Yeah I told my counselor I wasn’t expecting anything whatsoever and she kept dragging it SO MUCH. She left me crying after that meeting
Speaking for our own experiences with “the process” …
The lesson we learn / share is to advocate for ourselves !
I’m sorry this happened to you. Maybe you should write a letter to the head of school and explain what happened so she can’t hurt others in the same way. She sounds like she needs a different job.
has any international student received a likely letter??
I’m curious to know if all Ivy colleges & top universities only accept stellar students, with perfect, GPA, perfect scores, & out of the world extra curricular activities or an almost Olympic level athlete. In the previous years have colleges picked more regular students, else I guess all the colleges have only super kids. I have nothing against the super achievers, but just curious.
No, when the avg GPA is 3.9, there are students with 3.4, 3.6 on the other side of 4.0
1000s of 4.0 can afford 10s or even 100s of 3.7 to get an avg 3.9 class.
I have a 3.3 GPA (with great everything else) and I got a likely.
The top 20 schools in the country have space for roughly 35,000 incoming students . . . that is somewhere close to 1.5% of incoming freshmen. The top 60 schools can accommodate about 5.5%. Certainly some of those spots will go to (very) well qualified international students, some will go to athletes and legacies . . . but there are a lot of spots to be had for serious students who don’t also happen to have a fencing coach and an essay writing coach.
Still, it would be nice if there was a more efficient way to match students and colleges.
Congratulations by the way. You must have made a million-dollar company, become an Olympic athlete, or did something awesome/extraordinary?
Congrats and best wishes, would you mind sharing yours stats. Thanks!
No, it doesn’t mean you’re done for. The bulk of acceptances will be in April.
No, they don’t always accept stellar students. My daughter knows plenty who got into Cornell and didn’t get in with top grades. She also knows plenty there that don’t have fantastic grades once in. But ultimately they’re looking for students they believe can be successful and fit in there. Sometimes someone that looks great on paper with a 4.0 or whatever, is still not going to be a good fit at a particular school whether it be an Ivy, Stanford, MIT, etc.
Demographics
- Gender: Female
- Race/Ethnicity: Hispanic
- Residence: US
- Income Bracket: Upper Middle Class (live comfortably but still really need financial aid)
- Type of School: Private (on almost full scholarship)
- Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): URM
Intended Major(s): Neuroscience / Biology
Academics
- GPA (UW/W): 3.3 UW
- Rank (or percentile): None
- # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 2 AP’s
- Senior Year Course Load:
- AP Biology
- AP Psychology
- Genetics
- English Elective
- Calculus
Standardized Testing
List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.
- ACT: 31 (33E, 29M, 33R, 29S) (CALS didn’t look this year)
- AP/IB: Haven’t taken yet
Extracurriculars/Activities
EC:
- 4 Years Varsity Track Outdoor - Captain 2021
- 3 Years Varsity Track Indoor - Captain 2021
- 2 Years Varsity XC
- 3 Years ukulele club; President 2021
- 2 years guitar club
- 3 years chorus club
- 2 years girls choir
- 1 year community service teaching ukulele to kids during COVID on zoom
- 1 year Independent study on neuropsychiatric condition
Work Experience:
- 6 years Secretary at Law office doing administrative work on files
- 3 years at Cashier at grocery store
- 1 year of tutoring children in music 3x/ week
Awards/Honors
- None lol
Letters of Recommendation
- All of my recommenders had great things to say about me.
- One was my independent study teacher who wrote about my persistence and drive and curiosity.
- Another was my AP Biology/Genetics teacher who taught me Biology in 9th and talked about my growth as a student
- Third was english teacher who absolutely adores me and wrote in general great things
Interviews
Cornell: Not that great, girl didn’t answer any questions and talked about herself a lot
Essays
I spent a LOT of time writing essays; wrote about suturing and it was really unique. Made each “why us” essay super personal. Probably the best part of my application.
Other:
I updated Cornell two times with an extra letter expressing my interest, and other updates, in addition to my application.
A lot of people were rude to me on reddit about this, mostly related to me being an URM. I acknowledge my privilege of being a private school student and being in the middle class, so please don’t be rude
Congrats! Thanks a lot for sharing your stats. I am sure you put your best foot forward & this is your reward. Best wishes & hope you do well!
I don’t see privilege, I see hard work and dedication !!! Best wishes !!!
yea! I got one yesterday
For the update you provided did you send an email to admissions?
did anyone else send supplemental essays? I had no idea we can do that
wait what how do we do that?
U mean the mandatory 650 word supplemental essays we had to submit?