Transfer to Cornell from Los Angeles CC with 4.0 transferable GPA

Colleges & Universities A-Z Cornell University
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<p>Soooooo here we go:</p>

<p>I'm a 22 (will be 23 in July '10), white female of Eastern European origin. I moved from Ukraine almost 3 years ago by myself (I was 19 at that time). I come from an educated family of engineers and educators, but not very rich meaning I haven't received any financial assistance from my mom since I've moved to the US (she's a single mom, and I was adopted when I was 7 days old). </p>

<p>I learned English back in my home country, have an AA from an accredited university back home as well. I don't want to settle for less than the best education, and I'm going to do everything to achieve my goal. I work 40-50 hr weeks as a production manager for a home remodeling company while taking 12-14 units at a community college. This is insane to begin with, so I don't really have many volunteering hours (8 from domestic violence help organization for women, a few from a dog shelter, 8 from a community charity event, that's about it...thinking about applying myself at the Culver City Police Station as a part-time volunteer (probably a few hours on weekends).</p>

<p>Transferable GPA 4.0 (40 units so far, applying for transfer admission for 2011), completed the Honors Transfer program (took 8 honors classes when only 6 was really needed). Almost done with IGETC, just need the foreign language class, PE and a few more to get to 60 units. That stuff was initially done for UC Berkeley, but now I'm seriously aiming for 2 Ivies as well - Cornell and Brown. Brown requires SAT, I don't think I will do very well because of the variations in my non-American secondary and high-school education. I'll try though, what do I have to lose? The app fee, that's all :)</p>

<p>As I already mentioned above, I don't have many volunteering hours and don't think I will be able to get hundreds (or thousands, like some people do with more leisure time) considering my tight work/school schedule. I work Mon-Fri 9-5:30 at the office, attend night classes 2-3 days a week, have lots of homework both in-class and online, work overtime on weekends (helping arranging trade shows for the company because I need more money). I can't give up my full-time job to volunteer, and a part time job will not pay my bills) It will be quite upsetting if they deny my application simply because they'll think I don't ever want to help the community.
I'm not sure what they will think about my story, I'm not planning on whining how hard it is to work overtime and go to school full-time, I just want to show how determined I am.</p>

<p>Is there anything I can do/change to increase my chances to be admitted? </p>

<p>Please, suggest how to better construct my personal statement, or what else I can do to make up for the community service.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot in advance!</p>

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<p>i dont see why you wouldnt have a decent shot…</p>

<p>is your legal residency in order? </p>

<p>if u want to study for the SAT…your local public library might have some study guides!</p>

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<p>If you can voice the amazing story you’ve written here into your essays, interviews, recommendations and application then I say you are definitely IN povided that you show positive interest and reasoning for what you want to study. Your story is quite moving and I hop you succeed in all of your endeavours.</p>

<p>Dont worry about the volunteer hours or ECs, colleges will understand that you are forced to work to provide for yourself, your education and your family, just be sure to explain that or have ssomeone explain it in your reccommendations. </p>

<p>It’s good not to whine on your application but remember to explain your story in full and what you would like to do with their education in the future. Actually, Im personally curious as what you would like to accomplish???Please share??</p>

<p>Best of Luck.</p>

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<p>thank you guys for the input :)</p>

<p>My passion is law. I don’t have a clear idea about what exactly I want to do with it, there’s so many fields now. Need to do more research.
I plan to go to Law School eventually. I’ll be working on my undergrad for the next two years, then maybe work at a police station and/or law firm for 2-3 years, and then apply to Law Schools…</p>

<p>My legal status is “pending green card”. I should be getting it in the next few months :)</p>

<p>The biggest problem for now is to write a decent essay.
By the way, how can I find the list of prerequisites for Psychology major at Cornell?
Their major description doesn’t give prereq’s for transfers…or maybe I’m looking in the wrong place, but I even googled it. lol</p>

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<p>not all credit you have may transfer to cornell…i’m sure you will have to be evalauated by your particular major (psychology) to see which courses will transfer. </p>

<p>are you already on a psychology track at your community college? i’m guessing the basic psychology classes such as intro will transfer.</p>

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<p>Yes, I took Psych 1 (intro), Psych 41 (Lifespan). that’s it. I also took other classes for my general education requirements because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do since every school has very different requirements :frowning:
Do you know if they will need my cumulative GPA (which is 3.58 as of now) or my transferable one (which is 4.0)? I took two classes of Algebra (beginning and intermediate) in the beginning, and my councelor told me they wouldn’t matter since they weren’t college level. Is that true?</p>

<p>As you can tell, the GPA drops by a lot if I have to report ALL my classes including those that don’t transfer…</p>

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<p>i think that “transferable” gpa is just for california schools(i think you will start with a fresh gpa at cornell)…or does not include your classes of algebra. like i said before, not all your classes will transfer, those algebra classes are college-preparation since you probably scored low on the math portion of their entrance exam. </p>

<p>those two classes should transfer…according to the psychology major page at cornell you need 40 credits for the psychology major (most of which will be upper level)</p>

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<p>but in the app, which GPA do I need to report? only “transferrable college level classes” or all of them?</p>

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<p>You would need to report all of them but your in the running. Im not a transfer, so I dont know much about the process but I think you should do well on your SATs and give a solid reason to study at cornell, like basically why Cornell Psych vs. Berkeley or any other. Why is it special?What brings you to Cornell?What do you wish to accomplish there etc. Write a passionate and in-depth essay covering these things.</p>

<p>Also, If I was you I would apply to schools like Columbia, UPenn, etc… too.</p>

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<p>the OP need not limit herself to Ivies only lol…</p>

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<p>oh I’m definitely not limiting myself to only Ivies :slight_smile:
I’m hoping to get into UCLA and Berkeley, Ivy would be a miracle, I realize that.</p>