<p>Chance me for:
Emory
Carnegie-Mellon
University of Maryland, College Park [smith school of business]
Binghamton [school of management]
Baruch [scholars program]
Rutgers [Honors]
Brandeis
NYU
University of Chicago</p>
<h2>Cornell (how much of a reach?)</h2>
<p>GPA: 90 unweighted. (3.6ish, i think)</p>
<p>courseload: honors english and history throughout highschool, honors science fresh, soph year. never took honors math. never took ap's until senior year (although not many ap's are offered at my school). </p>
<p>senior yr: 2 APs. history, physch (or econ) and abunch of electives. </p>
<p>significant upward trend gng from A's, B's, and even two C's in freshman year to Alot of A's and some B's in soph year to nearly all A's in junior year. </p>
<p>I say mid reach. Your SAT is on the low end for Cornell, and your GPA isn’t great either. However, Your description of your EC’s is a little vague, so it would help if you’re more specific. But if your EC’s are excellent and you have great leadership, then that can make you have a good shot at Cornell.</p>
<p>Are you white, hispanic female male, etc? That can make a big difference.</p>
<p>UChicago and Cornell are both very high reaches, with Emory and CMU mid-reaches, Brandeis and NYU low reaches. Your GPA and a combined score in CR and Math of 1370 will not make you very competitive at the most selective schools on your list. However, give it a shot and see what happens. Good job on achieving a nice upward trend.</p>
<p>Cornell will take a look at the level of rigor in your coursework in regard to what your highschool offers. The fact that you have not taken an honors level math class probably means that you have not gone beyond fairly basic math. How many AP courses does your highschool offer? Why have you not taken any more honors classes? </p>
<p>The question to ask yourself is why would Cornell appeal to you when you have not exposed yourself to a more rigorous curriculum? In the chance that you did gain admission my concern would be how prepared are you for the level of work at Cornell. I would say the same for Chicago and Carnegie Mellon. Ask yourself why you are applying to these schools, because in my opinion you are not being realistic with your choices.
I can only speak for Cornell from the colleges you have mentioned, and from my personal experience with our son’s admission and course work I do not think Cornell, Chigago or Carnegie are the right schools for you. You have nothing to lose by giving it a shot but the level of work at these schools are intense and should only be considered by students who have taken full advantage of academic rigor in their highschool and from other sources.</p>
<p>You also do not mention any awards in competitions, research you have worked on, or anything that would set you apart from other students.</p>
<p>and the answer to ur quesitions are the following:
i was in the highest math class available to people doing current regents math instead of the next year’s. its just the systme of the school. it all goes back to what you were taking in 8th grade, and as a result ur stuck with non-honors throughout highschool. even though i was in the highest of what was techinically available to me, and the very top of my class.
i didn’t list any awards, specific Ec’s b/c i dont like to give away any info which wud identify myself.
