<p>Hello everyone, below is a list of my h.s. classes and grades. Could you please give me opinions/feedback on my course rigor and determine my unweighted GPA or however Cornell calculates it for admission. Thank you!</p>
<p>Freshman Year: [My high schools W GPA = 3.92]
Algebra 1 (I know, Im a year behind in math!): A-
Biology (honors was offered): A-
Spanish 2 (honors was offered): A
World History: A
English 1 Honors: A-</p>
<p>Sophomore Year: [My high schools W GPA = 4.12]
Geometry: A-
Chemistry: (honors was offered): A
Spanish 3 Honors: A-
AP US 1: B+
English 2: Honors A-
Creative Writing: A</p>
<p>Junior Year: [My high schools W GPA = 4.44]
Algebra 2: A
Physics (honors was offered): A
Spanish 4 Honors: A-
AP US 2: A
AP English 3: B+
Creative Writing 2 Honors: A</p>
<p>For senior year, I am going to take 3 AP's (Environmental Science, European History, English 4)</p>
<p>Not particularly rigorous, it seems. You don’t seem to take any hard math/science classes. I think it’s ridiculous that your school spends 2 years on APUSH; not a sign of rigor. You seem to take a good amount of writing classes, but it won’t particularly impress colleges, especially since you got a B in AP English. </p>
<p>While rigor depends on the school and what it offers, what you have doesn’t seem terribly rigorous even by your school’s standards. I personally was on the engineering track, but I still took all three history APs, the two econ APs and both English APs in addition to my science/math APs, and I think adcoms will expect something like that from top applicants: hard classes even in almost all fields of study: math, science, writing, social studies, etc.</p>
<p>It is very annoying that our school has 2 years for AP US and 2 years for AP English because it takes up space for other potential classes and doesn’t allow me to take the AP exams until I finish both classes. Thank you for the advice, however blunt it may have been. I hope my lack of rigor, especially early on, doesn’t hurt my chances of getting into colleges like Cornell; I was just a nervous little freshman!</p>
<p>For my essays I am thinking of writing about a few topics:
For CALS, I would write about something related to communication or environmental/gov’t policy
For HumEc, I am not too certain at the moment. Maybe human development or something of that nature. could anyone give me some advice/direction/tips?</p>
<p>EC’s
School’s Literary Magazine member and contributor (10-11), Editor (12)
Committee Member of Town Board (11-12), have experience with municipal government
[VERY annoyed…I was looking to attend Boys State this summer, but my school has finals that week >:0]
Volunteer Club Member (9-10), Treasurer (11), President (12)
President of Spanish Honor Society
National Honor Society
Stage Crew and Running Crew for school dramas and musicals (10-12)
6 Years of playing guitar/bass in jazz/rock bands
Work with special needs children during the summer (3 years)
Soccer Circle with special needs children</p>
<p>If it makes a difference, I got a 32 on my ACT and 2150 on my SAT, taking SAT IIs in June, and will apply ED this fall</p>
<p>taking non-honors courses when they are offered will definitely not help, and while schools like Cornell don’t weigh freshman year as much, you did the same sophomore and junior year as well.
SATs and ACTs wont help much either. I would recommend spending time on that this summer and retesting in October.</p>
<p>Two years for AP US? That’s ridiculous. I just finished the whole course in one year, and felt really prepared for the exam. I actually think I murdered the multiple choice, but I’ll see in July…</p>