Final ED Chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>Application will be submitted in the next few days, so nothing is going to change.</p>

<p>I've already submitted my SAT scores (stupidly) to Cornell, so don't suggest just sending ACT please.</p>

<p>Going for the class of 2012...</p>

<p>White male, North Carolina, competitive public school
Need-Based Financial Aid: Yes
Income: ~$28-32K</p>

<p>Projected Major: Economics and History minor (College of Arts and Sciences)
Unweighted GPA: 3.9048
Weighted GPA: 4.7619
Rank: 23/316</p>

<p>ACT Composite: 31 (one sitting)
SAT1: 640M/650CR/730W
SATII: 760MathII, 750US</p>

<p>AP Scores: US History 5, English: Language 5</p>

<p>Senior Courseload: AP Calculus BC, AP Government and Politics, AP German, AP Economics, AP Physics C, Honors English IV</p>

<p>Extra Curricular Activities:
Junior Civitan Service Club - 20 service hours/semester
National Honors Society
Social Studies Quiz Bowl
Teen Democrats
Participant in Invisible Children United program with a sister school in Uganda
Chess Club President
German Club
North Carolina Governor's School 2007 - Natural Science</p>

<p>Work Experience:
Grocery Store Cashier/Bagger (10, 11, 12) - 18 hrs/week
eBay Store Owner (11, 12) - 3 hrs/week
Self-Employed Computer Repair/Tech (11, 12) - 2 hrs/week
Trading Card Tournament Organizer and Judge (9, 10, 11) - 6 hrs/week
Trade Stocks Independently thru Ameritrade (12) - 2 hrs/week</p>

<p>Awards:
2006-2007 Physics Student of the Year
Governor's School Nominee
"Straight A" Banquet Attendee
Distinguished for Level 4 (highest possible) on NC Writing Test</p>

<p>Perks:
Ukrainian-born (US Citizen)
Trilingual - Russian, Ukrainian, English
First Generation in US
Single-parent home</p>

<p>Other:
Recommendations written by teacher who nominated me as his Student of the Year and my AP US teacher - both should be phenomenal
GC is a friend of the family (+++?)
Essays tie well into my intended major and my unique background</p>

<p>Do your worst! :D</p>

2

<p>EC's should help but scores and grades low unless English is your second language. Wish you the best but I would emotionally prepare for a deferral.</p>

3

<p>
[quote]
EC's should help but scores and grades low unless English is your second language. Wish you the best but I would emotionally prepare for a deferral.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I thought it was obvious enough that English was my second, actually third, language. I don't see how my grades are low; I have a 3.90 unweighted GPA; last time I checked, that was good.</p>

4

<p>You look to me like an average applicant to Cornell, so your chances of ED admission are about 1109/2848. If deferred, you get a second chance of admission with the RD pool.</p>

<h1>Number of early decision applications received: 2,848</h1>

<h1>Number admitted under early decision plan: 1,109</h1>

5

<p>Yes, you do seem like the average Cornell applicant,and you have a okay chance, but you're SAT's will hurt you quite a bit. Your extracurriculars are probably average as well. The fact you ran your own business is pretty special and unique.</p>

6

<p>Alright then. You guys all seem to think that SAT scores are the end all be all of the application. If so, why is it that 46% of 2011'ers scores between 600 and 699 on the Verbal section and 31% scored between 600-699 on the Math section? That seems like a pretty large percentage of the population, wouldn't you say? Sure, my scores aren't fantastic, but I have a 760 in Math2 and a 35 on ACT Math to help balance out that 640.</p>

<p>So will they really "hurt me quite a bit"?</p>

7

<p>Bear in mind that a lot of applicants who get into Ivies with lower scores are "hooked": athletes, legacies, URMs, and celebrities.</p>

8

<p>So, the common white man who can't afford to drop $3000 on private SAT tutoring should basically just give up? Maybe moving to this country was a mistake after all.</p>

9

<p>I wouldn't be so defensive and the racial tint to your statement is objectionable. Lots of people, black, Hispanic and white, cannot afford prep classes and get in. If you are admitted to Cornell or any other Ivy, you'll likely receive a free education based on your stated family income. Your grades are "low" in the sense that your class rank is relatively low for an ED applicant. Being first generation here will help you and I wish you the best either ED or RD, but simply pointed out ED may not work out as you hope. You stated "do your worst" and then get your back up...I'd be careful of that attitude, in general.</p>

10

<p>"Maybe moving to this country was a mistake after all."</p>

<p>then go get an education somewhere else! we have thousands of other qualified students to take your place!</p>

11

<p>Rank is well within the top 10%; only 83% of 2011'ers were in the top tenth.</p>

12

<p>I'm pretty sure that it's closer to 90% average. Each individual school is different. For example, CALS is ~75% (Probably the lowest) while Engineering is ~94% (One of the highest and most competitive). </p>

<p>All things considered, I believe you have a decent shot. My situation is sort of the opposite. I have a 35 ACT (About a 2340 SAT based on various conversion charts) but my ECs blow beyond imagination. Feel free to comment on my thread. It's somewhere in the Cornell section of this forum...</p>

13

<p>It's not very easy to get a high GPA at my school - it's in Newsweek's top 200 and all the competitive students dual-enroll at a separate AP school, making it VERY difficult to make an A. Just throwing that out there.</p>

14

<p>first of all Yngwie you can't really go by the fact that "Oh, my sats are in the range so i stand a chance of admission" the range of CR at cornell is like 620-730 which means in order to be towards the top of that bracket you'd probably need a 690+ anything lower i'd be a little less optimistic with because you do NEED to take into consideration that they take a certain amount of kids from NY who may have lower scores and also take hooked, URM, athletes who COULD POSSIBLY bring it down too....and as for math its 660-760 which means you'd need like a 720 to be towards the top of that range..and you can't really go by the fact that a 35 on math of act weighs it out because they look at composite scores mostly especially for the ACT since they dont' superscore
with that said, IMO (which you can ignore) your ECs are unspectacular but still respectable
your sats fall in the ranges of the cornell sats but are at the point where you could gain false optimism because of the certain cirumstances noted above</p>

<p>and don't let anyone tell you your grades aren't up to par with cornell becuase they CLEARLY are and your gpa is great. a 3.9 is definitely up to cornell's status..i'd say anything over 3.8 is</p>

<p>your act won't make or break you, it will kinda just be there further solidfying your "qualifiedness" </p>

<p>your sats could potentially hurt you to the point of rejection but luckily especially to cornell they can be made up for by other strong things like ecs or essay...unfortunately i do not think your ECs can make up for your sats in this case but if you write great essays they could do the job</p>

<p>as of now, IMO i think you stand a chance of admission but just as much as the next guy and significantly less if you do not write great essays</p>