Public high school in the suburbs (pretty competitive – we also have a grade inflation issue)
Intended Major(s)
CS (applied College of Engineering)
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
3.98 on a 4.0 scale
Class Rank: Top 6%
ACT/SAT: 1510 SAT (i would’ve had a 1540 superscore, but i forgot to send the score report for the other SAT in…)
List your HS coursework
English: AP lang (5), dual enrollment english 12th grade
Math: AB calc (5), BC calc 12th grade
Science: AP physics 1, AP chemistry (4), APES (taking rn), AP Physics C Mechanics/EMag (taking rn)
History and social studies: AP Human (5), AP World (4), APUSH (4), AP macro (taking rn), AP gov (taking rn)
Language other than English: 2 years of spanish
Visual or performing arts: Art all 4 years. AP Drawing (4), currently in AP 2D
Other academic courses: Computer Science Courses provided by school, completed highest coursework offered (DSA), AP CSA (5), research
Awards
Certiport IT specialist: networking certification
Local university programming competition, 20th/140+ teams
Highest rating on state-level art competition
DECA MMTDM state qualifier
RCM piano level 7
Extracurriculars
Paid software engineering intern at a corporation (1500+ employees) (11th grade summer)
Artist on Instagram and Tiktok (1k+ followers, 67.5k interactions, 430k+ views); hosted 2 international collabs with 38 contributors
President of CS club (~80 members)
President of art club (~60 members)
Web developer and founding member of a local, student-led nonprofit org focused on CS education (designed and built 2 websites)
research
Summer Android app dev workshop participant at local uni
Attended selective residential program of another, larger state uni in game development
Piano student
Math tutor
Essays/LORs/Other
Essays are mid. I don’t feel great about these, but I doubt they’d make admissions cringe.
LORs from: Employer, my independent study mentor, my independent study teacher, APUSH teacher, CS teacher. I feel good about these.
Schools
I crapshooted Cornell’s Engineering college ED and now I’m just waiting.
I’m not optimistic about my chances at all, but I’m also curious where I lie. I feel like I don’t see as many profiles for admitted Engineering students online, especially in CS.
Also, any tips on how to cope with waiting for decisions to come out and rejection? I never thought I’d be saying this, but I’m struggling to feel excited about this process in any way when I have no clue where I’m going to end up :')
You are a viable candidate at any college. However, IMO it is impossible to chance for a school like Cornell as there are more well qualified applicants than spots available.
What to do while you wait – read a book, go out with friends, go to the movies, enjoy family time, play piano, etc.
If you get in – celebrate and order a hoodie. If you don’t – consider it Cornell’s loss. Never forget that there are many many schools where you can have a great four year experience and get anywhere you want to go in life.
Congrats on your accomplishments and good luck moving forward.
Did you list it on your Common app? It would help but I do not think it will be the deciding factor
If this doesn’t workout or you get deferred then make sure to change it on the common app for your other apps and as an update if deferred. Best of luck!
Cornell is a reach for pretty much all applicants. You are a competitive applicant, but so are the large majority of other applicants. Are you and your parents fine being full pay at Cornell, or have you run the NPC?
You need to also get your applications in to schools where admissions is far more likely. You have some very good universities in state which are excellent overall, and excellent for computer science.
I am guessing that since you are a math tutor, you are most likely quite good at math. This will of course help you quite a bit as a CS major. Music and math are also skills that often go together.
In terms of feeling excitement, I would just try to remember the ultimate purpose of all this is not to get admitted to college. The purpose is to actually go to college, to get a great education, to have a great experience, and to set yourself up for success in whatever comes next.
You didn’t mention anything about a budget, but I am sure that if you can afford Cornell, you can also afford many other colleges (one way or another). And so even if Cornell doesn’t work out, if you apply to a reasonable list of colleges that make sense for you, you should end up with multiple offers to consider.
And then you get to do the really exciting part, pick which of those colleges you will actually attend. And at that point, the colleges that made you offers typically really want you to accept, and it is quite nice to realize you are the prize now which they are trying to win.
Of course it can also be nice if you have a clear favorite, apply ED, get in, and that is the end of your process. You can then relax and just enjoy your senior year.
But there is a downside, because you won’t get to go through that fun process of having multiple colleges trying to woo you into accepting their offer.
Point being it is good either way! Again as long as you have a reasonable list in the event you don’t get accepted ED, and keep your focus on what really matters, in the end it should be an exciting and fulfilling process.
