Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2010 (790M / 610R / 610W)
ACT: None
SAT II: 790 Chem, 800 Math 2C
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.85
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): No rank
AP (place score in parenthesis): Euro (5), Chem (5), English Lang (3), U.S. History (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, AP Calc BC, AP Econ, AP Gov't, AP Physics B, AP Computer Science, Chinese Language and Culture
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Toshiba Exploravision Honorable Mention
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Cross Country (captain), Winter Track (captain), Spring Track (captain), Jericho Christian Club (founder), Art Honor Society (secretary), National Honor Society (member), Asian American Awareness (member), Peer Tutoring (member), and TBM (member)
Job/Work Experience: None
Volunteer/Community service: National Honor Society, Peer Tutoring, Asian American Awareness
Summer Activities: None. just reading books that I couldn't read during the school years and studying for the SAT.
Essays: Did not start writing yet. But according to my A.P. Composition grade, I would say it would be not excellent, but decent or so so.
Teacher Recommendation: Hopefully pretty good; one from AP Chem teacher and one from AP Composition teacher. In AP Chem class, I was a top rank student who had the highest average among his students (almost 100). My AP Composition teacher has known me for two years thus knows me very well since I came to America.
Counselor Rec: No clue
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: Not yet
Other:
State (if domestic applicant): NY
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian American
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: less than $15K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None
Reflection:
Strengths: recommendation, interest in a variety of disciplines (even though i tend to have lower grade in english and social studies than math and science because of language barrier), grades (depending on the standard), SAT II
Weaknesses: SAT I (especially reading and writing), essays, work/intern experience, extracurricular activities (such as community service)
For engineering, improve that SATI score. Engineering is pretty stat-based, when it comes to admissions. Other than that, I think you stand a pretty decent chance.
You have a good shot, but yeah if your sat 1s were higher it would be better. The good news is that for engineering the math scores, of which yours are excellent, are more important, but if you could raise those writing and reading scores to high 600s you would have an even better shot.
However there is one thing I find a bit odd. Why are you taking physics B instead of physics C? I'm guessing your school doesn't offer it, otherwise there is no reason to take B over C since you are taking BC calculus.
Prism123 and patlees88, thank you so much for your advice. Prism123, our school is starting to offer Physics C this coming year, but I heard that it will be very tough if I take Physics C while taking Calculus BC. That's why I chose to take Physics B instead of Physics C.
What class do you think I should take if I'm considering med school for my grad school, but engineering as my undergrad?
This is the list of the classes that I am planning to take.
AP Lit, AP Calculus BC, AP Gov't, AP Economics, AP Physics B, and AP Computer Science.
Instead of AP Computer Science, should I take AP Bio?
Also, I never took Physics besides Physics in middle school when I was in Korea. That's another reason for taking Physics B instead of C. What should I do?
I came from Korea three years ago, and that's the reason my SAT 1 score is low. Do you think that fact will be considered in admission? Or not?
If you haven't taken a high school physics course yet C may be fairly tough if the other students have as the teacher would probably assume some basic knowledge when they teach the material, although if you put in the extra effort to review the basics before you start each new section it is still probably doable.
My comment about BC was that you will be fine for the calculus part of C, unless of course everyone else already took BC the year before in which case the course would probably expect more calculus knowledge right away. (that said to get a 5 on the test all you really need to know are basic derivative and integral rules and the fundamental theorem) from what you learn in BC.
I took them at the same time, as did nearly everyone in my C class(3 kids were taking AB, 2 took BC the year before, everyone else was currently taking BC) but of course things vary from school to school so if it isn't the norm at your school then that is different. However yes they both cover difficult material, but neither had hours of work at my school. Each class usually had 45 minutes of homework at my school if you did it right(15 minutes if you just set up the problems and did some quick scratch work to make it look like you did it since neither class collected it, just glanced at it and checked off if you did it)
And yeah if English is your second language then a low sat 1 is understandable. did you take the toefl or whatever its called?
And yeah if English is your second language then a low sat 1 is understandable. did you take the toefl or whatever its called?
I don't know about that. They will most likely hold you accountable as other domestic students on your SATs, regardless of what country you are from. In fact, the international students applying to top U.S. schools tend to have even higher SAT scores than domestic students, on average.
I said understandable, I didn't say they would completely over look it. Although that more applies to people who are less familar with English than the op considering he has been in the U.S. for the pas 4 years so is probably nearly as fluent as a native speaker. Also a general tip, anything I say about Cornell Admissions is pretty much a reasoned guess since I don't know anything about the admissions office except for my own experience and what I've read on this board and site in general.
Prism123: Thank you for your information. Nah I don't have to take TOEFL because I am a citizen. One more question. How many years of computer science do I have to take in college (both in general and Cornell) if I'm majoring in chemE? Sigh I really don't know what to choose between CS and Bio. I'm almost sure that I am going to apply to med school even though I'm going to major in chemE.
Tsenguun: Did you attend Cornell? How is it? Is it really hard to graduate with good grades? Do you know if many students go to good med school?
Neineibu: hahaha nah but I screwed up A.P. English and Composition. I thought I got 3 but today when I got my score back, it was 2... -_- lol
If you take AP CS AB and get a 5, you only have a take a measly 1 credit class to complete your CS requirement in Cornell, don't know about other colleges.
If you don't come in with CS credit, you only have to take one semester (either 3 or 4 credits, don't remember) of it, plus that same 1 credit course.
