<p>I am currently a sophomore and plan on applying to Cornell for ECE in two years.</p>
<p>I was a slacker freshman year and managed to get a rather low GPA(3.0) first semester freshman year. I had just moved from another state. I started to take my studies seriously after this and managed to get a 3.8 second semester. I took geometry over the summer and got A's for both semesters and received a 4.0 first semester sophomore year and will get probably a 4.3 for second semester and hopefully continue this for my junior and senior years.</p>
<p>Will Cornell be impressed my growth throughout my high school career or will they look down on me the moment they see the 3.0 from freshman year first semester?</p>
<p>I "was a slacker" freshman and sophomore year and had about a 3.1-3.2 with 2 C's after my sophomore year. Straight A's the next two years, excellent recommendations and I guess a good overall application and here I am in Cornell ECE.</p>
<p>I had a 2.8 or 2.9 my freshman year (yeah), but managed at least a 3.8 in my sophomore, junior, and (first-semester) senior years. </p>
<p>My GPA came to about a 3.4 overall at the time of my application --admittedly low by Cornell standards -- but I scored pretty well on the SAT (720 CR / 640 M / 800 W -- 2130 overall), got a 5 on my one AP test (US Hist), and wrote a killer essay.</p>
<p>I'm a graduating senior. I had a 3.97 GPA, president of student council, on math team, member of many committees such as new teacher hiring committee, in NHS, etc. Volunteer opportunities included heavy work (3+ days a week) at a Therapeutic Riding Center, in addition to work experience at a Veterinary Clinic and Horse Barn. Extensive riding experience as well. In addition, had alumni at Cornell. And great recs, if I do say so myself.... :)
Standardized Test Scores were lower, 1960 SATs (CR 630 / M 700 / W 630), 29 ACTs, 770 on Math II subject</p>
<p>REJECTED. </p>
<p>I thought I was a shoe-in. Similarly, a guy with a 4.2 GPA, 3rd in our class, (I'm about 6th) also got rejected, with similar ecs, on tennis team, etc. The one girl who got accepted had a much lower GPA, less ECs, etc, but is like 1/16 Native American. Just goes to show...</p>
<p>I went from getting one A freshman year (all honors) [but no actual bad grades...just not great] to pretty much pure A+s senior year in mostly APs and the rest honors and got a GT. I am a COMPLETELY different person from Freshman year. If I get below an A I get pretty bummed. So I do think they look at the evolution of a person</p>
<p>I think they look for fit as well as gpa and such. So if you fit the college you do have a chance, esp. if we aren't talking about one of the hardest majors. I also had really good ECs and all the rest of the other parts of the app.</p>
<p>Arch, engineering (high % but GREAT applicant pool), and AEM are notoriously hard to get into. I'm not sure wat specific majors within CALS are on the 'hardest' side. What are you thinking of?</p>
<p>You can get into Cornell with a 640 MATH? I find that hard to believe, unless you're an URM or some other special case...</p>
<p>I can write extremely well. I never pretended to be good at math. Besides, Cornell evaluates applications holistically; they don't just use a formula to determine whether or not an applicant will be accepted. What does my math score matter if I'm not going to major in engineering?</p>