Hi everyone,
I’m new to College Confidential and this is my first post! I will be a junior in this upcoming school year and attend a very competitive public high school with 600+ people in my class. I know it is a little early to be thinking about college but I really need someone’s perspective on my situation. I had a bad freshman year. I don’t want to make excuses for my academic performance, but the truth is, the transition was tough and I faced a lot of difficult circumstances in my personal life. As a result, I couldn’t do as well as I wanted to and ended up with the following grades:
B- English H
B- US History H
B- Bio H
D- Geometry H
A- Gym
A- Health
A+ - French H
A+ - Choir
My overall GPA was a 3.18 unweighted. This year, I managed to overcome those obstacles and did well academically, and ended up with a 3.75 unweighted. I want to end junior year with a cumulative of 3.7 for my unweighted gpa and a 4.8-4.9 weighted. I will be taking all honors/AP classes. Also, my school does not class rank but it is known for being competitive. Cornell has always been my dream school and I really hope that I am not judged solely based on my gpa. My question is, if all the other components of my application are good ( stellar SAT/AP/SAT II scores, strong EC’s, a lot of volunteering hours, leadership, summer activities, teacher/counselor recs, etc) do I still stand a chance with a 3.7 gpa?
Some additional information: I’m Asian, female, from NJ, and would like to ultimately be a neurosurgeon. I’d really like to major in biomedical engineering or dual major in biology and English literature.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing your feedback!
Hi there,
You definitely have a chance still! I have a friend who had worse grades than you freshman year then knocked it out of the park sophomore to senior year and got into Harvard. Granted, she also had written the best essay I’ve ever seen and had amazing ECs, but it still happened. All schools love an upward trend.
My only concern is how the classes you did worse in were all academic core classes. One or two is okay (another friend of mine got into Yale with a consistent B- in math all four years), but all of them is a little concerning. That D-, especially, is gonna hurt. But again, nothing is impossible.
I think the best course of action is to study your butt off next year and get that GPA up as high as possible. Also start studying for your SAT/ACT. A score above 1500/34 is important for Cornell, and it’ll help your case tremendously. And do you have any ECs? Because if you don’t, that’ll completely kill your chances.
I wish you the best of luck. x
The fact that you’re asian and from a competetive state hurts your odds.
Being female is good for your odds.
MIT loves to accept females with less than stellar academic records just because they are girls (there was even an article on MITs website written by this girl who was accepted with around a 1400 SAT who spammed some variation of band on her ECs 5 different times for her only ECs - her ex BF with actual good academics was rejected)
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/how_to_do_everything_wrong_and
If you get good test scores and at least average ECs, then I’m sure you would probably get accepted at MIT and have decent odds at Cornell.
Just write about being discriminated against because you’re female in you essays.
Hi @dramax4 thank you so much for your reply. I just wanted to clarify- the dashes indicated what class I was referring to. Those grades are actually 4 B’s and 1 D. And yes, I do have EC’s. I do Science League, FCCLA, Interact(committee leader), Newspaper club, and chemistry club at school. Outside of the school, I’m a Girl Scouts ambassador (completed bronze award and in the process of doing gold award) and a Red Cross Committee Leader. I do a lot of volunteering and have won several writing competitions. I’m currently participating in the Siemens Competition and plan on submitting some of my research to other competitions such as JSHS and MIT Think. I also would like to participate in USABO, am getting a summer job at a local Kumon, and have started building my own app. Do you think these are strong EC’s? Once again thank you so much for your help!!
If you would be willing to share the EC’s that you have currently that would be very helpful.
The D in Geometry is a real killer
Your EC’s are alright they are just a little generic. With a 3.7 at the end and if rock your ACT/SAT(>34/>1500) you should have an ok chance. Your essays and rec are gonna have to be amazing
Hi @ryanroos,
Here are my current extracurriculars:
FCCLA (3 years)
Interact (committee leader) 3 years
Science league (2 years)
Newspaper club (3 years)
Chemistry club (2 years)
Girl Scouts (ambassador- have done bronze award and currently doing gold award) 7 years
Red Cross (committee leader) 3 years
School mentor (2 years)
Student council delegate (2 years)
Volunteer at local animal shelter, YMCA, school clubs, etc
won a few writing competitions and have received awards for English/writing excellence
have my own nonprofit
@worcester22 I know 
if I explain why in my essay and elaborate on what I’ve learned from the experience and have a good resume otherwise, do you still think I have a chance? what if I applied for an English major instead- would that increase my chances of getting in? I had a B last year and an A this year in honors and am taking AP language and composition next year, and have better English credentials than STEM ones
@ryanroos thank you for your input! Do you think participating in competitions like Siemens, JSHS, MIT Think, USABO, and creating a useful app will strengthen my EC’s? I’m sure that getting good recommendations won’t be a problem as I am on very good terms with my counselor and teachers. Also, I asked the same question to the other person on this thread-- do you think applying as an English major would give me an edge? I get more awards for English, have better grades in English classes, and am Asian (if that counts as a URM 
)
Yes the competitions will help a lot. I think applying as an English major will help but I don’t know cornells rules about switching majors so look into that. Also asian doesn’t really count as an URM in the field that you want to go into so that won’t help you.
@ryanroos I meant like if I pursue English( or just the humanities as a whole) for my undergraduate degree, would I be considered a URM?
Probably? I don’t really know
Oh golly, no. Don’t put any explanation for grades in your essay. There’s a section of the Common App where you’re allowed to write about any grades that weren’t what they should’ve been, but there has to be some sort of extenuating circumstance — such as being very sick, your dog dying the day before exams, or you having undiagnosed ADHD that made paying attention in class impossible.
I had a tough transition into high school as well, which was rife with personal issues, but unfortunately for me my problems didn’t count as “extenuating circumstances,” and if your issues weren’t on par with the ones I listed above, I admittedly doubt yours will either. I’d be happy to speak with you in more detail over PM about this, if you’d like.
Thank you so much. And yes, that would be great! Please PM me 
@dramax4
I would apply for what you really want to study, regardless if whether or not it gives you a better chance of getting in. If you really wanted to study English and it is your first choice, go for it but I don’t know how much it will help you in becoming a neurosurgeon. Also, in studying English you would not be considered a URM.