<p>I want to know how you made it in and if you have any tips/suggestions/warnings about admissions as well as high school curriculum leading up to applying Thanks!</p>
<p>Take the most challenging classes your HS offers. Show leadership & excellence in your EC’s (not just participation). Write great essays that express who you are as a person. Get your SAT/ACT scores into an acceptable range (don’t listen to people who tell you that without a hook these scores have to be well above the 50th percentile). However in the end WHO you really are comes through. You can’t fabricate excellence if it isn’t there.</p>
<p>Though many of the points csdad makes are of utmost importance, I do not believe that you should take the most challenging classes your HS has to offer. I was accepted Early Decision to Cornell 3 months ago and I can tell you that before my acceptance, my grades were the bane of my happiness. I would CONSTANTLY be sad as to how low my GPA was (I think it was about 3.52 unweighted). The reason it was this low was for two reasons: 1. I was in India for my first two years of high school and I got *****ty credits for the classes I took, like 2 credits for a whole year of programming when it’s actually worth about 6 or 7. 2. During the summer, when we had to register for classes, I would sign up for the hardest ones to impress people and my parents and I would try to convince myself I could do it. Unfortunately, my classes ALWAYS got the better of me and I would have so much work I would start neglecting it.
You know how at those college fairs there’s always that concerned parent that asks “Is it better for my kid to take all AP classes and get straight Bs or for my kid to take all Honors classes and get straight As?” Well I can tell you that the latter is better. You don’t want to go what I went through. All that stress every second of the day. It started to screw around with my social life too because I would ALWAYS be thinking about my grades when I went bowling or something with my friends.
My SATs were great with 2300 on the SAT I and 800, 780 on the SAT II. But I felt that in retrospect, they weren’t nearly as important as I made them out to be. Sure they fueled me to do better for a few weeks but after that, it’s just “whatever.”
For ECs do something unique. I know this sounds trite, but it’s true. I was an EMT at the age of 16 and that certainly turned some heads. Try saving animals or something. Something cool like that.
Remember, you are living YOUR life. Anyone that tells you to take courses or do things you don’t want to is just an outside opinion. If you don’t agree with me now, you will later. If your life was a box, you are the only one inside looking out. Everyone else is outside looking in. Only you know where the truth is; where you are comfortable and where you will succeed.
Phew, my fingers are tired! this is the first post I’ve posted since Cornell decision day last December :D</p>