<p>I’m currently enrolled as a paleontology student at Mesalands Community College in Tucumcari, New Mexico, wherein my current GPA is a 4.0. Come this spring, I’ll receive my Associates degree and will (predictably) have to transfer. Cornell’s Evolutionary Biology Department in the Agriculture and Life Sciences college looks rather promising. My questions are as follows: </p>
<p>-When would I need to send in my application? Also, if I were to send it in now, would the administration take my current semester into account along with the next?</p>
<p>-My parents make just over $60,000 annually; what sort of financial aid could I hope to acquire? (Note: I’m a native New Yorker and I still retain the state’s residency)</p>
<p>-If I manage to keep my GPA at or around its current level, what would my chances of being accepted be?</p>
<p>You can expect some pretty darn good FA assuming you don’t have crazy assets or anything. Not to mention the fact that since you’re a New York resident and CALS is a contract college, you pay something like 10-15k/yr less in tuition (I think, don’t know the exact number). </p>
<p>As far as acceptance chances, how hard of classes did you take, and what do you have to go along with your grades? Grades aren’t everything, but a 4.0 is certainly good enough to get in assuming you haven’t taken a light courseload or anything.</p>
<p>I’ve historically been fairly active in terms of extra-curricular activities, having been involved with several theatrical productions (including one that I’m currently directing), edited my High School newspaper, served as president of my current school’s Student Senate, served as our chapter’s Phi-Theta-Kappa Public Relations officer, filmed the High School football team, participated in the Boy Scouts of America (and earned the rank of Vigil in their ‘Order of the Arrow’ society), worked for hundreds of hours in our school’s paleontology department outside of class both in the lab and out in the field, and involved myself with several other projects. </p>
<p>As for the grades themselves, my first two semesters were both considered to be overloaded with credits by MCC because each of them contained over 23. With regards to the difficulty of these classes, my school is a Community College and as such, doesn’t offer upper-division credits. However, my major of choice does demand that I take several geology courses which would be considered at least moderately-difficult by most 4-year university standards.</p>
<p>Ahh, I’ve just thought of something else. My SAT score for Mathematics was at best mediocre in High School (though my critical reading and writing grades were pretty good). Will this fact complicate and/or compromise my transfer attempts?</p>
<p>Since you will be transferring in after two years of college, your high school SAT grades play little to no importance in determining your acceptance.</p>
<p>Did you get your Eagle Scout? As impressive as the Vigil Honor is within the scouting community, it’s relatively unheard of outside of it. Eagle is the kicker, unless you get lucky and someone on the adcom is involved in scouts or at least knows about it.</p>