A dilema for a Cornell hopeful!

phranc
Tue, 27 Dec 2011 01:37:43 +0000

Hi there, I’ve been browsing this site for some time and now I’m gonna ask my own questions.
This isn’t so much a CHANCE ME per say… It’s more of a NEED ADVICE question. I guess I’ll give my info anyways even though it doesn’t directly relate to my dilemma.

From Canada, Class of 2013
-Top 5% in grade, 95% average, 4.0 GPA for highschool (so far… i hear senior year is really hard hahaha)
-I’m in my junior year, Gr.11 in Canada.
-I love sports, especially ultimate frisbee. I’ve gone to the Canadian national competition representing my province for 3 years now and captained a team or two. I’m also on the school teams for basketball and volleyball.
-Have some debating experience, I’ve won a couple awards at Model United Nations, which is a kind of simulation debate.
-I volunteer at my church a lot, haven’t really collected my hours but will be 100+ by application time. Also other volunteer experience, I organized a global warming conference for 300 elementary school kids in Grade 9.
-I’m on the student council at school, my post is called Public Relations. That’s probably another 100 hours of volunteer.
-I’m fluent in Mandarin chinese and reasonably well in French too.
-I’ve been working on my portfolio for a couple months now. I’ve been taking art class since I was 7. I’m an avid photographer too, but my artistic strength lies in my drawing/painting skill and creativity. I’m confident in it.
-I play the violin, guitar, and drums

I’m taking the SAT 1 in January and I’m expecting (not just guessing hahaha i’m projecting from my current practice tests) around 2300 give or take 50. Almost definately to be higher than 2200 though. I’m taking the SAT 2 math and physics later during the year.

Now here’s my issue. I am currently taking Math 11 which is a pre-requisite to Math 12 and AP Calculus at my school. In my current academic plan, I will take AP Calculus, AP Physics, and AP Pyschology in grade.12.(senior year)

The reason I could not have taken these courses earlier is I’m enrolled in a special program called the Mini program at my school. I take courses with a group of 30 like-minded individuals and all of our academic courses are enriched and we delve a lot deeper and participate in a lot more hands-on learning. For example, in Gr.10 we traveled to the Ashland shakespere festival in Oregon and watched many modern and classic plays, and in Gr.9 we spent a week at a marine biology research doing experiments out at sea.

A requirement of my program is that students may not advance in math or science until after their sophomore year. This meant that this is the first year that I have been able to take math and science courses at my own pace. My dream is to enrol in the Architecture program at Cornell. Their requirements say that 1 year of Calculus is recommended, so I thought that I would be okay with my current plan. But now, many of my peers have been saying that Ivy Leagues are very interested in your AP exam marks and the fact that I won’t have any for my application hinders me a lot.

So I am faced with 2 choices: 1. Continue as I am and finish AP calc in grade 12.

or


Do 3 years of math in 3 months and take the AP exam in May.


The latter would require most of my time from february til May, which means a lot more added stress and a lot less sleep. But I like math and I’m a hard worker, so I believe if I chose to I could do it.

I guess what I’m really asking is whether or not it’s worth it to sacrifice my time and sanity in order to get this one edge in my application. Also if you want, go ahead and give me some feedback on how good my chances are or if I have any chance at all.

Thank you so much for reading! =)

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