3)my school offers few ap courses. one in sophmore year, and about two or three in junior year, nearly all of whihc are science and math based, which isn’t my strongest suit. If i was in a different school, i would have certantly taken many ap courses, just not caluculus, physics, etc. if ur saying that anyone who can’t handle well an ap physics or caluclus course can’t handle courseload at Carnegie MEllon or the like, i disagree. </p>
<p>don’t ask for opinions if you can’t accept them. You are below average in three of the 4 most important variables in Cornell admission…GPA, SAT, & course rigor. Your chances would appear to be very slim.</p>
<p>Any top school isn’t going to care if science/math are your weakest areas. As for the math, what happened in 8th grade should only put you behind one course, which isn’t the dealbreaker in and of itself. What concerns me is that for college admissions at top schools, you can’t start thinking about “specializing” until you actually reach college. Even most English majors at Cornell took their high school’s math/science honors/APs AND scored well. This is also fair. In high school, even AP courses only give you an intro to a field, and since high school is mostly about broad exposure to a variety of fields, you really should be taking every opportunity to pursue everything, even if your gut tells you that that’s not what you’ll study in college. Because quite honestly, in high school, you don’t know enough, especially if you don’t take the classes. Not liking biology isn’t an excuse not to take AP Bio, it’s an excuse not to take Organic Chemistry or Genetics…</p>
<p>I count by your post 5 APs offered by your school (more, if there are more than 2 available your senior year). Taking 40% of your school’s APs, given there are so few offered, is really not good. The question isn’t whether or not you can handle the course load at a top school because you missed a few APs, it’s whether or not you’re willing to challenge yourself and succeed at meeting those challenges. Your record thus far indicates that you are not. Maybe you are now, but you haven’t proven through your choices yet. Guess what? Most admitted students at top schools have taken those challenges and done well. That’s not to say you can’t do it, but it’s a lot harder to be successful at a top school if you’re part of a very low percentage of students who opted for non-APs. If you would have had a realistic chance at Cornell, you needed to have a 95-97 GPA with a relatively non-rigorous courseload. Heck, even with a rigorous courseload, your GPA is pretty low. </p>
<p>And stop being immature. You didn’t “own” anyone. Most all the people on the Cornell forums of CC give honest advice. We don’t personally know you and can only judge your achievements by what you’ve given us. Bottom line, for a school like Cornell, we’re not impressed.</p>
<p>First – I think you were out of line with Momma-three. None of us here have an axe to grind. She was giving you an honest criticism based on the information you presented. Free advice is generally worth what you pay for it (including mine) so take it to heart or disregard as you see fit. However, it’s rude to cop that attitude with someone who’s trying to help. 'nuff said about that.</p>
<p>As to your question on chances --</p>
<p>I’m going to disagree somewhat with the majority here. I think your list of schools looks fine. More than fine, actually.</p>
<p>Given your statistics, I see a mix of reaches, targets and probably safety schools. IMO this is what a list should be – </p>
<p>As for Cornell, it’s hard to say without knowing what a “90 GPA means in your school”. It seems low, but may not be. Your SATs appear to be average for enrolled students of the university as a whole, but won’t blow anyone away. You say your ECs and Essays are good, but don’t share them, so I can’t comment.</p>
<p>So, recognizing that I lack real insight into your application, my ‘guess’ would be that you have a below average shot, but it’s not impossible. This is exactly what a ‘reach’ should be.</p>
<p>Anyway good luck … and please, lose the attitude.</p>
<p>Delmonico, I am sorry if my post came across as harsh and after rereading it I realize there was a nicer way of saying what I wanted to say. To give you a little back history as to why I said “you had not exposed yourself to a more rigorous curriculum.” I have recently learned of a neighbor who is applying to very selective schools including Cornell, Duke, and Princeton. This young man has not taken any AP courses, and only a couple of honors courses. His parents have also informed me that he is applying as a URM and seem to think it is very amusing that he is not a URM. This kid would not last a week at Cornell when the pressure hits. His mother calls our local school to fight ridiculous battles for him, and even though the public highschool offers many APs he never applied himself. I know I just went off on a tangent but you need to understand that the majority of students who attend Cornell are among the brightest in the country, and they have pushed themselves for the past four to eight years academically. If you gained admission you would be sitting in class with them taking the same prelims as they would. They might be able to study the week before a prelim while you who have yet to have experience with comprehensive exams such as AP exams might not even have the experience of