It’s hard to say. Ivy league admissions are so competitive that you can have nearly perfect credentials and still find yourself on a wait-listed or worse. Keep your grades up, make sure your SATs are high, and try to add some positions of leadership to your extracurriculars. I’d also look for a Cornell alum to act as a mentor who can give you a great recommendation with the time comes. Legitimate, well-thought recommendations (not just a “So-and-so would be a great addition to your incoming freshman class. Sincerely, so-and-so, Class of ’85) from school alumni hold a lot greater weight than letters from your coaches or english teachers .

Really, it also depends on recommendation, leadership(SGA?, Club Captain?), and your essay

Just a couple of things… strictly Honor classes(but honors AP classes do count) don’t raise your GPA for most colleges, so you should probably recalculate your GPA if you factored in honor classes (which i think you did). The junior grades are impressive, but the 1 C in your freshmen year does not look too good…

Ideally a 3.81 is good enough for the lower-end Ivy League schools, Cornell, Dartmouth… but for Harvard and Yale,

In conclusion, yes your grades are good enough to warrent an application to Cornell…

Can you? Yes.

Is it a given? No.

I got into Cornell University but this was back in 1970. Requirements change and the things they are looking for change.

I was a B+ student in a difficult public high school. I excelled in math and sciences. Didn’t do as well in history. I had won a scholorship from the state of NY for any school in NY. I did volunteer work in the inner city fixing older peoples’ homes. I was on my track and ski teams. My SATs were about 1700 (the max was 1800). With a B+ average that showed I was smart but only applied myself when I wanted to. I would not have been accepted on my grades alone. I was rejected at Brown, Rutgers, two NY State Universities, and Kent State. But I got into Cornell.

One thing that I think made a difference was that I requested an interview with the admissions department. I knew what I wanted and I was able to express clear goals with my plans for acheiving them. I was clearly not just a work/study drone either – they wanted people who had a ballence in their lives.

Since then I’ve been asked to be on the alumni board in the admissions office. We screen applications and assist with our opinions on decisions about candidates that could go either way. I want to see a well rounded person. Someone with independence. Someone who challenges themselves. Someone who works well in groups and not always as the leader. Someone who is interested in many things – someone who would do well on Jeapordy – not Wheel of Fortune. I want to see that you know how to learn – not just memorize facts.