<p>Hey everyone! I'm wondering what you think my chances are at Cornell CAS RD. I'm not a stellar applicant, so I'm worried my really low subject test scores will keep me out even if I did have a shot. What do you think? </p>
<p>ACT: 32
AP Scores: Eng-5, US History-5 Bio-4
Subject Tests: :( Lit-660 US History-670</p>
<p>Rank: 6/215
Grades: 3.83/4 UW</p>
<p>9
Honors English 9 A
Honors History 10 A+
Honors Geometry A-
Honors Physics 1 A+
Honors Biology A
PhysEd (req.) A+
Computer Science (req.) A
French 1 A-</p>
<p>10
Honors English 10 A<br>
Honors History 10 A+
Honors Algebra 2 B+
Honors Chemistry A
Art (req.) A
French 2 A+
French 3 A</p>
<p>11
AP English Lit A
AP Biology B+
AP History A-
Honors Pre-Calc B+
French 4 B+
Creative Writing A+
Art 2 A</p>
<p>12
AP Calculus A-
AP Psychology A+
AP Macroeconomics A+
AP U.S. Government A+
Honors Physics 2 A-
AP English Lang next semester
Art 3 next semester</p>
<p>Extra Curricular Activities:
These are strong, but not outstanding. I’ve held several leadership positions, and shown commitment/passion to a few areas in particular. I’m a member of NHS like most applicants… I’m very involved in community service (I’ll probably graduate with 300-400 hours of documented service). I’ve held a steady job (15hrs/week school, 40 hrs/week summer) all throughout high school. I play sports—captain of my team… etc. etc. </p>
<p>In short, I doubt my ECs won’t get me in, but they shouldn’t keep me out. </p>
<p>Essays/Recs:
I think I will have one really, really great rec, one “good” rec, and I think my counselor rec will be pretty strong. I worked hard on my essays and expect them to have a positive influence on my apps (I’ve gotten good feedback), but ya never know! =)</p>
<p>I don’t need anyone to go into detail… even just a simple “you don’t have a chance” or “you could give it a shot” would be enough. I just want to gauge how detrimental low subject test scores are.</p>
<p>I’m signed up to retake subject tests in December… but I haven’t been studying much. Do you think it’s worth actually taking the tests? How much would pulling my scores up to 700+ish each help my application? I think I can get a 30-50 point increase in each subject… is this a significant difference?</p>
<p>I mean getting a 720+ on each of the subject tests might make the admissions officers more confident in their decision, but it’s not a huge burden, and if you get rejected, is not going to be the reason you get rejected.</p>
<p>Really? That’s so weird. I’ve been told my my guidance counselor and others that they matter a lot because they are totally objective. You might get an A+ in a course, but if you don’t do well on the subject test it shows your course was just easy. </p>
<p>It’s good to hear these nice answers… but I’ve always been told otherwise… and why would Cornell require subject tests if they didn’t really matter?</p>
<p>With test scores, higher is always better. And for Ivies, 700+ is better than <700, particularly for CAS – yes, they DO matter, moreso for CAS & Eng bcos the contract colleges are more about fit (and less about test scores). But your AP scores will bail out your Subject Test scores. You lost the legacy bonus by not going ED.</p>
<p>Thanks… that more along the lines of what I’ve heard. Have I really lost the legacy “bonus” totally? I’ve heard the major boost comes with ED, but I’ve heard they still consider legacy status to an extent RD. No?</p>
<p>You might consider retaking the tests, though. I got a 660 in Literature on my first try too because I didn’t answer about…12 of the questions; I retook it and raised it to a 730. So if time was your problem, you could take practice tests with time constraints (this is what I did) and you’d probably be able to raise your score. If the actual content was the problem, again, taking practice tests would be very helpful.</p>
<p>I personally think that with subject tests, since you actually get to choose which tests you want to take (and hence, they’ll probably be your best subjects), it kind of looks bad if your subject tests are low. But I may be biased because my subject tests were better than my reasoning one.</p>
<p>Thanks… I don’t think you are being biased, that’s actually exactly along the lines of what I was thinking. It’s kind of my own fault that I didn’t do better. I took both a while ago and still wasn’t thinking hard enough about college. I literally didn’t study for either test AT ALL (but I took US History so that should have prepared me… and I hadn’t taken a poetry/lit course). It’s my own fault that I did badly. I’m going to try to really push myself to prepare in the next few weeks though so that I can hopefully up those subject test scores.</p>
<p>I think the reason I was so nonchalant about the whole thing was because Cornell is my only school where I HAVE to send in subject tests (because I opted for the ACT)… so I think I was kind of like whatever, I’ll take these tests, but it doesn’t matter how I do, you know? And know I’m wishing I just put the effort in earlier like a normal person so I wouldn’t be finding myself in such a crunch.</p>
<p>How do you think it would look to have a 740ish and a 670… obviously it would be better than a 660 and a 670, but would it be too low? I’m trying to decide if I should take two tests tomorrow or not. I only feel confident going into one test… but I might have a slight shot of raising the other score… Do you think it’s worth it?</p>