<p>I've heard from a few people that Cornell basically only accepts valedictorians/salutatorians (for CAS, I think). The only person I've ever known to get accepted was our valedictorian last year, so this kind of supports what I've been hearing! </p>
<p>Anyway, I know that Cornell obviously must accept people outside the top 2 or 3 in their class, but is it true that a large majority of acceptees are at the tip-top?</p>
<p>I'm 9/~430 in my class, which is just about the top 2%. Will this hurt me in any way?</p>
<p>You’re fine. 1 kid from our school got accepted ED and he was 290ish/538 and had 1800 SATs (White, male). He had legacy there but it just goes to show you that class rank is not that important. Just do well in your classes and be top 4-5% in your class, and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Even without a legacy or athlete hook, it’s possible to get in without being #1 or 2 (though of course you still have to get good grades). My brother got a few B’s in high school but he was accepted to Cornell, and though I don’t know his rank, it wasn’t that high since that year the highest GPA was >4.8.</p>
<p>I was ranked in the top 5 of my year in high school (not 1-3) and still got into Cornell. Top rank does not mean much, and additionally, a person with high rank could be taking easier classes and avoiding harder classes (AP’s and such).</p>
<p>There are 4 large public high schools in my city. My high school really pushes the AP classes and has twice the participation rate as the other schools. Since rank is by weighted GPA, I’m only top 11% at my school but would easily be top 10% at one of the others. Should I ask my counselor to attach a note to the Mid-year report she’s going to send this week?</p>
<p>^@ Leftwing, if you took a solid 7 to 8 APs throughout high school with 1 or 2 Bs you should be complaining because you must have a lot of No-lifes taking like 12+ which is completely unnecessary… Otherwise, u should PROBABLY just let it go.</p>
<p>Of course. I was 40/420 with only 1930 SAT. I know this has been said a thousand times, but I think it’s really important to stress: FIT is the most important factor. I know dozens of kids who applied with nearly perfect (if not perfect) SATs and stellar ECs who didn’t get in.</p>
<p>Edited to add… our valedictorian was rejected, and had far better SATs than I did</p>
<p>My friend got in ED to Cornell Engineering this year and he was ~13/600. He is white male, no legacy, and he participated in tennis but was not recruited or anything. His SAT for CR and Math was good (~1440), but the combined 3 was less than 2000 (I think he is extremely lucky that Cornell has yet to begin looking at SAT writing).</p>
<p>I myself feel I have strong chances at Cornell (I’d say mid-reach). I am 9th right now (soon to go up because some people are dropping in rank due to senioritis) and am Hispanic (yay!) and have 1470/2200 and 4.0 GPA. Plus, my school is weird about class rank because not only do we have a ton of grade inflation but people take so many classes on Florida Virtual School or Dual Enrollment at the community college that I am currently beat by people who don’t have 4.0s. I’m sure mine is not the only one like this, so class rank will not be the be-all factor in admissions.</p>
<p>hahaI just had another peer tell me the other day that Cornell’s risky because of my rank. i was kind of miffed, so I told him my SAT scores and he backed off. :)</p>
<p>So I guess people at my school are just misinformed!</p>
<p>Yeah, and once again rank is a weird thing. Like my school is ridiculously grade inflated, so there are like 11 people with 4.0s. But, of those maybe only half are actually in the top 10 of the class rank. People who have gotten B’s took so many extra classes (and btw, they take extra classes like College Algerba and other usless/easy stuff, especially if they had taken Algebra 2 or Pre-Calc beforehand) that they beat many of us who simply refuse to play the number game (my priority is to take classes I like and/or need. I refuse to take fluff just to raise GPA)</p>