Chances of me getting in?

Redadd0
Thu, 20 Aug 2015 22:41:17 +0000

Our son is an incoming CS major freshman at School of Arts and Science. He had a bad HS freshman year: 3.2 GPA thanks to too many difficult classes. His grades steadily improved while branching out to many EC activities including tons of volunteer work and being in a crew rowing team. In short, your credentials are not worse than our son’s.

However, I believe what got him in was his essays. He clearly articulated his career aspirations, what he wanted to learn at Cornell and how Cornell and the society at large will benefit from him attending Cornell. He demonstrated his superb critical thinking ability, creativity and a very unique voice in his essays. Your desire to getting into Cornell or getting good grades cannot be your ambition that will compel admissions officer to pick you. You need to build an authentic core accompanied by EC activities to support it. Don’t compare yourself with others and don’t do things just to look good.

Good luck!!