Is Dyson ED out of reach?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

ndian Male from New Jersey

Tests/GPA
SAT I superscore (breakdown M/CR/W/Essay): 800/730/800/10 (2330)
SAT II: Bio , 760; US. History , 800; Math II, 800
Unweighted GPA: 3.94
Rank: top 1-5%, no official rank in school

APs: Don’t know my scores yet but I took APUSH, BC, Physics H, AP English, AP Spanish, AP Macro
Senior Year Course Load: AP COMP sci, AP Principles, AP English, AP Statistics, AP GOV, Multi-var Calc

President of Model UN Program and SG of Conference
Best Delegate: 5 times
Oustanding Delegate: 3 times

President of FBLA:
First Place at States
Coached Euro-challenge team to top 10 finish in country
Wrote cirriculum for club to become a class

Co-Captain of Quizbowl
-Top Public school in country
-finished top 15 at Nationals last year out of 264 teams
-Highest scorer on team
-Won numerous awards

Captain of History Bowl
-Finished second in sectionals, states, and regionals
-Highest Scorer on team
-Next year projected at top 10 finish in nationals

Vice President of Student Association
-Raised fundraisers where over $5000 go for new books for the school
-Raised money and give annual speeches to Board of Ed regarding school finances

-Started my own company where we make educational videos on a sharing platform

-Captain of Freshman and Jv Basketball Team

-President of Students for Cruz-New Jersey

-President of Students for Trump-New Jersey

-President of Students against Hillary

Income Bracket: high

Perks: Brother studies at wharton

Overall, Is this Wharton ED a waste for me?

2

Hi Klayyy,

Definitely within reach!! I would recommend that you ED to Wharton, though-- I was in a similar position last year; dyson eventually accepted me after a deferral, but I feel as though I wasted my ED. I committed to the UChicago Class of 2020 in May. This is my advice (adapted from my response to redwaffle312, who made a very similar post a few weeks ago):

I applied to dyson ED because at the time I thought it’d be better to scrape an acceptance to cornell early than to use up my early app on Harvard/Wharton/etc. and get rejected. Ended up getting deferred and accepted in the RD round (yeah my account username says rejected, but I did end up getting in). You should be able to see my complete stats in the comment I made on the Cornell 2020 Early Decision thread, but I will give you the gist of it here. I struck gold with standardized testing and got a 2400 SAT in one sitting and a 35 ACT (I had already signed up for the ACT before I got my SAT back, I don’t think I reported the 35.) 3.98 unweighted GPA at an elite high school in New England (we’ve consistently been ranked in the Top 15 on US News & World’s national best high schools list). I had solid recs and heartfelt essays; I was able to read my recs earlier this month (school policy is we can only ask to read recs once all decisions are in) and they were just phenomenal. I had some of the same ECs as you-- president of fbla and we placed first in states during my junior year, president of model UN with a bunch of best and outstanding delegates and a few position paper awards. I was also class president my sophomore and senior years and built a business (my main hook) freshman year that accrued $25,000 in revenue over four years. I invested dozens of hours into crafting my essays last summer as well. Anyway from what I understand, dyson proportionally has the highest amount of athletes and legacies at cornell, the types of applicants that schools generally prioritize during the ED round. If you are a URM then I’d definitely apply ED, many schools focus heavily on securing URM enrollment during the ED round. I’m Asian-American and I believe that hurt a lot. Also be careful with the ED commitment-- it’s binding. To be honest I was devastated when I got deferred (I remember thinking to myself that if I couldn’t get into dyson ED with stats this much higher than their averages, I wouldn’t be able to get into any other elite school), but looking back it’s good that I was deferred. During the RD round I got accepted to UChicago (attending this fall!), Wharton, and Dyson, plus a bunch of other matches and safeties. Bottom line is I wouldn’t recommend applying to dyson ED unless you’re an athlete, legacy, or urm. I’m definitely not saying you don’t have a chance at dyson ED, but since it’s likely that they will defer you to the regular pool anyway, you may as well use your early app on a school with high admission rates for the early pool. Harvard, Yale, Princeton have 15-20% acceptance rates for their early pool versus ~3.5% for regular; I still wish I had applied to Harvard early as it was my #1, but what can ya do ¯_(ツ)_/¯ ) Given that you have a connection to Wharton through your brother, I would definitely use my ED there.

Anyways hope my advice helps-- no matter what happens, you WILL go to a great school. Your 2330 SAT puts you at or near the 75th percentile for most schools out there, shoot for the skies!! Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions about college apps, want me to look over any essays, or if you have questions about UChicago (fabulous school!! Although I am a bit biased :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: )

3

If your essays/recs/interviews are as good as your stats, then you have a very good shot at Dyson.

But like @RejectedDysonAEM said, unless you are 100% set on Cornell, you should apply to Wharton ED. Their business school is more prestigious and you already have legacy status there.

4

Very few people have a legacy advantage when they apply. While it’s true that a brother is not the same as a parent, it still gives you a distinctive leg up over 99% of other competitive applicants. I’d ED at Wharton.