Hi CC,
On the ivy day a few months ago, I was deferred by Cornell AAP. I felt devastated; I cried inside, and I could not perform any tasks on that day. My teachers comforted me as if my grandmother died last night. It turns out that no one from our school got any offers from the ivies for ED. Please, I am not trying to offend my friends who aspired to learn at the most prestigious schools in the US, but I was glad that I was not alone.
Let me tell you my side of the story:
I am a South Korean senior, currently studying in China. I consider China as my home, for I living in this country for almost thirteen years.
I was still sleeping on 5AM that morning of ivy day for EDs. Normally I would wake up at 7:00 to catch 7:15 school bus, but I somehow woke up at 6AM. Pretty amazing, huh? I double-tapped my iPhone home button to check if my Outlook received any emails. I received one letter from the University of Pittsburgh for my transcripts, but none from Cornell. I decided to open my computer to see if my Outlook hasn’t received an instruction email at all from Cornell for viewing my result. On one hand, I was relieved because I didn’t have to see my result yet, but on the other hand, I was anxious for the possibility that Cornell has forgotten about me.
It turned out that Cornell did not forget to email me. I wasn’t so sure if I should read the email. I was conflicted. I didn’t know what I should do next. I was staring at the wall for the next five minutes, and I only had 2 minutes left before the school bus leaves. So I decided to leave my laptop on and read the email in my apartment elevator.
Even though I knew that it was because of the security reasons, I still complained deep down in my heart about the inefficiency of the process for viewing the result. I skimmed through the letter, but I did not find the word ‘rejection’. But I realized I got waitlisted right before I went on the bus.
I am really interested in Cornell because I know it is the best learning environment for aspiring architects. I was interested in that subject field since fifth grade. I did many projects over the years, including a year-long personal project on the shanty towns in the city where I live in, and a two-year worth of research on the aesthetic influence of IFC Guangzhou to its city. Both my common app and supplemental essays were based on the common theme of my interests in architecture. I did not foresee that my passion for Lego City and Google SketchUp would have turned into something that decides my career path.
I took SAT 4 times in my freshmen and sophomore year. I was naive for taking the college entrance test so early, and for rejecting any forms of help. I regarded Korean test preps as a waste of money, and I relied heavily on free materials shared by Magoosh and PrepScholar. It turns out that many of my friends who were not so good at studies got 300 points more that I did in SATs. My highest sitting was exactly 1900 out of 2400 in 10th grade, 200 points off from the school’s average. Dumb, right?
My one-and-only SAT II was math, which is an 800.
I took TOEFL in the summer of my junior-senior transition, and got 118 out of 120. I was surprised by this number, which greatly contradicts to my SAT scores. I have heard that TOEFL scores don’t matter as long as you attain the school’s minimum requirement (Cornell asked for 100 in TOEFL, which I surpassed).
My cumulative GPA is 3.8. I study IB diploma (Art HL, Eng langlit A HL, Physics HL, Chinese langlit A SL, History SL, and Math SL). I also attempted in AP tests (5 in Calc BC, 5 in Chinese).
But, I had lots of extracurriculars. I was pretty active.
- Student Council 2 years
- Coordinator for MUN club (was in it for 6 years)
- Founder of School Design Club (something like the National Arts Honor Society in the US)
- Head of Design in school magazine
- Coordinator for Habitat for Humanity
- Volunteer in Migrant Worker Children Aids
- Yearbook designer in middle school
- Global Issues Network
- Varsity swimmer
*I also had an internship experience in a famous Chinese architecture firm during my junior year summer. It was good.
My alumnus interview turned out to be great. He explicitly stated: “you are the most determined student I have met for Cornell application, your portfolio is by far the best-constructed one”. Gosh, what a praise!
My letters are confidential, but all the teachers who I asked favored me. I am worried, but not as much as my SAT scores.
Then, the deferral letter came into my possession. Whenever I read it, I feel like the world has collapsed on me. I know some of you will say that getting deferred is already the best that I can get. But, I am hoping that someone bothers to re-assess my stuff, feeling confident to hand me an entry ticket to Cornell AAP.
My favorite TV show Westworld quotes: “The Maze wasn’t meant for you”. And then some admissions officer comes along and says, “Cornell wasn’t meant for you."
But look, Cornell AAP (or any ED/EA Ivies you applied to) is a college full of humans. Granted, they’re some of the most talented humans on Earth, but they’re still mortal beings. Some of them will win Nobel Prizes, solve the crises in the Middle East, and become the Bill Gates(s) and Stephen Hawking(s) of this generation. But some of them will flunk the final, miss the internship, and spend hours staring at the ceiling wondering if they really do belong there. The only difference between you and them is that some small handful of people decided they would fit in at Cornell (or again, your ED/EA Ivies).
I really wanna study in Cornell AAP, get a degree, and become an architect who can change lives of people from my hometown.
Just comment something, please, for the sake of my long piece of writing.
Cheers!
Your fellow class of 17’