SCEA Princeton Chances vs. Cornell ED?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>Chances at Princeton (New to CC, Please help?)</p>

<p>I am a white male, a Rising senior at a competitive high school in Baltimore County, Maryland.
Originally, I wanted to apply ED to Cornell, and major in Econ/ Minor in Math. But, due to personal financial reasons, I may not be able/allowed to apply ED to Cornell. So, the next choice for me is Princeton. It is a (relatively) conservative school, close enough to home and, most important, would offer a stellar education with little worry of being put in financial woes. However, due to SCEA being my only realistic shot for getting in, I want to know realistically my chances at Princeton before I abandon my dream of going to Cornell. </p>

<p>STATS</p>

<p>I take the hardest courses my school offers, and I want to apply ED to the College of Arts and Sciences to major in Economics, and Minor in Mathematics.</p>

<p>-GPA: 3.60/4.00 unweighted, weighted is much higher due to the quality of classes I took.</p>

<p>-Upward Trend: Freshman and Sophomore Year I received a 3.36, but Junior year I excelled in all of my tough classes, and received a 4.0. (Straight A's).</p>

<p>-Ranking: 24/465 (Literally one place away from the top 5%)</p>

<p>-Classes:
-Pre High School - I took Algebra 2 and Geometry, in a year ahead program
-9th grade: GT English, Government, Bio, Honors Spanish 3, Band, Trig and Standard Gym.[All the Highest Possible except Bio could have been AP... oh well.]
-10th grade: AP World, GT Chem, Band, English, Honors Spanish, College Algebra and Standard Gym.[Again the highest possible except Chem, but because I didn't take AP Bio, I couldn't due to gym being paired with Chem]
-11th grade: AP English, US History, Spanish 5 and AB Calc, GT Physics, Engineering and Band.
-Taking Senior Year - AP Physics C, Economics (Macro and Micro), English Lit, Calc BC, European History and GT Band</p>

<p>-AP's: 5's on World (10th Grade), English, Calc AB and US History. (11th Grade)[At our school, AP Spanish 5 is an AP weighted class but you don't take the exam till senior year]</p>

<p>-ACT: 35 [36 Math, 35 Science, 34 Reading and English, 32 Composite Writing]</p>

<p>-SAT IIs: US History - 780, Math II - 750, Physics - 690. (11th grade)</p>

<p>-SAT's (Not Submitting unless I get much higher when I retake in October)
730 Crit Reading, 700 Math. (660 Writing but Cornell doesn't look at it, 10 on essay)</p>

<p>ECs:
-Junior Varsity Indoor Track (9-10), JV Cross Country and Outdoor (10)</p>

<p>-Varsity Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor Track (11-12) [Captain in 12th Grade]</p>

<p>-Trumpet (9-12) [DHS Lions Roar Marching Band 9-10, Wind Ensemble 10-12 , BCPS All-Honors Band 9-12, County/State Solo & Ensemble Festival 9-12, Private Lessons 9-12]</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Boy Scouts of America(9-12) [Patrol Leader, Life Scout, PASS Award, Life Scout, and I am very very close to my EAGLE SCOUT]</p></li>
<li><p>Younglife/Capernum (9-12) [Attend Club,Campaigners and Capernum, the first two are the more "social" Younglife and the bible study respectively, and the last one is a youth group for teens with special needs, Attended Summer Camp 9,10 and 12, Work Crew staff on Winter Weekend 2010]</p></li>
<li><p>Class of 2013’s Historian (10-12) [SGO, I set up Class functions and dances, go toweekly meetings, etc]</p></li>
<li><p>Physics Olympics (11) [During Junior year, you can volunteer to be a part of the Physics Olympics team, and we preformed at our local competition, placing 1st in one of 5 events, and placing 5th overall]</p></li>
<li><p>Member of Model United Nations (9-12) [I Prepared for and attended the annual YMCA MUN Conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania in 9,11 and 12th, in 10th grade I had a last minute personal emergency and I could not go to the actual conference]</p></li>
<li><p>National Honor Society (11-12)</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Future EC's
- I plan on joining Math Club and Mu Alpha Theta (Our Math National Honor Society) next year. (I don't think you can join until senior year, I'm not trying to pad my resume, I promise).
- I am going to try to get a Econ/Finance related internship with the help of my friend's dad, who is a Financial Planner. </p>

