I would like to know my chances at this school but refuse to make a "chance me" thread. In an effort to see the spectrum of students admitted into Cornell I would appreciate if anyone that got in would post some of their hard stats (i.e. gpa, rank, sat, act, etc), and maybe some stand out e.c.'s. I would prefer it if not just the perfect scoring, 4.0's posted but also the lower side of the admitted students (which I understand still will be pretty high) in order to get a full idea.
Now before people pounce on me saying that they look at everything and not just scores, I understand that. Chance threads seem useless to me as there is no guarantee for anyone at a school like this. Most of the people that respond to these type of threads also remind me of piranhas waiting for a non ideal statistic to jump on and say that they have little chance. I don't mean everyone so don't get offended by that. What I am hoping for through this is to see actual admitted students and not just hopefuls. Comparing one's stats to this seems to me to be the only way to really chance yourself. Also, don't just post the collegeboard statistics for Cornell.
My D took the most rigorous courses offered at her high school. Got 3 "B+"'s & the rest A's. Had a 1350 SAT & a 31 ACT, was accepted ED to the College of HE. Her EC's & letters of rec. were outstanding. Essays must have been good also.
Chancing yourself against the stats of an extremely small sample of self-selected individuals is actually the worst way to chance yourself.
Most of us who regularly give chances have years of experience on these boards/at Cornell most and at least on the Cornell board I think we are pretty honest. Obviously none of us are admissions officers and don't have access to any special information (other than experience). I myself started on these boards in high school and have since graduated Cornell. I think we are generally good at 1) Are you admissible? and 2) How to you stack against other candidates?
Keep in mind, even if I say someone has a 90% chance of being admitted (let's say they had near perfect SATs, a rigorous schedule, top of their class, and captain of a varsity team), that still means that of 100 similar applicants, 10 are predicted to be rejected.
Someone who is 80th percentile in GPA/SAT is probably not going to get in, but I'm pretty sure every year a non-insignificant number of those applicants are accepted. Maybe those applicants had fantastic essays or some great EC that stood out. Conversely, those hypothetical 10 "idea" candidates who were rejected probably had bad essays. I've read my fair share of essays from people on these boards over the years and some of the best essays come from mediocre candidates (stats-wise) and some of the worse come from statistically ideal candidates.
As for a minimal standard, I'd go with 90th percentile in GPA/SAT. A specific GPA is useless since some schools are easy, others are hard. Some weight, some don't. Some offer a lot of APs, others only have a couple honors classes. When evaluating GPA, course rigor is NOT to be discounted. An applicant who is top of their class will not have great chances if they could have taken 15 honors classes and never took a single one.
As for EC's, what really matters usually is demonstrating a dedicated passion. Being in 20 clubs is not going to help you much if you didn't do much in any of them. However, if you have been playing an instrument for years and pushed yourself to high achievement that will stand out. Playing sports is good, but a stand out candidate will have high success in those sports because it indicates they've put a lot of time into them. If you are in clubs, demonstrating leadership and initiative with that leadership is important. If you are entering science competitions, performing well and doing something "really cool" is important.
Applied/accepted ED to CAS (Class of 2015)
SAT I : 730/800/780 (2310)
SAT II : Bio 780, Chem 800, Math II 800
GPA: 3.95/4, 4.7/5 (Top 3%) in a top high school
I'm Asian and male
By the way my stats has no meaning for you personally whatsoever.
@Cortana, just wondering but why are the first few pages all URM?
CoE 2012
SAT1: 640/720/710 (CR/M/W)
SAT2: MathI (750) Physics (760)
GPA: Canadian 89%. I think I was Top 10.1%, if you know what I mean...
Asian, Male, Canadian, FirstGen.
I think I am as low as you can get without being an athlete lol. Hooray EC's and essays...
Location: Southern California -> Cornell '16! Go Big Red!
Posts: 1,954
Cortana, it's because top URMs often receive likely letters in an attempt to coax them to coming to Cornell.
OP, brief stats, I can elaborate more if you need:
UW: 3.87, weighted: 4.59
Ranked 1/532 at a bottomfeeding public high school where 50%+ of the graduating class goes to community college or trade school. Most of the remainder went to Cal States. Like 30 or so decent UC matriculations, and by that I mean UCSC and up.
2340 SAT (missed two in math), 10 APs (five 5s, four 4s, and a 3) and took six more exams senior year (two self-studied). Near max-courseload. Didn't take Physics or Calc BC because I hate math. 770 US SAT II, 710 Lit SAT II
District Governor of Interact after having been Founder/President of school Interact club, Eagle Scout, Ac Dec co-captain.
Average essays. It's not that I didn't put in effort; it's just that it's tough to be above-average when they cap each essay at 500 words. That wasn't enough space for me. No interview.
If you need more info or have questions about me personally, then I'd be happy to answer.
I understand I can't get find out for sure by any means but I feel this gives me a better idea. Looking through the people on that link answers all my questions so thank you. I don't doubt anyone's experience but I feel it is better for me to see what actual accepted students look like instead of someone just giving my chances. Thank you everyone that replied.
Location: Southern California -> Cornell '16! Go Big Red!
Posts: 1,954
^
Keep in mind that those decision threads aren't representative of the actual pool. People who were rejected usually won't post their stats unless it was for ED or something like that. Usually, it's mostly accepted people who post stats.
