Mexican
Highest SAT score 1400
Highest SAT super score 1410
Class rank of 45 out of 976
Top 4% of entire class
Received numerous awards in Orchestra
Received awards in HOSA
Volunteered more than 150+ hours in various organizations
Took a loaded schedule for the most of my high school career
Part of National Honor Society, Science National Honor Society, English Honor Society
Dad is a doctor making 250,000+ every year
Dad graduated from Cornell in 1992
Planning to major in biology so that I can be a doctor.
Sorry if this isnt enough to judge my chances of getting in, just need a rough estimate.
I am not well informed about admissions (or almost anything else) so take this for what it is worth.
My guess is, as a legacy applicant, you have a decent chance, but far from a shoe-in, to be admitted IF you apply there early decision.
No idea how the “Mexican” thing figures in, maybe that helps a little ? (I don’t know).
I don’t see how you would get any financial aid, but all New York residents who attend CALS (which, along with CAS, houses the Biology major) get a modest (yet material) tuition reduction, so you could go this route if the circumstances fit.
The question I would have that you did not ask is should you attend Cornell. My understanding is to get into medical school one needs great grades. You are not at the top of your class in high school. Your stated academic background seems more “middle of the pack” for Cornell, to me, which may not be good enough to get the kind of grades you will need to get into medical school. Though I have no idea how the “Mexican” thing fits in for med school admissions either. I would imagine that your dad would have a better notion about all this than I have.
Are you a Mexican citizen? If so, international admission is even tougher and the 1400 SAT score is on the low side. Also, admission to US med school is nearly impossible for international applicants and many here on CC tell students that they are better off staying in their home country if they want to be a physician.
Did you apply ED? The legacy boost is really only there for ED applicants.
I’m Mexican American and I haven’t applied yet. The reason why I didn’t apply ED is because I want to be able to negotiate financial aid with Cornell Admissions if I do get in.
Ability to negotiate financial aid only helps if you are actually admitted, and then also you are actually awarded any financial aid.
Neither of these are foregone conclusions, as far as I can see. I was thinking legacy might really help here, but it supposedly only helps in ED, not RD.
But I’m no expert. Let us know what happens, if you do apply.
@TomSrOfBoston That is another point I was going to make with the OP. Cornell doesn’t need to “negotiate” with anyone. There are plenty of people willing to pay full price and again with a parent making more than $250k, it is unlikely he/she would qualify for anything anyway. I would assume with income that high, there are also significant assets. But who knows? He can try anyway, but may have shot himself in the foot by not applying this go around.
I seem to recall that Cornell had a policy, a while ago, of matching financial aid packages from a small subset of other schools. I’ve no idea if this is still happening, or all the schools it applies to (might just have been the other schools in the Ivy League).
If this policy still exists, then one could possibly “negotiate” with Cornell to get a package similar to the qualified other offer(s). Of course this presumes admission to one or more of those “qualified” schools, and financial aid awards from them. And that there’s another offer stronger than Cornell’s.
The other ivy league schools also offer only need-based aid, AFAIK. But some schools may compute “need” differently than others. And some may meet it with more grants and fewer loans.
(Assuming “need” will be found in the first place).
As far as predicting need, most schools have a calculator somewhere on their financial aid pages that will give a pretty good estimate of what you’ll end up paying. Cornell also requires CSS profile, so if you have significant assets, including your home, that will be used against you. Our experience last year was that schools all offered very similar packages and there wasn’t much negotiating to be done.
You would likely get no financial aid to be honest sorry. I know no one with parents who made above 250k and got financial aid unless they had extrordinary circumstances.