<p>Work Experience</p>

<p>-Stock at Cohens Clothiers (11-12) [My local, preppy, family owned clothing store, I work Stock, Re-tag Merchandise, Process Incoming Freight Shipments, Inventory, Cleaning, etc].</p>

<p>-My local pool (Summer after 9th) [Lifeguard/Snack Bar Attendant]</p>

<p>Volunteer/Community Work
-Younglife Work Crew (Winter 10)</p>

<ul>
<li>Race for the Cure (10-12)[I Ran in the local 5K race and raised approximately 100$ for the fund each year]</li>
</ul>

<p>-Peer Tutoring (11-12) [I tutor students struggling in Honors/GT Chemistry, Geometry and Physics before and after school, 4 times a week]</p>

<p>Awards/Honors
-Trumpet Honors(All County Honors Band (2009-2011), Solo and Ensemble Festival (2009-2011)</p>

<p>-Boy Scout Honors/AwardsThe PASS Award, Life Scout (Soon to be Eagle), 19 Merit Badges</p>

<p>-Academic Honors/AwardsHonor Roll (2009-2011) Scholar Athlete (2010-2012)</p>

<p>-National Honor Society (2012)</p>

<p>Common App Essay: I'm still deciding between a couple of choices, but my strongest so far is about my favorite album of all time, how I grew up with it and how it shows my transformation from awkward bookworm to a more social, yet just as intellectual senior.[Kinda hard to explain without giving too much away, it will be very polished and my English teacher loved the idea, she's been helping kids with essays for years].</p>

<p>Short Essay for Common App - Relate Running and thinking, as most of my deepest thoughts occur on a run in the woods near my hometown</p>

<p>Princeton Supplement - I don't know if Princeton's changes year after year, but I would spend a lot of time on it, and make it as high quality as possible. </p>

<p>Letters of Rec - I am getting one from my Calc teacher as well as my APUSH teacher, they both like me a huge amount and have said they have nothing but positive things to say about me</p>

<p>-My guidance counselor letter will be strong as well, we have met several times to talk college, and have "bonded" over discussions over Boy Scouts, the college admittance process and To Kill a Mockingbird. (We are both Boyscouts/Eagles, and love TKM).</p>

<p>Miscellaneous</p>

<ul>
<li><p>I would have a (ridiculously small) chance at being recruited for XC/T&F</p></li>
<li><p>It is very likely that I will have a stellar interview, if I manage to do one. (I have been known to be very polite and good with impressing adults).</p></li>
</ul>

2

<p>Do Cornell if you love it and wouldn’t have any regrets. Your stats are positioning you in the large grey area of deferral… decent objective stats (a little shaky on the GPA but Princeton doesn’t count 9th grade… so it’s strong enough)… but average subjective stuff (relatively commonplace extracurrics for Princeton). So yeah. Much better chance at Cornell ED that Princeton SCEA. How badly do you want to be done mid-December?</p>

<p>P.S. Interviews mean nothing.</p>

3

<p>Chances are very slim at Princeton. Class rank simply isn’t good enough. Your chances at Cornell are much better. If you apply ED, you would have a very solid shot in getting in, especially if your SAT score increases. </p>

<p>As for the financial reasons, if you get accepted early decision and the financial aid is not good enough, you can withdraw your acceptance from Cornell and be released from the early decision commitment; it is quite easy. There isn’t a big downside in this case by applying regular decision because the same financial aid is offered for early decision and regular decision students (i.e you wouldn’t get more or less money had you applied regular). Also, Cornell will only increase your financial aid if you get accepted to another Ivy league school, Duke, Stanford, and/or MIT or your initial financial information submitted is inaccurate.</p>