Ran this past my D, who did info sessions for admissions when a student at Cornell. She said that California is the third most represented state (behind NY & NJ) at Cornell. In addition they have a 97% fresh-to-soph retention rate which puts them just out of the top 10 of all colleges for that stat. Logically the boost that applying ED will give you appears worth it, weighed against than the relatively small chance that you will not like it there.
@albclemom actually the nearest airport to Cornell is not 3 hours away. Ithaca NY has an airport which is 10 minutes from campus, and Syracuse has an airport which is 63 miles from campus. Cornell has Big Red Bus shuttle services for a small fee to get to Syracuse and back during breaks.
My D2 will be a freshman at Cornell in a few short weeks, and we did a visit last September. It was a long 11 hour drive and it seemed liked such a whirlwind of a trip, but classes were in session and we definitely got a good idea of the campus vibe and such. I’m glad we did it. The info session was jammed packed but worth it. Tour groups are numerous, so it’s not like there were 100 people in our group.
However, I’m sure if you did a lot of research on their website you could find out the info you were looking for regarding majors, campus life, clubs etc.
Just because you visit or don’t visit doesn’t mean you will like it when you matriculate.
I never understand how people go visit a school and after one day or two days or a few hours only they can say this is the place for me. This is my fit. I believe that most people can fit at more than one place. So ED without a visit but with good research, seems just fine to me.
The idea of visiting schools before you apply is a fairly recent phenomena. Neither my husband or I visited any of the schools we applied to before applications went in. I visited the school I ended up attending after I had made my decision to go there. And this was all before the internet.
I assume you have looked at most of the materials available for the school and like what you see. Other than that, you have to be comfortable with a large school in a rural area that has very cold winters and lots of snow. Go to google maps and zoom in to see where you’ll be living, going to classes, etc. If you are OK with all that, then apply ED.
Agreed with @me29034 I recommend using street view.
Make sure that you like walking and climbing hills. My son was in summer engineering program there and the freshman dorms are a mile uphill to the engineering buildings and a mile back also uphill. On the bright side you don’t have to worry about the freshman 15. The campus is beautiful in summer but they have 4 seasons there. Pre-winter, winter, more winter and summer.
You do have one out–if accepted ED but without enough financial aid, you can turn down the ED offer. The student gets to make the decision if the FA offer is acceptable. However, if you turn down the ED offer, you cannot reconsider it later during regular decision season.
OP, if FA is a big factor, you and your parents need to think carefully before if you would be OK accepting Cornell if the FA offer isn’t quite as good as you’re hoping. IIRC you won’t know about the UMd scholarship until after the ED process is completed.
One more suggestion: find as many negatives as you can about Cornell. Cold weather, isolation, fewer trips home, etc etc etc. It’s easy to find happy students–figure out what makes students unhappy, and see if you’re OK with those downsides.
Oops - I was out of town with poor internet access so I’m just now reading these, but thank you everyone for such insightful feedback! It sounds like doing extensive research online (especially the google street view - thank you for that idea) and finding both pros and cons should be enough to determine whether or not Cornell is a good fit for me without actually visiting the school. Thank you all so much for all the help you’ve provided me in making this decision!