warsovereign

Hello, I am an international student from Hong Kong SAR, China.
I applied for Cornell Engineering School as my intended major and Arts & Science School as my alternate major.
The best SAT I score by January delivered to Cornell:
Reading 680, Writing 750 (essay 12), Math 800, Total 2230
SAT II score in November:
Physics, Chemistry, Math II all 800s.
Class rank is about 10%~15%, I'm not quite sure.
I checked the admission data of Cornell engineering school online, it seems to me that writing score is not considered?
It's depressing for me, as my CR is only 680 and W is better than expected 750. Math is 800 though, but there should be a pile of applicants with 800 since it's engineering after all.
My extracurricular is commonplace though. I only joined the school team for English and Chinese debate and some local tournaments without any decent ranks, and also a vice-chairperson of a small school club about philosophy.
Please evaluate my chance for Cornell. Thank you.

Colene

It'll be a pretty big reach if rd. If you early, then it is more reasonable. Try your hardest to get your class rank to be top 10% at least for that to happen. It's pretty unfortunate that Cornell doesn't consider the writing section.

warsovereign

It's unfortunate that there will be no more chances for me to boost my class rank before the admission decision is released. But it's only a guess. The school refuses to show me the rank because they keep it confidential.
Only four subjects, i.e. English, Chinese, Math and Liberal Studies (which is a highly controversial and subjective new subject of HK curriculum) are taken into account when the overall class rank is determined, and I performed not very well in these subjects (except mathematics). Meanwhile, I performed well in those subjects that the overall class rank does not take into account - like physics, chemistry and calculus. They only list the rank of these subjects individually.
Is only overall class rank provided considered by Cornell? Because what the class rank shows is obviously not holistic enough to showcase my academic performances, as you can see in my three 800s of subject test.

Colene

I mean they look at everything. You generally need to be pretty good in every subject no matter how well you are angled in specific ones.

GraceTone

Cornell doesn't care about your writing scores, only Math & CR.
And you didn't even pass the 1500 mark for the SAT, so I'd say it's a reach school, especially since you're an international student.