Hey, guys. I visited the Cornell campus this summer and really fell in love with it. I really hope I can get in and need some advice. What can I do to enhance my application? Any suggested activities or anything else would be really helpful. Thanks.
I’m a sophomore, white, immigrant from Russia, lower class, living in NY (about an hour outside NYC)
Took 1 pre ap and one honors in freshman year
This year:
-Italian
-AP World hist
-English Honors
-Science Research
-Bio Honors
-Orchestra
Junior year I will most likely take:
-Italian
-APUSH
-Science Research
-AP Environmental science
-Chem honors
-Alg 2 honors
-AP English Lang
-Orchestra
-I will try to self study for AP psych since it’s not offered at my school but I still want to take the exam
I’m not sure about senior year since it’s still far but I will probably take 3-5 AP classes
Extra:
-mock trial
-SADD
-Doing track for a few years
-volunteer at my town hall
-will volunteer in hospital next year
-working on independent research project about Lyme disease through my science research class
-Might take a law&trial program offered by Invision at Stanford this summer
-Will probably volunteer in Nepal or Thailand before senior year
I have not taken the SAT yet but I am practicing.Thanks!
Do you have grades? It is very hard to guess whether you have a chance with neither SAT scores nor some sense regarding what you grades are.
For what it is worth, many years ago when I went back to graduate school Cornell was my top choice. I didn’t get in, but loved my second choice school that I went to instead. I am still thankful to Cornell for rejecting me. There are a lot of very good universities in the US.
Why would you self study AP Psych? Cornell will not care.
Your ECs (as presented) don’t show any depth / commitment / leadership - it might be there, but it doesn’t come through.
Your summers look as though they have 2-4 weeks of activity - a fancy summer camp and voluntourism. How do these fit into a coherent picture of who you are & what are you doing with the rest of your time?
(sorry if this coming across as sharp- just cutting to the chase!)
Whoops forgot to include my grades. I had a 95 GPA freshman year and my current sophomore GPA is 98. GPA is weighted. I’m top 8-15% of my class which is around 600 students.
I believe Cornell likes to see that your EC’s align with the major you apply for (which you have to do when applying to Cornell if I remember correctly), so eventually, once you decide which major you are going to apply as, working to make sure your activities, courses, and passions show interest, compatibility, and fit with the major could help your chances. Best of luck!
It is way too early to think about specific colleges (especially the hyper-competitive ones). You just have one full year’s GPA and you have no standardized testing. You also need to recognize that HS should be an experience in and of itself – a time of learning and growth and not just a 4 year college application prep experience.
It is good to take school seriously and know that college will be on your horizon, but it is too early to start planning for specific colleges. I would highly recommend that you get off of CC until your junior year.
For now you should focus on:
–Working hard, learning, and doing as well as you can in the most challenging curriculum you can manage.
–When the time comes study for standardized tests.
–Continue your involvement in activities you care about and work towards making meaningful contributions to those activities.
–Enjoying spending time with your family and friends.
The people I see who get hurt by the college admission process are the ones who focus on one or two hyper-competitive schools and then don’t get in. Instead, when the time comes asses your academic stats (including GPA, standardized tests, course rigor) as well as your financial needs and apply to a wide range of reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (you will have to run a net price calculator for each school you consider) and that you would be happy to attend. There are many wonderful schools out there where you can have a great 4 year experience and get where you want to go in life.
As an aside, I would not spend any time self-studying AP Psych. Better to focus your time and attention to classes you are taking and your ECs. If you are interested in psychology read some books on the topic.
but as they say, it don’t make me no nevermind- was just making the point in case you were under the misapprehension that it would be an admissions boost.
I think taking APs not offered at your school can be a good thing, especially if you’re interested in the subject. My school only offered two APs, so I took AP Government online and took the AP exam, which ended up getting me out of an intro gov class at Cornell (useful, since government eventually became my major). And I also think colleges like to see that not only did you take the most rigorous coursework your school offered, but if your school didn’t offer rigorous coursework, you went out of your way to find it.
@Ranza123, you may think that colleges like to see extra APs, but the colleges say that they don’t. You will hear that at pretty much every college road show and read it on every admissions blog. They would rather that you take a rigorous course load for your school and follow your interests outside of school. If the OP is really interested in psychology s/he should look for ways to explore the field.
(taking the AP to get out of taking Psych 101 is not unreasonable - my point was/is that it won’t help the application)
To clarify, I’m not saying colleges like to see extra APs; they like to see a rigorous course load. If your college offers 20 APs but you take 21 that’s not going to matter. If your college doesn’t offer APs but you go out of your way to challenge yourself, I think that probably will be reflected in your GC letter and show a positive academic characteristic. I’m not an admissions officer, so you can do whatever you want, but don’t not take AP Psych because people on here tell you not to.
