To be, or not to be

Colleges & Universities Cornell University
1

<p>Just got my depressing SAT scores back, so please help me with my chances:</p>

<p>BACKGROUND:
Male, live in NY, born in South Asia, moved to U.S. when almost three yrs old, English was my third language, household income is around 85,000 so about 55,000 net, I have two older siblings, both of whom went to college. Father is a pharmacist. Mother is a housekeeper.</p>

<p>STATS:
–GPA: 103 weighted, 95 unweighted (weighting system: honors = +10, AP = +12)
–Class Rank: 6/300
–SAT Reasoning Test: M: 710 Cr: 670 W: 670 Total: 2050/2400 and 1380/1600
–AP: Last year I took 3 APs, and got two 4s and one 3. This year I am taking 5 AP classes (6 if you count economics as macro and micro as separate since tests are separate) + engineering research class + phys ed + a graduation requirement class.
–SAT II: Phys: 800 MathIIC: 800 Literature: 700
–Essays: Good, meaning not super because I am not an extremely creative writer and I rarely use SAT words, but good in the sense that I feel I successfully expressed my personality.
–Letters of Recommendation: One of them was really good, and the other two were average good.</p>

<p>AWARDS/EXTRACURRICULARS/WORK EXPERIENCE:
–AP Scholar
–Varsity Tennis Team: 3yrs (I made counties once)
–Varsity Excellence Award (received twice)
–Two-time scholar athlete
–Distinguished High Honor Roll student
–Mathletes: 4yrs (county champion last year, captain this year)
–Science Olympiads: 2yrs, ever since it was offered (I entered all the physics and chemistry competitions)
–SWEEP (an environmental club): 2yrs
–Key Club: 20 hrs community service
–School Radio: 2yrs (journalist)
–Have been working hard at a convenient store 30hrs/week for 3yrs. I have been sales manager for 1.5 years. This is big for me since it took up a lot of my time on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays (no dates, but I have a dream…)
–Even though I am an atheist, I have been helping every year, for five years, to help set up the food and dining preparations during the four weekend community feasts in the month of Ramadan. My counselor told me this is community service. So it took at least 3hrs/day<em>2days</em>4weekends<em>4yrs(high school yrs)=96 hours.
–I volunteered to tutor two students, on math and chemistry during junior year, after school every day, 1 hr each session, for 32 weeks. So 1</em>5<em>32 = 160 hours.
–I gave tennis lessons to a couple of persons at my tennis club during sophomore year, once a week, three hours a week, for six months. So 3</em>4*6= 72 hours. Afterwards, she became my girlfriend, which indeed was the huge payoff!</p>

<p>RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:
–I have completed original research on two projects, one involving chemistry at a state university, the other involving a bit of physics, environmental science, and biology—mixed—at a prominent national lab. I will be sending my abstracts for both research projects. Neither project was published, but I am entering the second one into ISEF. All this research stuff is perhaps my biggest “hook.”</p>

<p>MISCALLENOUS:
–I have been privately tutored for Arabic twice a week, for about 2 years now.
–I speak four languages fluently: Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, English; I know there are some conflicts about whether Urdu and/or Punjabi are languages or dialects, it’s acknowledged.
–I have taken part in civil protests against the war in Iraq as well as against the Patriot Act for twice a month, for two years.
–I trained at an international tennis academy in Texas for 1 month. (But please note, I do NOT wish to play college tennis)
–I regularly play tennis at a local club
–I love to play chess with my friends; I tried to create an official club, but my school’s board failed to pass it in time to make it official this year.
–My favorite album is War by U2
–As subtly mentioned above, I am taking an engineering research class. This year is the first year ever that my school is offering it, and it is very unique. I doubt many other schools have it, so this may catch a second glimpse.</p>

<p>PERSONAL QUALITIES:
–Mathematically and scientifically inclined
–Extremely politically active (I’m somewhere between liberal and libertarian)
–Very outgoing, I love my closest friends with all my heart, and I like most everyone else (except for the cocky jocks, for they are so annoying).
–Theologically open-minded
–I like to get personal with small groups of people, rather than lead a huge pack, as evident in my tutoring and tennis-lessons providing.</p>

<p>ACADEMIC INTERESTS:
–Economics
–Philosophy
–Mathematics
–Physics</p>

<p>Well, I gave it my all; looking back at my past four years, I feel happy, and satisfied—that’s what matters the most.</p>

