My chances at Cornell and Purdue

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Aside from some other really reach colleges my main schools that I think I have a shot at are cornell and purdue.

I want to major in computer science (first choice) or engineering and I live in Connecticut (OOS obviously)
My parents are willing to fund what scholarships and federal aid don’t cover. I expect Purdue won’t really offer much to me in terms of financial aid though I will check in the net price calculator later. For now though, assume that with federal loans and some outside scholarships I can afford the rest of tuition.

My numbers and stats:

White (European heritage), Male
SAT: 1490 (780 Math. 710 RW)
SAT Math II: 790
SAT Chemistry: 800
9 AP’s: AP Computer Science A, AP Calculus A, AP Lang, AP Lit, AP US History, AP Stats, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Physics 2

Nothing special but I think I am ball park

Major Extras:

  1. 4 years experience in Karate and Judo (black belt in Karate and unranked in Judo; I do Judo with my school’s police officer in the morning). I also had to travel across the country to test for my karate black belt; the test was very arduous.

  2. Part time job since sophomore year (I had to pay for my AP tests and college classes because I didn’t want to burden my family with all the expenses)

  3. Tutor for my National Honor Society branch here. I stay after twice a week and aid anyone who comes with their school work. I know National Honor Society isn’t anything special but I do it for them,

  4. This summer I attended like a week long camp at a local university about cyber security. We did everything from learning python to learning how to properly secure basic networks and also ow to attack them. The teaching wasn’t extremely expansive but we spent about ~10 hours a day for 5 days so we did learn quite a bit. The Steganography was by far my favorite lesson and they showed us various ways of doing it. Pretty cool.

  5. While learning and practicing Karate I also taught 3 days a week for about 3 hours a day (some days more and some less, depended on the week and who was missing). Whether it was adult bare knuckle fighting, teen kata practice, or a stretching seminar I was usually involved or full fledged teaching.

Note: I am talking about my karate experience in the past tense because I was severely hurt in a Ju Jitsu studio where I was on the bad end of arm bar and I had some ligaments partially torn. I am nearing a full recovery and I plan on returning mainly to Judo but also to karate.

I do have some other clubs and accomplishments but nothing like an international Olympiad medal. I am just wondering if, with a great essay and letters of rec I stand a chance applying regular decision to Cornell and Purdue’s commuter science programs,

2

I think you can get into both, considering your SAT is Cornell-level, and your SAT IIs show your intelligence across multiple fields. Its nice to have a job on your app, as well as multiple martial arts. Work on a good college essay and you should be set.

3

I know someone who scored a 1360 on the SAT and got into Cornell with a mediocre application.

4

@paradoxx Just out of curiosity did they have some interesting backround or was it essentially pure luck? Did he/she write a really compelling essay or was he/she mediocre in all respects? Also was it recent, like within 8-5 years? Just curious

5

He is a freshman at Cornell. Started this fall. And has no legacy, his essay was written the night before on how “tough it was being a top student”— so it was pretty trash. And he took about 5 AP’s & got all 5’s. He was pretty mediocre, especially with that SAT score. Also, a white male, if that helps anything.