what it takes to study for an exam that is going to kick your butt. If you read the many posts I write regarding Cornell you will see that I love Cornell for so many reasons but mainly because my two sons had an amazing successful 4 years there. I will be forever grateful for everything that Cornell has done for my sons, and I am very proud of the men they have become. However, I think there are some highschool seniors who fail to realize that Cornell is not a place that will hold your hand. It is a school that expects its students to be self motivated and able to pursue opportunities on their own. If someone has not done so up to the point of application time then they are not looking at “fit” they are looking for name recognition. That is the wrong reason to attend Cornell because you will be so stressed out from never having been in a strong academic environment that you would burn out before you even reached the first prelim. I am not saying this to be mean to you, and I have faith that Cornell really does have a handle for the most part as to who belongs in this environment. You have some nice schools on your list and as another poster mentioned Cornell, Chigago and Carnegie are reaches. It is fine to apply to reaches but knowing what my sons went into Cornell with and yet still they occasionally had their butts kicked I felt the need to say what I did. </p>
<p>I often wonder about kids admitted with lower stats and GPAs. I wonder if they are happy in an environment that must be stressful for them because some of these admits are trully struggling. One of my sons tutored such kids during his time at Cornell and it was an eye opening experience to how political correctness can sometimes do a disservice to people. We are lucky that here in the United States there are colleges for almost everyone but that does not mean that everyone belongs in the top tier schools just because their SAT score is above the norm. It takes alot more than that to make it in this level of academia. </p>
<p>I really wish you luck and to clarify, that means I wish you success and happiness in the school you attend. To be successful post graduation you need to have time to pursue opportunities that are available as well as having a good GPA. You want to make connections to get internships in the summer and to do that you need to be a decent student. I said to you what I would say to any kid in your situation…go with your heart not with a name that will make people say wow…because you are the one who has to live through four years… not your parents, grandparents, or neighbors.</p>
<p>ok…let’s see wat we got here. @csdad - im completely able to accept opinons, and thankfully now know its not worth the bother to apply to cornell. i gladly accept that. i was respdonging to specific issues of being ready for cornell, regarding taking certain courses in my schoo, awards (which it was implied i didn’t have b/c not listed) etc…im perfectly fine accepting and eager to accept chances. thats why i asked. @mikeyc765 - whoa. long post. ok,first, i wasn’t “specializing”, i knew i couldn’t handle ap calculus…and was saying that i dont think thats a dealbraker for cornell, espceially since u can specialize once in college. i agree regarding courseload, it seems accurate, and yes, i DID own. @zephyr- thanks man. and the attitude spices things up. @momthree-ok, im sorry. i see wat ur saying.</p>
<p>Would be better if the GPA could go up.
It’d be better if you can show us more details about your accomplishments. And what is your major? How does it relate to your ECs? Just like us, admissions would be interested in knowing what you’ve done, so be sure to work on your essays asap. Oh, do apply to Cornell as well, although it seems to be a high reach. Go with your heart and you’ll be surprised with what you get!
But here’s the thing: if you really owned somebody, don’t bother coming to CC - you’re too good to ever need advice. Be humble before you get a good education. Take the words.</p>
<p>I think you stand decent chances at colleges on your list sans Cornell and University of Chicago. Btw, are you applying to NYU’s Stern or their arts college? NYU Stern is significantly more selective than the rest of NYU. I think you will get into NYU’s arts college, but Stern is a big reach.</p>
<p>What is your class rank. If you are outside top 5%, I don’t think you stand a chance at Cornell and University of Chicago given the rest of your credentials.</p>
<p>Edit: if you happened to be black or Hispanic, disregard everything that has been said on this thread. I know a black guy from my high school who got into Cornell and Brown with 27 ACT and top 20% class rank. If you are a URM, you might stand a decent chance of getting in.</p>
<p>I am glad to hear that your sons had such amazing experiences at Cornell. I think I graduated with your sons, as class of 2011. As a recent grad, I feel that Cornell was an amazing environment for me and I already miss it. I had some rough periods at Cornell, but overall, the positives greatly outshine the negatives of Cornell. Some of the professors were just amazing and life changing. Hopefully, my younger brother will get the chance to attend Cornell, too. He is applying to Cornell this year. Fingers crossed!</p>
<p>Btw, I really hope Cornell gets that NYC tech campus project over Stanford. That would be a huge boost to Cornell community and Cornell as an institution.</p>