2

<p>I was gonna say you’ve got a good shot, but dammit, you picked the wrong U2 album.</p>

3

<p>If you don’t like War, then you are obviously not a true U2 fan. Period. </p>

<p>I absolutely LOVE “Bloody Sunday” though, it’s my most favorite song ever!</p>

4

<p>how do u get 710 on SAT I math section</p>

5

<p>^What do you mean? It’s way too low?</p>

6

<p>u got 800 on Math II but 710 on SAT I math , how do u do it</p>

7

<p>Oh, that’s easy. Math II has a super awesome curve. Like, if you get 8 wrong, you still get a 800. Plus, the math problems in Math II is like all precalc, and much more straightforward. It doesn’t require much analytical thinking. Or in other words, it is much more mechanical. Does that answer your question? Also, can you please chance me? Thanks.</p>

8

<p>Oh my, and I forgot to tell you all that I want to apply to the College of Arts and Sciences. I am so sorry for not including that, perhaps this is why I did not get many evaluations. My apologies.</p>

9

<p>no, its more like 4 Qs wrong max. cuz i have 790 on math II and 780 on SAT math. the best curve is physics… U have awesome chances, with good SAT scores and ECs, i dont see a reason why they would reject you. CAS, it also depends on ur major for specific chances</p>

10

<p>Well, this is what sparknotes says: [SparkNotes:</a> SAT Subject Test: Math Level 2: Math IIC Scoring](<a href=“SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides”>SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides)</p>

<p>And Barron’s I believe says 8 wrong can equate to an 800.</p>

<p>Also, the curve varies, so you may have had a slightly easier test, or perhaps more seniors took the test when you took it, and thus more people were better studied, scoring higher on average, thus reducing the curve? </p>

<p>I do remember I had like 5Qs wrong though. But I felt that mathIIC was MUCH easier than the regular SAT math. My friends thought that too.</p>

<p>And I appreciate your chance evaluation. I still need more chance evaluations though, especially some more mean ones, because I personally feel that I’m probably not going to get in, because I know someone who applied last year, he was the valedictorian, with a 2340 SAT, all 750+ SAT IIs, and he got rejected. He ultimately went to UChicago.</p>

11

<p>omg lol i guess i really bombed the Math II test then. anyway, valedictorian is nothing and same can go for scores to some degree.</p>

12

<p>No, getting a 790 is not called bombing a test! Plus, you got a 780 on the other reasoning math, I respect that score a lot. Good luck to you (if your also applying anywhere) with your apps IHateS@T! And thank you again for your help, everyone else seems to be giving me the silence treatment!</p>

13

<p>are you applying ED or RD. If ED i think you’re in, if RD then i dunno.</p>

14

<p>^Unfortunately, I am applying RD. Thank you very much for your thoughts though. I am hoping that since I am not extremely awesome, that they would accept me to increase their yield rate; I’ve heard Cornell, Brown, and even Princeton to a lesser extent do this.</p>

<p>Still more opinions are very much welcomed and wanted.</p>

15

<p>“If you don’t like War, then you are obviously not a true U2 fan. Period.”</p>

<p>Ooh, I’m offended; guess I’m not a true fan. Are you going to use that line on admissions offices? You’d better. It’s all about intimidation, baby…</p>

16

<p>I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to offend you, I apologize sincerely if I did though. I meant to say that more jokingly than it came off as. It is during times like these where I wish I was a better writer, because I lack the ability to manipulate the tone when writing so briefly. Again, I really do apologize, and thank you for helping me with the chances too, I really do appreciate it.</p>

17

<p>No, no, you didn’t offend me! I was just lightheartedly teasing you a little bit =P</p>

18

<p>hmmm… I’d say that your only weak part of your app (assuming decent essays & recs) is your SATs. It’d been awesome if you scored 2100 +, but well, you can’t have everything in life -_-. However, since you seem to be a pretty good tennis player, that MIGHT make it up.</p>

19

<p>^Unfortunately, I don’t plan on playing college tennis though, simply because I’ve really lost the love for the game over the past few years. I’m kind of just sick of tennis, sometimes I don’t even want to play recreationally, nonetheless competitively. I think the reason is because my dad always pushed me to play tennis, and so I always played it to please him.</p>

20

<p>More opinions are certainly welcomed and very much wanted. I know none of you can give me an exact answer, but whatever your opinions are would be most helpful to me.</p>