Any chance of getting off waitlist?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>I'm really puzzled because myself and the two other top students from my school (both taking calc 3 at colleges, 1 is valedictorian with 2400, waitlisted, and other is national brain bee winner and got rejected) did not get in to either Penn or Cornell. Personally I thought all 3 of our apps were pretty good</p>

<p>I was really banking on admittance here or at Penn (silly, I know) and have virtually no back-up plan besides Penn State which I simply cannot afford.</p>

<p>Anyways I'm now on the waitlist, is there any chance for me to get off of it? Here's my stats:</p>

<p>SAT: 2380/1600 (3rd sitting, first were 2090 and 2280)
SAT II: 800 Math II, 780 US History
GPA: UW 3.8, upward trend- 3.64 9th, 3.875 10th and 11th, 4.0 12th
Rank: 20/500 (top 5%)
APs: Calc AB (4) US Gov (4) Psychology (5)</p>

<p>Senior courseload: AP Calc BC, AP Bio, AP Lit, Honors Statistics, Honors Senior Social Sciences, Honors Spanish 5</p>

<p>Awards: National Merit Finalist, Presidential Scholar Candidate, County Spelling Bee Finalist 10th, 11th, 12th grade, AMC 10 school winner 10th, 2nd place 12th</p>

<p>EC's: </p>

<p>Boy Scouts : Eagle Scout, Senior Patrol Leader 9,10,11,10
Scholastic Scrimmage (Quiz Bowl) Varsity team member 11,12, undefeated league champions 2012, 3rd place 2011
FBLA (1st place Mgmt. Decision making 2012 regionals, 2nd place Business Calculations 2011 regionals) 10,11,12
NHS 11,12
Pole vaulting (JV sort of) 11,12
Fencing at YMCA 9,10,11
Weightlifting ~8hrs per week</p>

<p>Community Service: I've been on two week-long mission trips to a homeless shelter in Maryland. Other than that just some random stuff through boy scouts, church, and NHS.</p>

<p>Essays: Ok, nothing spectacular. My ILR supp stressed my interest for history and how I think history is an important tool for analyzing human behavior (tied it into labor relations, sort of)</p>

<p>Recs: probably generic</p>

<p>State: PA
Income: 100k
White male</p>

<p>Thanks for opinions. really saddened and discouraged by this whole college admissions process</p>

2

<p>Sorry to tell you, but Cornell hasn’t used their waitlist in years…
Find it really cruel to even have a list if they’re not even going to use it.</p>

3

<p>Most Ivy Leagues under-admit to increase selectivity, then fill the class with hundreds from the waitlist. Cornell is one of the few that doesn’t do this, and actually tries to use the waitlist as little as possible. I hear it’s rare to get off of it.</p>

4

<p>waitlisted at ILR too. did they admit anyone on march 29th to ILR? not one person has posted, and people like you are wait listed. this is extremely discouraging…i’d rather have gotten a GT. every single thing, my recs, classes, ECs, essays obviously, work experience, EVERYTHING was geared towards this school. it’s nice to see that ILR is sticking to its “fit” agenda by arbitrarily filling its class with URMs early and leaving others to an interminable, cruelly unpredictable, even MORE arbitrary waitlist which hasn’t accepted anyone in years</p>

5

<p>Pray for the best! I’m honestly surprised you didn’t get in any top school and that penn state didn’t give you aid.</p>

6

<p>To Chaldo- Yeah, I really thought I was a great fit too. I had everything they supposedly were looking for (I thought). I know it’s not formulaic and admissions depends on a “holistic evaluation” but it does seem like a bunch of random underqualified URMs and rich kids get in, leaving the rest of us out in the cold. Like I said, I and the other two top students at my highschool all failed when it came to Cornell, much to our own and our classmate’s bewilderment</p>

<p>And to Colene- Penn state gave me essentially nothing, not sure why. I’m sorely regretting my decision to slack off this winter and not apply to more schools, I was quite sure I’d get into either Penn or Cornell and I guess my arrogance has proven to be my downfall =/</p>