<p>I'm a high school junior from NJ interested in UVa as well as ED Cornell...</p>
<p>-white female student from middle-class background. also first gen. college student.
-UW GPA: 3.9 (94.148%)
-ACT score: 28
-Rank: top 18% (66 out of 365), but it was because I moved from a school that didn't rank or weight grades, nor did I have as many class periods as I do at my new school.
-All honors classes since 9th grade
-2 AP classes junior year (bio and eng)
-will take 4 AP classes senior year (us hist, us gov, psych, eng)
-four years of spanish
-editor of yearbook both junior and senior year. I put in A LOT of hours for this thing since we didn't have much of a staff or funds to help. I practically wrote the whole book and spent several hours everyday after school, plus saturdays marketing and putting this thing together. So, I'm very dedicated to yearbook.
-yearbook sophomore, but not as involved.
-interact club soph, jun, and sen year
-NHS
-will become a volunteer EMT this summer (plan to work 40+ hours)
-grocery cashier last summer, but had to quit mid-school year because of homework. thinking about reapplying this summer.
-taking a statistics class at a local CC this summer
-I moved after my freshman year from FL
-I have some good essay topics in mind</p>
<p>Also, I took the SATs in Dec and got an 1800 on it. Should I retake those or the ACTs again? </p>
<p>The weakest parts of your app are the test scores and the rank. If you can improve your SAT, that will go a long way. Your GPA looks pretty good, but you are going to need to improve that class rank. What do you want to study at Cornell?</p>
<p>GPA is good.
Test scores are a bit on the low side. Not sure, but avg. SAT scores range from like 2000-2100 or somethin, and ACT’s are from 30-32?</p>
<p>Raise those up, spend this summer studying for those. Aim high. You have another shot in september/october for SAT/ACT’s. They suck, I know =P, but to increase your chances, getting those up would help.</p>
<p>I agree with the above posters. But I you’re placing too much emphasis on the numbers. Try and get about a 30 ACT or 2000 SAT but don’t be discouraged if you don’t. Colleges like Cornell will look at all applications and judge you as a person. Of course, numbers are important, but I think that you should place a lot of emphasis on writing high-quality essays the define you as a person and not just a set of numbers. Also, obtain recommendations from teachers that know you the best and can give insight into your personality.</p>
<p>I believe most colleges would rather take a person with great character and amazing people skills compared to someone who only looks good on paper. Your job is to show the admissions council that you are a great person.</p>
<p>the ivy’s barely admit any people who are not in the top 10%. I dont know the exact figures, but I believe the admit percent for people in the top 20-11% is like, 2% or 1%. I would look at other schools but still apply to cornell as a far reach. Maybe you could get your GC to write a note explaining your low rank</p>
<p>Fully 88% of admits are in the top 10% of their class. That includes diversity candidates and other non academic hooks. The bulk of the admits get above 650 verbal and 650 math on the SAT. For early decision, you need to really be a top candidate. Additionally, there are many many candidates from NJ. That said, I would never discourage you, because your resume is not bad, and you might add something to the school. However, you would need to make this apparent in your essays and such, and any boost in scores would help. At this point, it probably is not possible to move much in class rank as you are a junior. Good luck, but perhaps a broader search where your rank and scores are more in the middle.</p>