<p>Looking over your stats from your other thread, and recognizing you want to do physics, I think you’ll probably be overmatched at Cornell, and thus unnecessarily stressed academically. I don’t know your score breakdown, but I’m going to guess your math was below 700 on the SAT, given your total score. Further, your GPA of 93% while in range, is still a bit low, and you’re barely top 10% of your class. Were your math/science grades at least 95-97? Or more accurately, are you one of the top math/science students in your class (meaning at most, there are only a few individuals better than you at those subjects)? Then you might be okay at Cornell. Physics is one of the most intense majors at Cornell, and you’ll be relying on a curve to pass the classes. If you’re going to be at the bottom of that curve, you will be getting C’s, D’s, and F’s. And your competition in those classes will be people with 750-800 SAT math scores, as well as 5’s on their AP maths and sciences. The physics major at Cornell doesn’t attract your “average top” student in math/science.</p>
<p>You clearly have aspirations of doing physics at a top school. I think I’ve seen enough to question your ability to succeed. Not saying you wouldn’t, but based on the stats, I’d be questioning it. I think you might be happier at an “average” school, where you’ll have a bigger opportunity to excel/set yourself apart. If you do end up excelling at that school, then I would transfer. The thing about going for physics is you will (almost) always be taking classes with top science/math students, no matter where you are.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to sound harsh. Clearly by being top 10% of your class, you’ve had pretty solid academic success, but not so much that I’m sure that will translate to an elite university.</p>