<p>Yeah I'm aware that my GPA is terrible especially for freaking AEM which is apparently the hardest program to get into Cornell. Do I stand any chance at all? I feel kind of embarrassed even thinking of applying to Cornell with my GPA >_> but whatever my parents are willing to pay </p>
<p>Asian male (fml)
East Coast
Income bracket: 250k+
School: Very competitive, grade deflation, sends at least at least a dozen kids to Ivies every year (Cornell once accepted 8 people in a grade)
Rank: School doesn't report
GPA: 3.33 UW
3.8 W
Upward trend
SAT: 1540/2290
SAT II: 800 MATH II 800 CHEM
AP: 5s on chem, bio, calc ab, music theory, english lang&comp
Senior sched: AP Econ, AP stat, AP calc bc, AP english lit, rest are electives
Course rigor: Most rigorous
ECs:
-Piano 9 years: Played in Carnegie Hall and other well-known halls multiple times, played frequently for local senior centers, did a bunch of recitals per year, tutored some local kids, got some awards (dunno how prestigious)
-Violin 7 years: School orchestra since 4th grade, played in outside ensemble which performed several times a year since 8th grade, also tutored local kids
-Academic league co-captain
-Breakdance: Leader of school's "crew," performed for several school events, performed several times out of school
-Event organizer for local Chinese community
-100 volunteer hours in Chinese school (teacher's assistant)
-50 volunteer hours in environmental center
-Internship in Credit Suisse hedge fund
-NSLC business and entrepreneurship
-Internship in Rutgers University 2 summers
Essays: All of my teachers said they were amazing (one of them's an English professor in a top Ivy). My essays should be the strongest part of my app</p>
<p>Commonapp: Creative piece about breakdancing. Should be my best essay
EC short answer: Talks about my internship in Credit Suisse
Why AEM: Overall pretty creative and shows why I want to learn business and why Cornell in particular</p>
<p>So... yeah. Am I pretty much screwed because of my GPA?</p>
<p>The rest of your application looks good for Cornell, but yeah, your GPA is REALLY low.</p>
<p>What happened with your GPA??? Your SAT is as great as it gets for Cornell, you have 5’s on arguably the toughest AP exams and taking a total of 9… it doesn’t seem right. What’s your rank decile though? Your school should have that at least.</p>
<p>Everything else looks great though… Carnegie hall, EC’s, great essays, I think you still have a pretty good shot?</p>
<p>How strong of an upward trend? How will your grades look for midterm reports? Seems like you’d have a decent chance if you’re pulling A’s now and it mostly early high school pulling your GPA down. . . Good Luck!!</p>
<p>No excuses here, I was just a lazy ass for most of HS. I started trying midway through last year, but that wasn’t enough. My GPA junior year was about 0.6 points higher than my GPA sophomore year with a huge increase in course rigor. It wasn’t as high as I wanted it to be, but I guess it’s a pretty good improvement. I should be able to get all As 1st semester senior year. Hopefully this’ll be able to show that I can handle the workload. But I’m worried that won’t be enough, given the massive amounts of applicants with perfect GPAs. </p>
<p>And I asked my GC for my rank, but he said that he’s not allowed to disclose that information. My school doesn’t report rank because of the crazy competition and unfair weighting of classes. Honors and AP classes are weighted the same, with AP classes being significantly harder than honors classes. As a result, some kids who take only honors classes have uber high GPAs. IDK why my school still uses such a stupid policy =/</p>
<p>It’s hard to give you chances. Your AP scores I think may set you apart. AP scores in my opinion, are one of the most underrated parts of an application, and from the data, are fairly highly correlated with college performance. If people from your school with similar course rigor/GPA have made it in before, your chances are higher. Otherwise, very low chances. If your school really does send so many people to top schools each year, then Cornell will be familiar with what your grades really mean and while you may not know your class rank, admissions probably will have a pretty good idea. Then again, if as you say, your transcript reveals you were lazy for a lot of high school, Cornell will see that and not be impressed. There are plenty of applicants who scored almost as well on tests, yet also worked hard.</p>