions to the ILR school is fit? I can’t imagine that it would be the most important factor but that’s what I’d heard from a friend who was accepted there.</p>
<p>I think your GPA and SAT are a little low, Cornell ILR you should (highly recommended) to have BC Calc, AP History, Lang or Lit, Stat, Econ type courses.
IMHO its a reach for you but senior year grades could make the difference as well as college essays good luck!</p>
<p>when you retake the sat, skip the writing sections because cornell don’t writing scores(you can use that valuable time to rest).but your score isn’t that low/middle 50(1290/1440) I think. your legacy will be a huge point on yyour side. what are planning to major in?</p>
<p>There is no set number of AP classes Cornell wants to see. They just want you to challenge yourself as much as your school allows you. My school only offered two academic APs, so I took both of those and an additional one online. Just be sure you are pushing yourself to your full extent. Fit is an important factor for ILR; I’m not sure if it’s the biggest factor, but it is important. Fit probably won’t excuse your low SAT and GPA, for instance. </p>
<p>Thank you @Ranza123 , @karim12 , and @SWeLLT ! I am currently taking pre-calc so I know that will work against me but I’m very concerned because my school offers somewhere between 20-30 AP courses and I will have only taken 3 by the time I graduate. Mind you, I go to a highly competitive public high school so many people are taking AP classes, but it is very uncommon at my school to take more than 4/5 of them. I know at many other schools kids pile them on but that isn’t quite the case at my school where they seem to discourage students from taking full advantage of all of the AP courses that are offered. I feel like one letter of recommendation from the assemblywoman who I started interning for at the age of 14 would be vital to my application. As soon as I turned of working age in my state, she put me on the pay roll as an employee making me, quite possible, the youngest paid employee of the state at the time. She recognized my work ethic and potential from a very young age and has seen how my skills and talents have developed within the legislative environment. She was also a guidance councilor for years before she was elected so I trust that she will word the recommendation quite articulately and meaningfully. Do you think that an additional letter of recommendation would hinder my chances of acceptance? I do not feel as though my application accurately reflects my ability and strengths without that additional piece of testimony. I think it would really fill in the gaps as to why my academics aren’t quite where they should be. </p>
<p>If you feel that additional rec will add that much more to your application, then go for it. Just don’t go crazy with additional letters. And I would speak to your guidance counselor about what box he will check on your application in regards to course rigor. He will tell you whether he thinks your schedule is most rigorous, less rigorous, etc. Then you can ask him what he would recommend to increase the rigor and improve what box he is going to check. </p>
<p>Does anyone have any ILR specific stats (like a class profile or something of that sort) ? So far I’ve only been able to find general stats for all of Cornell University which throws me off since I don’t think ILR admissions would expect my math and science grades would be as outstanding as those of the students applying to the engineering school. @Ranza123 , I spoke to my guidance counselor about that and she said she would not be able to check off the “most rigorous” box but that she feels my course load fits into the category directly beneath it. She also said that admissions officers don’t put much weight on what guidance counselors write since they can be biased towards students. That being said, even though my school is extremely competitive, many of the top students (including the valedictorians several years in a row) opt to attend the major state school for financial reasons. My counselor does not encourage me to apply ED because she feels like if I don’t get accepted, it will be a waste of an opportunity to get a little boost somewhere else. Only 7 students have been accepted to Cornell in the past 4 years from my school so I know my chances are slim but only one of them applied to ILR and she was accepted. I’m so confused and overwhelmed hahaha. Thank you so much for your help.</p>
<p>I don’t understand what your GC means by a “waste of an opportunity to get a little boost somewhere else.” Is she suggesting you apply ED to another school? That’s just not great advice; if Cornell is your top choice, why would you apply somewhere else ED? I know this whole process is extremely overwhelming, but just take some deep breaths! What else are you confused about?</p>
<p>@Ranza123 Cornell has been my top choice for quite some time especially because of the ILR school in particular. I’m a little worried that I won’t love being in Ithaca, but to me, the education at the Cornell ILR school is definitely worth it. On the other hand, I know it is not very likely that I’ll be admitted. For many reasons (clearly very different ones) Barnard College appeals to me. Since the admissions at Barnard claim to be very holistic, (probably because they have the time to be since they receive less than 6000 applications annually) I feel like I would have a much better chance at being accepted there ED given that the biggest strengths of my application are traditionally considered non-academic and therefore fall under the category of EC which is generally considered after the admissions personal deem an applicant’s test scores and gpa suitable. I know that the essay is important and so is the supplement but unlike Barnard, there are no interviews that factor into admissions. I don’t know what to do and my GC and parents haven’t been of much help.</p>
<p>Ithaca is an absolutely amazing place. I have lived there my entire life and opted to stay here for college, so if you have any questions regarding Ithaca, please don’t hesitate to ask! That being said, Barnard is a wonderful college as well, albeit extremely different (in my opinion) from Cornell. I think you really have to decide which you would rather attend. Visit both. If you prefer one much more than the other, apply ED. If not, you may opt to apply to both RD instead. Make sure that at the end of the day there will be no “what ifs.” If you apply ED to Barnard and get in, will you be wondering “what if I had applied early to Cornell?” </p>
<p>ED is not an an advantage for an unhooked applicant at a college that is a reach for the applicant. The raw admission stats look better, but the highly selective schools are still turning away more student than they accept, and they are going to accept from the top of applicant pool. The colleges are using the ED process to fill particular slots (like recruited athletes) and help meet goals, and they are also very happy to lock in the top performers who are ready to commit to them. </p>
<p>But it would be counter-productive for the elite-admissions schools to lock in an applicant who has middling stats for them – because then the college is committing a spot to a potentially less-qualified applicant when they know that for every open spot they will a huge number of higher qualified applicants applying RD. It’s not as if these colleges ever have problems filling their classes. </p>
<p>Given that you are undecided, you really should apply RD and prioritize focusing on your classwork this fall, given that you have room for improvement with your GPA. Assuming you do well fall semester, your mid-term grades might be the admissions boost you need – especially if there is a pattern of a rising trend overall. </p>
<p>SAT Writing absolutely is considered, and important, not sure why it was said not important above.
Admissions officer specifically commented it was more important than math score.</p>
<p>They also said SAT was a hurdle, you are either considered or not based on SAT/GPA, but once
under consideration people are not ranked (750 vs 700 does not matter much but a 600 would knock you out).
Fit, essays, recommendations matter once you are over the grade hurdle.</p>
<p>And I agree, apply ED where you really want to go. BE HONEST, with yourself and to those to whom you
want to accept you. That said, my son did MUN, had higher SAT and GPA and did not get in ED (deferred to RD).</p>