NYC Private School (A average in intensive course load, 36 ACT, legacy)
Great mix of ECs (sports, academic, social - many with leadership positions)
Good internships
If your daughter attends a private school, it is likely that the school counselors at that school can give you a sense of whether she is a competitive applicant for Cornell.
Simply having all A grades and a perfect ACT score…and being a legacy won’t guarantee acceptance. But it’s a good start.
3 Likes
Make sure she applies early decision.
5 Likes
I would suggest running the net price calculator for an estimate of your net costs to see if Cornell will be affordable for your family. If not, I would rethink ED as it’s supposed to be a binding acceptance…and you won’t be able to compare financial aid offers from other colleges.
Adding…I hope your daughter has a well varied list of colleges to apply to…including ones that are less selective…
5 Likes
unfortunately will not be qualifying for financial aid so that will not be a consideration
thanks - that is her current plan but if a real concern that she won’t get in may not want to “waste” the ED
they say she is competitive but we don’t have an indication of how likely or not
1 Like
No one here can say. She sounds like a great candidate, but lots of competitive candidates are rejected every year. Being a legacy will probably help as will coming from a private school that Cornell knows.
1 Like
Your D is a strong and accomplished candidate (don’t think you need anyone here to tell you that) but Dyson has such a low acceptance rate (around 6% from what I gather - you can check) that nobody can chance accurately. There will be many more well qualified applicants than spots available.
Your D should work hard on her essays and get the best possible LORs as these factors can help a candidate to stand out. Legacy should be a plus.
Agree that the guidance counselor at the private HS will have the best advice. If Cornell is affordable and is D’s definite top choice, ED is the way to go.
Wishing her luck.
2 Likes
And no one here can give you more definitive info. If Cornell is her top choice, and you are on board with everything about it…she can apply ED and see. That’s really the only advice anyone can give you.
3 Likes
Your ACT score won’t help you as Dyson is test blind.
1 Like
ED gives you better odds. It’s not wasted even if you don’t get in. If it’s your top choice and you are willing to spend $400k, then it gives you your best odds. If you don’t get in, it doesn’t mean it’s wasted and there are many fine b schools or Econ programs that don’t even have ED. No one has to ED. ED is not a guarantee - but if Cornell I’d you let top choice and you don’t want to waste it - so you’re going to ED to a school not your top choice? Makes zero sense.
You should ED to a school that is your top choice, that you can afford and that you want to afford - not everyone wants to spend $400k.
And if you really want to ED and it doesn’t work out, you can always ED 2 elsewhere.
But ED is a choice and not necessarily necessary as few overall choose to do.
Good luck.
The key here is to treat a deferral as a rejection and move on.
No one can guarantee anything but I think she has a better shot than most if she EDs. General consensus at our school (with CCs very familiar with Cornell) is that high achieving legacy kids like yours would have gotten in if they had EDed (but were rejected RD). It is generally thought that the legacy boost is only given in the early round.
2 Likes
Consider applying ED to a top choice business school as well as applying EA to University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
OP: While your daughter is a strong candidate for Cornell Dyson, one of your daughter’s main strengths is her standardized test score so it may be to her advantage to apply to undergraduate business programs which will see and value that top ACT score of 36.
As a full-pay applicant, your daughter may want to be considered for merit scholarships based on her numbers (ACT score & GPA). If so, look for solid undergraduate business programs which offer merit scholarships.
1 Like
She has a good shot at any school, not just Dyson.
However, she needs to put out an excellent essay.
After all, she needs a bit luck.
Good luck!
Is the “NYC Private School” one of the elite ones with a dedicated college counseling staff and a high matriculation rate to highly selective colleges and universities? If so, the college counselors will probably have a good idea of how likely the student is to be admitted (a better idea than the typical “Cornell is a reach for everyone” that is the best most people can say).
“She has a shot” is probably the best the guidance counselor can say as well given the low acceptance rate at Dyson and the counselor’s likely reluctance to have angry/disappointed parents/student.
