Hey guys, I’m a current junior at an extremely competitive high school in the northeast. I am interested in the policy making major in the school of human ecology at Cornell. I wanted to see if you guys had any comments on my chances of getting in being that human ecology is slightly easier to get into than Arts & Sciences.
-I got a 32 on my ACT
-Last year, my GPA was 3.714 (rather low, I know, but I showed a huge transition the next year)
-This year, my GPA is a 4.2- I am taking AP gov, AP US, AP Spanish, and next year will take AP Psych, AP Macro, AP Language and Composition, and AP European History.
-I will most likely graduate in top 20% of class
-I am on the debate team, the model congress and UN teams, and do community service in town.
-If I expressly demonstrate that I am interested in the school of Human Ec. for the policy major and show I have done much with politics throughout my high school career, do you think I have a chance? I know it is definitely a reach and I would obviously apply ED, but let me know what you think…Thanks!
I got accepted into Cornell this year via Regular Decision, so I can compare my scores with yours if you like.
GPA: W 4.10/4.00 UW 3.95/4.00
SAT I: R 720 M 800 W 740 (it doesn’t seem as if you’ve taken the SAT but you should look into it)
SAT II (aka Subject Tests): Math Lvl 2 800 U.S. Hist. 800 Chem. 780 World Hist. 770 (Subject Tests are required)
My school does not rank.
My senior year course load is similar to yours, also with four AP’s: Phyics 1, Physics C Mech., French, Calc BC
But overall, your extracurriculars are much more impressive than mine, as well as your Junior year.
Some advice about Cornell: location matters and your Cornell-specific essay matters. I am from a nearby suburban school with a large amount of students accepted to Cornell in the past. I applied to the School of Arts and Sciences as an undecided, focusing my essay on my interests in linguistics and computer science. I also mentioned some research projects currently at Cornell that I would like to take part in. These things worked in my favor.
I live in Central New York within an hour from Cornell’s campus. You also are in the northeast, but you’ll need to be more specific than that for anyone to gauge a location-based advantage.
I would personally recommend the College of Arts and Sciences as it is the easiest to get into and contains courses in a variety of social sciences. Unless you love biology as well, the College of Human Ecology would rigidly lock you into a single major should you get accepted (admissions might not like this). For your sake, I would apply to the College of Arts and Sciences first and state an interest in the government, sociology or history majors there. IF you get accepted, you can tell the University at a later date that you wish to pursue a policy major and switch into the College of Human Ecology.
However, this is just my own advice and you should decide for yourself after consulting those close to you or any Cornell alumni in your area.
