Please chance

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>Hello Friends,</p>

<p>I am a prospective International applicant from India and I had applied to colleges ( HYPS, Amherst, Williams, Dartmouth, Middlebury, Hamilton, Bates, Columbia, Penn ) this year. But now I expect rejection from everywhere. But still can someone chance me.</p>

<p>Career Goals - Politician, Major - Pol. Sci.</p>

<p>Grades - Class IX - 90+, Class X - 87.5, Class XI - 88, Class XII - 75.8 ( CBSE English topper ) </p>

<p>ECs outside School</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Co-Founder of Two Registered and recognized NGOs ( One in a major city and the other in Northern Bengal ), First helps the poor people in their pursuit to gain education, Second helping the homeless and poor.</p></li>
<li><p>Created a new product, investors ready to invest, product ready to be launched.</p></li>
<li><p>Writing two books which would be published in the coming month.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>ECs in School</p>

<p>President and founder of Student union of my school
President of student government
President and Founder of Youth Bank
President and founder of Eco Club
President and founder of school disciplinary committee
Founder of various extracurricular clubs for students
President, Founder, Speaker of Economics and Political club of my school
RWA President
Teacher of adult literacy campaign
Teacher ( Maths, Social Sciences and Painting ) for underprivileged kids
Chief Artist and group leader of our school's art club ( won many painting competitions )</p>

<p>Awards - </p>

<p>Received award from Government of India for my successful participation in the literacy campaign.</p>

<p>Other awards mostly from School</p>

<p>Recommendations - Excellent</p>

<p>Now the deal breaker - SAT Score - 2030, SAT II ( Jan 28th score, I am still shocked with the score. I felt I had done MUCH better ) - ( Maths - 630, US History - 640, Physics - 650 )</p>

2

<p>You do stand a chance for getting into but your SAT II scores are low… Wish you luck with the admission :)</p>

3

<p>high reach</p>

4

<p>I am not even interested at Cornell, they sent me 100 emails so just got irritated and sent in my app yesterday !!!</p>

<p>Sent from my SGH-T959 using CC</p>

5

<p>Cornell U. doesn’t really send emails to prospective undergrads. Cornell college does.</p>

<p>And uh… good for you! I guess…</p>

<p>Reread your grades - it seems that your grades are considered good - that could put you at low reach depending on how good your grades are and how much your ecs matter</p>

6

<p>I was receiving emails from Cornell U not cornell college.</p>

<p>Sent from my SGH-T959 using CC</p>

7

<p>honey, they automatically send emails to everyone above the collegeboard cut-off score that they set…</p>

8

<p>Really, because i got over 2350 last year and i did not get anything from cornell, only from columbia. Oh well.</p>

<p>But yeah those emails aren’t personalized. I am still getting them.</p>

9

<p>To be frank with you, I don’t think that there’ s any chance of you getting accepted.
Harsh, I know.
Sure your extracurriculars are outstanding, but your grades and SAT scores aren’t (which are generally considered to be more important for Ivy League schools).
Cornell considers your SAT score out of the 1600-scale, meaning that the score for the writing section is completely disregarded.
And seeing how you scored only a 2030 on the SAT, I’d say you aren’t in the 1500-1600 range for CR & Math section, which is the range that you should aim for when applying to Cornell. (1400-1500 range is also decent, but somewhat risky)
Also, your SAT II scores should mostly, if not all, be above 700 if you want to be considered by top-tier schools.</p>

10

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>I have noticed that since I am an International student, two things are not very clear.</p>

<p>I need to clarify those two things.</p>

<p>My school grades are not bad, they are great in India.</p>

<p>I have many president positions because I was the founder of the student union, so I had the responsibility to bring whole sale changes to the school. So naturally other things had to be created. Eg The youth bank helped the students with finances.</p>

<p>And since I was very popular I won election easily. :-)</p>

<p>So all my school ECs are interconnected. One was responsible for the formation of others.</p>

<p>Sent from my SGH-T959 using CC</p>

11

<p>And finally my career goals are to join politics. So I need some basic qualities - good orator, good administrator, workaholic, helpful to people etc.</p>

<p>I had to take multiple responsibility towards my school and community since I was not ready to accept the already established system. ( Somewhere down the line I want to come to the US because of this lack of freedom and flexibility in the education system back home )</p>

<p>Sent from my SGH-T959 using CC</p>

12

<p>If many of your positions fall under a single club/ category, I suggest you lump them together and in your essay or in some other way try to explain and show adcoms all the different things you have done in that club/category instead of listing so many individual ones and declaring yourself to be president - that would not be very appealing to the adcoms.</p>

13

<p>Some people in the Middlebury forum say I am arrogant. No I am not. I am just very emotional.</p>

<p>When people say my SAT score are very low I agree. But when I hear that my ECs are without passion or shallow I feel hurt.</p>

<p>I have worked so hard for the past few years of my life for these ECs. I have been going to North Bengal villages where there is no permanent electricity and water even today, Naxal threat ( I might get killed ) and many other problems but I don’t run away because I believe that the youth of our nation has to take the responsibility to make my nation great in the future.</p>

<p>I could have taken the easy way out too, I could have studied in some normal Indian college and then lead a settled life but I chose the far tougher path.</p>

<p>Because I love my nation and I want to serve her.</p>

<p>Sent from my SGH-T959 using CC</p>

14

<p>It’s all about presentation - this is something that many international students simply don’t get. If you simply show a list of your ecs and you list yourself as presidents of 10+ clubs, it is going to appear shallow. So instead of doing that, just list yourself as president of the “umbrella” organization and tell through your essay what you did and how you felt doing it. That shows that you emphasize the aspects of participating and contributing through your ECs instead of doing them just for the positions - adcoms are really sensitive of that. Your chances may go up from making that simple change. With your case, you would also want a really, really good essay showing why you want to come to this school specifically - how you can contribute to it and how it can help you (avoid topics that are too controversial though, unless you really know what you are doing). Specificity is a really huge deal especially for top schools.</p>

15

<p>I have done that in my extracurricular essay.</p>

<p>Sent from my SGH-T959 using CC</p>