senior year? (New York, Ithaca, York: 2011, get credit, home)

[wallkiller728]

hey everyone, I have a big decision coming up and I wanted to see if any fellow New Yorkers could help. In my area, we have a program done through BOCES known as "new visions", which gives you 7-9 college credits along with internships throughout the year. Im interested in broadcast meteorology, and there is a communications section to new visions. I really want to apply to Cornell. Do you think this would look impressive, or would they think communications has nothing to do with my desired major (even though I think it does) It's such a hard decision... AP's and college courses or true on campus courses with internships ? Which do you think will look better on the transcript? Please post as much as you know/think. Thanks so much.

+wallkiller728+

[aka_mouse]

Cornell in Ithaca? I hear they are pretty selective... I just checked that USNews and WR 'Best colleges' thing and it confirms this


anyhoo... I dunno what those private , selective school are looking for. BOCES to me is a trade school at least thats what the one here was. I went in my junior and senior year in high school for technical electronics and loved it. I didnt have to be at home school which i absolutely hated, and I actually enjoyed what I was learning. Then again I never had any desire to go to ivy-league type schools. If they give college credits , its probably going to be for very specific schools - Usually local community colleges, state colleges and universities. even then it depends. Id go to a BOCES center to get out of highschool half a day and a field more in depth maybe knock some credit off starting at a community or state college, but thats up to you. It may or may not help getting into Cornell. (Id tend to think it wouldn't)

I think those ivy league schools want to see super high scores, lots of extracirricular activities, glowing letters of recommendation etc, etc.

[Sgoldie]

My advice would be to take college level math courses (and get good grades). There is a lot of math involved with science. Or, to see if I could find a summer program (NOAA) that dealt with meteorology. Also see if Cornell has a program for HS students like that.

Chances are they wouldn't accept college credit at Cornell from a Boces. However if you wanted to take the visions anyway for personal knowledge, and if it was a good program, it might not be an advantage for acceptance but it might be informative.

[vicarian]

Well, Cornell is certainly a very selective college. The atmospheric science program does involve at least communications course, and an internship wouldn't exactly hurt your application. However, be aware that cornell meteorology isn't as focused as other schools when it comes to broadcasting; not that Cornell doesn't offer broadcast meteo, but there tend to be a lower proportion of people that opt for that branch of the field than elsewhere at other schools. My guess would be that it would look good on your application, but don't expect to get credit for it, or to have too much importance in the grand scheme if you choose to go to CU. Now, if you take an AP Calculus or AP Physics class...you're sittin' pretty, because the freshman meteo cirriculum tends to focus on intro to the science, bio courses (a CALS req.) a calculus course each semester and a computer programming course (it was once two CS courses, but the one proved pointless so they dropped it for 2011 on).

Oh, and if you go to Cornell, make sure you know how to swim. It's a requirement to pass a swim test before you graduate.

[Sgoldie]

I wanted to point out that if you do end up at Cornell, there is another college in Ithaca that has a broadcasting track, Ithaca College. If you got to Cornell and found weakness in what you want you may be able to cross register or transfer credits from that program.