<p>ED may be either here or JHU, thoughts?</p>
<p>GPA: I want to say 3.9 out of 4?
Rank: Somewhere between 2 and 8 out of 300
Public School</p>
<p>SAT I: 780 M 750 CR 710 W
SAT II: 740 Chem 800 Math II (Maybe taking Lit and Physics and retaking Chem)
AP: Chemistry 5
English Lit (Senior Year)
Physics B (Senior Year)
Calc AB (Senior Year)
...My school doesn't have many APs</p>
<p>ECs:
-Destination Imagination (Friend and I introduced the program to the school, team recieved highest award, The Da Vinci Award)
-Varsity Math Team (Scored #2 Highest Scoring Junior in Tri-State League)
-National Honors Society
-Winnacore (Basically an Honors Society for Community Service)
-52 current hours of comm. service now, about 80-100 by December)
-Tutored two students in Chemistry
-One year of JV Tennis (Sad, I know, but the following years, schedules conflicted and my coach wouldn't budge)
-One year of Astronomy Club (School ended due to funding)
-National Latin Exam: An award every year so far</p>
<p>Things of Note:
-Work as a Camp Counselor during the summer, sometimes do things for that department for the year. The Director said that she would write me a recommendation
-My dad went to BC for undergrad, Maryland for Grad, Harvard for Post-Doc
-My mom went to BC for undergrad, Columbia for Dental, and Johns Hopkins for her residency</p>
<p>Looking into Chemistry, NOTTTT Pre-med.</p>
<p>wow. you put me to shame. i'm actually looking into applying ED here too, but i'm not positive yet. </p>
<p>great shot, but with top schools, you can never be sure.</p>
<p>i think a lot of your ECs are not very substantial...</p>
<p>^ I agree with the above post. Like tutoring 2 kids in chemistry...that's a bit iffy if you know what I mean...you're grades/sats are great though</p>
<p>Cornell UG is much better than JHU UG :D</p>
<p>I think your GPA is pretty good as well as your class rank. Good SAT II scores. I sympathize with your school not having many AP's, I hope you took Honors classes is place of that (your class rank makes me think so).</p>
<p>Your Ec's seem very decent and I think you have a good shot.</p>
<p>Get strong recommendations and write a good essay. I hope to see you at Cornell next year.</p>
<p>Do you guys think the ECs would be an app-killer?</p>
<p>For ED? No, ECs are not a dealmaker at a school like Cornell or JHU. A 1530, top 3 percent of class, and a 5 AP Chemistry are just dandy. Your ECs would be a dealmaker at a school like Harvard or Stanford or Princeton, and they wouldn't work in your favor.</p>
<p>Plus, your ECs are actually pretty decent for your style of application. #2 in an inter-state math competition and awards on the national latin exam are pretty damn good. And DI is not something that should be taken lightly either.</p>
<p>The best way to explain Cornell vs. JHU is that Cornell = JHU + Dartmouth + Michigan. So you can have a JHU-esque experience at Cornell, but not viceversa. As long as you are comfortable with the larger school atmosphere (keeping in mind you would be in a chemistry major with at most 40 majors a year) and the Ithaca locale, apply to Cornell.</p>
<p>Odds:</p>
<p>ED: Cornell 75%, JHU 95%
RD: Cornell 50%, JHU 90%</p>
<p>If you were applying RD, I would say your ecs would hurt your app. But, with ED, you have a fine chance of getting in. But, you should make sure to 'sell' your ecs, explaining how passionate you are about something you have done, whether thru ecs, or whatever. You need to convey this through your essays and get strong recs from your teachers. In other words, I would say that writing good essays might get you in if appling ED, but RD is a completely different story.</p>
<p>
[quote]
No, ECs are not a dealmaker at a school like Cornell or JHU. A 1530, top 3 percent of class, and a 5 AP Chemistry are just dandy.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I would strongly diagree with that statement. Actually, I get the impression that Cornell, esp. CAS, cares more about the personal fit, ecs, and essays than small differences in SAT scores. I had a friend from hs, top 2% of the class, 35 ACT, mediocre ecs and crappy essays and he got rejected. I happened to know many people like that. On the other hand, I know a handful of people who got in with 31-32 ACT with strong ecs and strong essays. Cornell is very holistic with its admissions approach, especially CAS.</p>
<p>^ I'd be one of that with my crappy SAT scores.</p>
<p>I think you have a really good chance of getting in ED. Of course no one can say for sure because we can't see your teacher recs, etc, but if your essays are good, I think you will be accepted ED.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I would strongly diagree with that statement. Actually, I get the impression that Cornell, esp. CAS, cares more about the personal fit, ecs, and essays than small differences in SAT scores. I had a friend from hs, top 2% of the class, 35 ACT, mediocre ecs and crappy essays and he got rejected. I happened to know many people like that. On the other hand, I know a handful of people who got in with 31-32 ACT with strong ecs and strong essays. Cornell is very holistic with its admissions approach, especially CAS.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Patlees, the thing you are missing is that Toastmaster is interested in non pre-med chemistry, which presumably puts him on a different track than the more popular English/Economics/Psychology majors where I agree that ECs are more important. Here, the school will be looking most at 1) interest in the material and 2) ability to do the work. </p>
<p>I agree that essays demonstrating a strong interest in the material and Cornell are necessary.</p>
<p>He's not an Intel semi-finalist, published researcher, competitive varsity athlete, or winning any national math competitions, which puts him at a distinct disadvantage at Stanford/Harvard/MIT/Princeton. But I think it squarely puts him in sights of schools like Cornell/Northwestern/Chicago/JHU. And, quite frankly, Cornell offers the best chemistry program and the most robust student experience of the above four, so why not choose Cornell.... I kid kid.</p>
<p>Dumb question:
If I follow the Chem Major with some math, how hard would it be to take the necessary courses in order to take a Genetics course?</p>
<p>Well, there are a bunch of genetics courses at Cornell. Are you looking for the one that is required of all biology majors (which includes counting fruit flies incessantly as a write of passage) or one with more of a quantitative/modeling bent? The later will be in the biometry department.</p>
<p>[Courses</a> of Study 2007-2008: College of Agriculture and Life Sciences](<a href="http://www.cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic/Courses/CoSdetail.php?college=ALS&number=483(4830)&prefix=BTRY&title=Quantitative+Genomics+and+Genetics+(also+STBTRY+483%5DCourses">http://www.cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic/Courses/CoSdetail.php?college=ALS&number=483(4830)&prefix=BTRY&title=Quantitative+Genomics+and+Genetics+(also+STBTRY+483)[4830])</p>
<p>Courses</a> of Study 2007-2008: Biological Sciences</p>
<p>In terms of advanced math, most chemistry students will take the four semester calculus sequence and a statistics course, and some will take more advance math classes.</p>
<p>I took three upper level biology courses at Cornell, and never found a need to slug through intro bio. You might be fine.</p>
<p>I just think it would be cool to toy around with DNA...</p>
<p>Well, I think you would have a much greater chance of doing that in a research setting than a classroom setting. Anybody who desires research experience at Cornell is more than able to secure such opportunities.</p>
<p>ED really helps. I'm 9th in my class and I applied ED and was accepted. My best friend is 2nd in the class, and he applied RD and was not accepted. He's going to Harvard next year. Go figure!</p>