Dyson had a 4% acceptance rate last admissions cycle.
1 Like
No one on CC can chance you. The private school counselor can’t chance you. I can’t chance you. No one anywhere can chance you, because they’re all just giving you their best opinions based on what they’ve read elsewhere. Which is good, of course, but futile. Just do what we did for every college our D applied to. There is plenty of factual info online for each college, and for students to prepare to be competitive. Measure all that against your daughter’s accomplishments and educational and career desires and decide your strategy. It’s true what experts say: The Tier 1 and Tier 2 schools are all Reach schools for even the very best students (academics, EC’s, Volunteer activities, etc.). After your daughter has done all she can and applied, it’s all a crap shoot. So follow the age old advice of having Reach, Target and Safety schools and you’ll be fine. Just make sure you have realistic goals for each school. Sorry for the bland advice but after spending a few thousand hours of research on colleges for our son (who began college in 2017) and our daughter (who began college in 2023, two months ago) that’s really all anyone can advise you to do.
The year our son applied to Dyson and was rejected, 2017 (class of 2021), the acceptance rate was 2.7%. Our daughter was recently accepted to Dyson RD and, as a poster here pointed out, the acceptance rate this year was 4%. D is enjoying Cornell. None of us expected the acceptance. She was rejected by most of the Tier 1 and 2 schools she applied to, even though she had everything they typically look for. When she applied for the top schools I told her all you’re really doing is buying a lottery ticket. Expect to get rejected from those schools, because that’s the likely outcome. Two of her high school friends were the valedictorian and salutatorian in the same large public high school our D attended; they also were rejected by nearly all of the top schools they applied to. College admissions is beyond brutal these days! Her top two choices were Wharton and Dyson, along with the usual top business schools (Tiers 1, 2 and 3).
Now, not to leave you empty-handed, and to give you and your daughter a head start on all the research you need to do for all the colleges she’ll be considering, I’ll give you our best summary of the advantages of Dyson.
The Dyson school, also ranked as one of the top business schools, is the most difficult school to be admitted to within Cornell University. In fact, going back at least 20+ years, it has usually had the lowest acceptance rate of any undergrad business school, or Non-business school in America. Yes, breathtaking. Take that, Harvard. The year our son applied and was rejected, 2017, the acceptance rate was 2.7%; most years it’s in the 3% to 5% range. Dyson also has the distinction of being the tiniest “traditional” undergraduate business school in America (if you don’t count the specialized and quant-heavy business school at MIT, which is even smaller) accepting only about 160-170 or so new freshmen each year—and about 30–35 or so new sophomore transfers. Who knew MIT had an undergraduate business school? Or Cornell, for that matter? Dyson’s acceptance rate leaves Wharton undergrad in the dust. Unquestionably, Wharton has the best brand name among business schools. However, little old Dyson, which may be the least well-known traditional undergrad business school in America, typically has about half the acceptance rate of Wharton undergrad.
Notably, the tiny size of Dyson undergrad (total enrollment of approx. 830+/-) compared to Wharton undergrad (total enrollment of approx. 2,500), confers a significant advantage in recruiting for the best and pickiest employers come OCR time. As we all know, recruiters from the best firms and banks can only hire a limited number of students from each school, even from the most elite schools. At just 1/3 the enrollment of Wharton, Dyson students statistically have the best chances of securing an internship/full-time offer spot from their #1 choice of Preferred employer.
The general consensus among educational consultants of Cornell University having the strongest reputation in STEM generally among the Ivy League doesn’t hurt—no offense to Princeton’s math department intended.
Dyson may not be well-known among the general public, but the government and the business world generally, including startups and the fussiest banks and financial firms of all types, know it very, very well. And they all beat a path to Dyson’s doors.
Good luck to your daughter!
2 Likes
Good luck to your D. Dyson is hard to get into but your guidance counselor is the best person to say if she has a chance.
1 Like