Early to Yale or Cornell? Chances for other top schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi everyone, just wanted to get some advice on which school I should apply early to: Yale or Cornell. I understand Yale is single-choice early action and Cornell is early decision, but I’m just not sure if Yale is too much of a reach to apply early. Also, would I be a competitive applicant for other top schools like Harvard, Columbia, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Berkeley during regular decision?

I’m a rising senior at a very good public high school in upstate NY that’s been ranked very highly nationally. I’m an asian male so that works to my disadvantage…

GPA: 94.5/100(Believe it’s around a 3.9 on a 4.0 UW scale) Unweighted, all honors or APs, top 10% of class
SAT: 1500/1600(Taking that again, hopefully raise it to 1550) 780 Math 720 English
ACT: 33
PSAT: 1490/1520(National Merit Semifinalist hopefully) 750 Math 740 English

APs: World 4
Langauge 4
Bio 4
AB 5
US 5

SAT 2s: World 700
US 740
Bio 760
Math 800

Extracurriculars:
(Research) Summer Intern at NIH this summer: Created poster from independent research and presented at annual NIH summer poster day, almost finished paper and hopefully can get that published somewhere. Plan to apply to Intel/Regeneron STS, Siemens, but please assume I don’t win any of these. Also was a summer Intern at Children’s National Hospital 10th grade summer: Part of team to cure hyperammonemia

(Violin)Principal 2nd violinist of Empire State Youth Orchestra for 3 years, part of orchestra for 5 years. Also won school concerto competition, concertmaster of school orch for 2 years, and member of NYS All-State orchestra for 2 years.

(Journalism)Editor in Chief of school newspaper, News editor last year. Contributing editor at Slant News website(now defunct), and in aggregate my articles there had more than 10K views and 5K shares on fb, twitter, etc.

(Debate) Cofounded debate club at my school 2 years ago and have been president each year since. Qualified for state tournament, did well at tournaments like Harvard, Lexington. Will host and be tournament director of our school’s first debate tournament ever.

(Volunteer) Assistant coach of middle school Mathcounts team for 4 years, led team to state round twice. Volunteer at local science museum for 2 years. Peer tutor in school library and member of National Honor Society.

(Volleyball) Cocaptain this year on Varsity. JV in 9th and 10th grade and Varsity in 11th and 12th grade. A DIII school expressed interest in me.

(Recycling) Copresident of Recycling club this year, my 2nd year in the club.

Recommendations:
APUSH teacher: 9.5/10
AP Bio teacher: 8.5/10 (Cornell alumni)
My Principal Investigator at the NIH: 10/10(He is also a Cornell alumni, so that will help for Cornell I assume)

Essay:
Common App will be how I have always wanted to make a difference in the world and how my research this summer has allowed me to do so.

Major: I’m split on a biology/premed path and a journalism-related major. More likely I’ll major in bio.

Please let me know if you guys need any additional info. Thanks in advance!

2

You’re a competitive applicant for all schools. Deciding between Yale and Cornell for SCEA/ED will ultimately come down to you. What do you want in a school? Size? Location/ life outside of school? Yale and Cornell are very different in these aspects.

Truthfully, you will have a much better chance of getting into Cornell ED than Yale SCEA. However, I honestly don’t see why wou wouldn’t be able to get into Cornell RD (4 of my cousins got in with lower stats). Either way, it’s up to you to decide. Good luck!

3

Your GPA and SAT are fine – you’re a competitive applicant stats-wise.

ED chances at Cornell in general are higher than SCEA chances are at Yale. That said, if Yale is your clear #1, SCEA probably gives you your best chance of getting into Yale.

The rest of the schools you listed are also going to be reaches, except maybe Berkeley OOS – that might be a low reach or very high match.

I suggest developing a list of match-range schools that you like and can afford. Also be sure to apply to at least one safety.

4

@ap012199 Thank you for your input and good wishes. Personally, I would want to go to Yale over Cornell; I’m just a little nervous Yale will be too much of a reach.

@prezbucky Thanks for the advice. I’ve always been told my GPA and SATs are the biggest weak parts of my applications :expressionless: The schools I listed were all my “reach” schools, I have target schools in mind like BC, NYU, Northeastern, and safeties in Stony Brook and SUNY Buffalo.

5

Think about if you applied ED to Cornell and got in. Would you spend the next 4 years wondering “what if” you had applied to Yale? If you aren’t fully committed to attending Cornell, I don’t think you should apply ED.

6

Which school at Cornell do you plan to apply to? You can be a be a biology major in CALS or CAS. There are also bio-related majors in CHE. This is very important. You need to research the various colleges/schools at Cornell and understand what the curriculum is for each one. For example, a bio major in CAS has different distribution requirements than a bio major in CALS.

Also, I am assuming you know that neither Yale nor Cornell has a journalism major. However, both have excellent daily student-run newspapers, The Cornell Daily Sun and Yale Daily News. If you are interested in journalism, you have to get involved in the student newspaper.

My hunch is that you’d be more competitive for Cornell, especially if you apply to CALS, which is one of the NYS-supported colleges. Being from upstate NY is an advantage.

One more thing: Your essay topic, meh. Unless you execute it in a very original way.

7

A 3.9 GPA is right on target for Ivies. A 1500 SAT is close to average, even at HYP.

8

@sophie9999 Thanks for your advice. Yeah, I’m concerned about that and I don’t want to have regrets about this process. I also don’t want to take that big of a risk and not even get into Cornell regular in case I don’t into Yale either. I guess it’s just whether I should take the “risk” of applying to Yale early or going to safer route of Cornell Ed.

@brantly Thanks for the input. I was thinking Human Ecology or CALS if I were to go into bio. Also, I knew neither school had a journalism major, so for Cornell I was thinking of majoring in something like International Relations or Creative Writing in Arts and Sciences. Haven’t thought about it that in depth yet, but probably should :slight_smile: I agree I’d be more competitive for Cornell but I must say Yale is my #1 choice. I guess a good question to ask is if I’m competition in the regular decision cycle for Cornell or not. As for my essay… I’ll try to make it creative. But I really want to write about my research because it’s the part of my application that stands out the most.

9

Give this some thought. Ideally, the essay is where the committee gets to know the parts of you that are not elsewhere in the application. They already know about your research. Also, your recommenders can highlight your research.

As for ED, you really have to know which of the Cornell schools you’d be applying to before making your final decision about Cornell vs. Yale. In any case, you said Yale is your first choice. Your stats/profile are in the range, so you should apply to the place that is really your first choice. Besides, being from upstate NY, I am assuming that your HS is not an over-represented HS at Yale.

10

One of my friends was accepted into Cornell and another was accepted into Yale.
The one who went to Cornell regretted it because she wasn’t fully committed but applied ED anyways, and although it’s easier to get in, she wishes she hadn’t.
The one who was accepted into Yale absolutely loves it, because it’s in a more urban place than Cornell for sure, and she loves the atmosphere so much more!
But of course, it’s up to you.