<p>Have any non-interview-required applicants received an e-mail from a Cornell alumni (CAAN) about a phone conversation for information/questions/chit-chat? Do they still send a report into Cornell? I received one on Friday and am in the process of choosing a date.</p>
<p>I'd appreciate any information on this, thanks. =)</p>
<p>I received a phone call out of the blue last night--we had about a fifteen minute conversation. She said she'll have a letter sent to Cornell by the end of the week and that all letters are due by November 30th. I'm applying to arts and sciences, so it wasn't required.</p>
<p>Are these letters helpful in any way for admission purposes? Cause I'm getting mixed messages: some are saying that these letters can help you while others say that they'll neither help nor hurt your chances at all.</p>
<p>I think if it is bad, it will really kill you--though I think a good one doesn't really help you much...maybe helps a little bit if you're borderline.</p>
<p>The alumni reports have very little effect on your application. It is kind of like a judge of character/demonstration of interest thing. They're pretty hard to f*** up. Unless you are a real douche and get into a screaming fight with the alumnus, there's not much you can do wrong. If you do average or do well, the report should pretty much serve the effect of saying "this is an interesting person; they sound nice and would be nice to have at cornell, if accepted." It won't overcome poor performance by any means, but it could be a good thing to have in a borderline decision or a tie-breaker situation.</p>
<p>If you do screw it up, which is almost impossible, yeah it would probably hurt you a lot. But the chances of that are less than 1%. If you can have a polite boring conversation with a stranger, you're set.</p>