meghara

4.0 gpa - 30 act - 1 of 250 - top 5%

extra curriculars:

champions(mentoring middle schoolers about the dangers of drug use) - track - Black Belt in Karate- jazz band - pep band - wind ensemble(principle chair) - letter in band - show choir band ( letter in choir - 5 best band awards - lead player) also, im drum major of the marching band - jazz camp several summers as lead player - perfect score at state solo&ensemble
Treasurer of Senior Class - attended leadership conferences & nominated for congressional leadership conference but didnt attend cause it seemed like a waste of money - Representative of State Student Government

Freshman Year:

geometry
honors biology
humanities english&history (world) courses
geography 1&2
Spanish 2
gym,health etc. home ec..
band

Sophomore:

algebra 2
pre-ap english
ap us history
earth/general science
psychology
computer applications
band

Junior Year:

ap government
algebra 3
AP english (lit&language)
chemistry
spanish 4
band

with electives thats 7 credits every year.. next year is my senior year and im trying to focus on the things i like best i.e. languages and history. math and science pretty much kill my soul and are the reason i didnt get a 33 on my act. ( 35 English - 33 Reading - 25 Math - 28 Science (10 Writing)) so heres my schedule as of this summer - any input or advise is much appreciated!

Advanced Speech OR AP european history
brit lit/novels
AP stats 1
anat&phys
French 2
German 1
AP Macroeconomics
band

I know for sure that i have one STELLAR letter of recommendation from my soph. english teacher, and my counsellor will deliver a super letter and i have a couple if math teachers who are sure to be very helpful so thats not what im worried about..
and im not worried about my essay because im planning to be super passionate and as powerful ad i can be in my writing. so all of that is alright i think.. but im worried about whether i have enough extra curriculars. i mean, theyre all music, and i dont want to major in music? weird how that turned out but either way i want to major in Russian.
and im most concerned about my ACT because i could get 36 on both english and reading, but science ad math will always be average at best, and they'll always pull me down. is a 30 worthy of Columbia with my resume?
p.s. im white lower middle class
THANKS!!!!

mikeyc765

Your EC's are fine and it's actually better that they are mostly music rather than a hodgepodge of random things. It shows passion/focus.

Overall your application is pretty solid. Your 4.0 GPA I would assume means you got A's in all your math/science classes? If so, the ACT subscore probably won't make much of a difference. Perhaps course rigor could work against you if you could have doubled your AP/honors course load had you been willing to take harder math/science classes. If you took 80%+ of the APs/honors you could have potentially taking, then I'd say course rigor doesn't count against you. If you are under that roughly 80% threshold though, that is a significant drawback to your application.

Don't get too arrogant with the essay. Most people that apply are strong writers. Be sure to focus on why Cornell fits you and why you would enhance the campus and BE SPECIFIC. I read way too many essays that are generic; I shouldn't be able to replace the word "Cornell" in the essay with another university when I read it and still have it make sense. For example, I'm guessing you copied/pasted this thread from the Columbia forums since at the end you ask "is a 30 worthy of Columbia..." and this is the Cornell forum.

csdad

The 30 ACT & no AP science courses & no Trig or Calc in math is going to hurt you. The vast majority of viable canidates applying to Cornell & Columbia will have taken these courses.

Colene

Pretty big reach for Cornell. Columbia is very, very unlikely.

Saugus

Your school has an Algebra 3?

cortana431

Biggest weakness is your act. Cornell and Columbia are very unlikely unless you improve to 33+.

CentralFC

Although your ACT is your weakest component, it won't prevent you from being competitive for Cornell.