How do I get accepted into Cornell?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>Cornell is my dream school and I would love to attend either CAS or CALS for a bio major (pre-med track). I am a NYS resident, so I am leaning more towards CALS.
Even though I am a rising junior, I would like to improve my app and extracurriculars so that I can become a competitive applicant for Cornell.</p>

<p>My unweighted GPA is a 3.88.
My school did not offer AP's in freshman year, so this was my course load starting with soph year:</p>

<p>AP Physics B
AP World
Honors Trig
Research Honors Chem
Junior Year Spanish
European Literature</p>

<p>Junior Year:
AP Chem
AP Spanish Language
AP US History
AP English Language
Molecular Bio (Honors)
Precalc</p>

<ul>
<li>I am taking the maximum number of AP's my school allows in junior year.</li>
</ul>

<p>Senior Year (Tentative):
AP Calc BC
AP Bio
AP English Literature
AP Spanish Literature
AP Gov</p>

<p>Scores on AP's, so far:
World: 5
Physics: 4 ( I was really sick that day :/ )</p>

<p>My projected SAT is 2200-2400.</p>

<p>My extracurriculars :
National Honor Society (the NHS at my school is very difficult to get into and only accepts upperclassmen)
Treasurer of a club from freshman year
Vice president of medical ethics club (started sophomore year)
Black belt in Tae Kwon Do
Member of Policy Debate Team</p>

<p>During my junior year, I hope to write for the student newspaper.
I am also aiming for the AP National Scholar award because I don't have any awards to boast of.</p>

<p>I also did two internships (one for a nonprofit) and I have roughly 50 hours with NHS.
I hope to volunteer at a hospital next summer to do maybe 150 community service hours.</p>

<p>I attend a very competitive high school in NYC, so my extracurriculars aren't very strong.</p>

2

<p>C’mon, please help me out…</p>

3

<p>Apply ED to CALS and you will almost certainly be admitted.</p>

4

<p>You are doing everything right so far.</p>

<p>Personally, I don’t think that someone who has a Black Belt in Tae Kwan Do has weak ECs. This takes a lot of time over many years.</p>

5

<p>If you get a ~1500 SAT and write some killer essays, you have a very strong chance for CAS. For CALS, as a NYS resident, you have a very high chance even with a ~1350 SAT.</p>

6

<p>Any EC’s you add from this point forward will likely be meaningless, unless you go and win some national academic competition or something like that. I think the Tae Kwon Do is impressive and when I applied to Cornell, I certainly highlighted my karate experience not only on the application, but also in the essay. Dedicated passions >>long lists. From this point forward, focus on keeping your academics strong. Since you are a black belt, see if there are opportunities for you to teach/assist classes because that can definitely be a good boost.</p>

7

<p>Thanks, everyone!
And yes, I love the TKD…it required lots of dedication and sacrifices on my part but it is worth it in the end.
Also, are community service hours/research/internships important for Cornell?</p>