<p>I'm a rising senior who is interested in ILR, and I'm wondering if my stats are competitive enough for RD, or if it would need the boost from ED to improve my chances.
-Here are my stats, and thanks in advance to anyone who reads this:
GPA-94-95 SAT I: CR/M/W: 710/770/800 (will take ACT in September)
SATII: mathII/bio/us: 760/730/730 (retaking math ii, doing lit in october)
PSAT-229
APS: Lang(5), Bio(5), US(5), Euro (5), Macro/Microeconomics (4s)
EC's
-DECA-Regional President, National Finalist, 3x State winner
-Tennis-Varsity Captain, 4 yrs. singles player
-Model UN-Chair/Officer, Outstanding Delegate Award
-Mock Trial-Captain
-Alto Sax (Jazz/Wind Ensemble) 6 yrs, Sitar (Indian instrument) 6 yrs</p>
<p>Volunteering/Interning
-150+hrs. volunteering on Youth Court, Camp Counselor, Tutoring
-Interned at family law office last year
-Currently interning at NY Senator Chuck Schumer's office!</p>
<p>Extra Notes-I'm a NY Resident, and I'm Indian</p>
<p>I guess what I'm asking, is if my stats are competitive enough for ILR regular decision applicant pool?</p>
<p>You stats are competitive. You’re the normal BWRS (Bright, well-rounded student). This means for any ivy league/top 15 school you’ll be hit or miss (it’s a dice roll). It will come down to your recommendation letters and your personal statement/essays as to whether or not you get into most of the places you apply to. As always, ED will help your chances, but that goes for anyone at any school. Playing the sitar is rather unique and I would try and send in an audio sample of that if you can.</p>
<p>meestasi, that’s funny I was actually thinking of sending in an audio sample. Do you know how exactly I would do that? I don’t want to send it in as arts supplement, because I’m not looking at majoring in music or anything…would I just send it straight to the admissions office?</p>
<p>I would contact the admissions office about it. I remember there being a supplemental form for some colleges that you could use to attach audio samples (this was 5 years ago). I’m not sure how things have changed recently.</p>
<p>ok one last thing…do you think getting a 35-36 on ACT, and getting a couple 800s on SAT IIs would help my chances significantly…or will it just boil down to my recs/essays?</p>
<p>There’s no guarantee you’re going to do as well as you say/hope on standardized tests. There are variables for each test that you can’t account for, so I wouldn’t suggest doing it. Of course, I’m not a great authority on this, but I think that focusing on writing a great personal statement and having your teachers write excellent letters of recommendations will help you a lot more. Your stats show that you’re a highly intelligent individual who can most likely handle the intellectual rigor at Cornell. Also, adcoms know that doing well on a test is just that, doing well on a test. It doesn’t test innate ability or intelligence. Any trained monkey can score highly on the SATs with enough practice, otherwise there wouldn’t be classes like Kaplan and Princeton Review to TEACH you how to take a test. </p>
<p>You need to show that you’re an upstanding citizen who can contribute to society in meaningful ways in the future and that a Cornell education, or any other ivy league education can help you achieve whatever life goals you have. This means explaining how the education through ILR can help you become a lawyer (just an example) or financial analyst or whatever and how your previous experiences in life have helped you become the person you are today.</p>