What are my chances?

Colleges & Universities Cornell University
1

<p>Hi, I would like to know my chances of getting into Cornell CAS please?</p>

<p>I attend the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) in Denton, TX, which is somewhere between a public and charter high school. We live on the University of North Texas campus and take courses with the college undergrads, and I suppose we’re taking dull credit, but we’re working towards our high school diplomas nevertheless.</p>

<p>Because TAMS only takes tops from each district, we have no ranking so as to not discourage applicants. GPA is based on the college system, where A=4.0, B=3.0, and so on.</p>

<p>Former high school GPA: 4.22 (weighted…I have no clue what unweighted is)
Former rank: 23 out of 1021
TAMS GPA: 3.911
TAMS rank: N/A
SAT Reasoning: 740 CR, 760 Math, 740 Writing
SAT II: 800 Math II, 780 Biology, taking Chemistry in October
ACT: did not take</p>

<p>Then that generic stuff everyone has:
National Honor Society inductee
National Merit Semi-finalist, hopefully finalist too
UNT’s Honor Roll
9th grade Reflections - 1st place in literature, never made it to district though</p>

<p>I have EC’s and volunteer activities scattered here and there, but these are the ones to which I’ve devoted enough time to mean anything:
-Summer 2008 - research at UT Southwestern
-Piano for 10 years - play at church congregations and accompany a heck lot of people for Solo and Ensemble
-Violin - orchestra since middle school. Also, me and about ten other people get together everytime we have concurrent breaks in the school year and go play in a nursing home. Up to 20 hours rehearsal before each visit. More than 200 hours by now, and we have pictures/video recordings to prove it. (Yes I love my music ~~)
-Middle school tutoring - 6-9 hours a week consistently since Jan 2008
-Vice president of school’s cultural club (which was honestly a do-nothing club that met an hour once every two weeks to squeal about anime)
-Mu Epsilon Kappa - Im not even kidding, its a fake fraternity/sorority, the officers even admitted it. 4 hrs/week.
-Contributor to school paper
-and then lots of little things that mean absolutely nothing, such as membership in 3 different clubs and 5 or 6 hours towards one-time events like Partnership Walk, State Fair, Habitat for Humanity, Library volunteering, etc.</p>

<p>Yes I know the EC’s suck. Which is why I’m quite worried. Cornell is definitely a dream school for me though, so yeah…</p>

<p>I’m really depending alot on my essay, which I also would like to request someone to review, and give advice as to how to crunch it down to less than 1,000 words.</p>

<p>Also, for the Cornell supplement, I keep hearing conflicting advice. Should I just give a straightforward answer or make it creative/personal-essay-like?</p>

<p>Thanks very much for your time.</p>

2

<p>your stats are above avg
but did you take any aps?</p>

<p>and yea the ec sucks
im sorry not trying to be mean here
but what you have is a bunch of hours throwing here and there</p>

3

<p>i think u have great chance</p>

4

<p>If your extracurriculars were better, I’d say you had very good chances. The last thing they want is another kid grinding in the library every spare hour instead of getting out and interacting with people and doing something productive and meaningful. The Texas is a plus, but most Texans like you who apply to Cornell are also applying to every other Ivy League school, so they don’t feel compelled to admit you, because they know you probably won’t attend anyways even if you they admitted you. So what’s wrong with the Longhorns? You want to hang out in 15" of snow with a bunch of New Yawkers when you could be on 6th Street with a bunch of suntanned belles? I think it’s UT for you, my friend. Unless your application screams a compelling reason why you want to travel thousands of miles for a semi-prestigious name that isn’t even as prestigious in half the country any more as the name UT.</p>