Chances, Cornell Myth-busting, the New York Connection, and FAQs

From what I have heard about cornell biz/finance clubs, the competition to get in is very tough but once you are in - it is not cutthroat. It is very congenial.

^True

Thanks everyone for your responses. Now that my junior year has just ended, I’ve had A LOT of time to think about what I really want to do. I’m essentially leaning towards an engineering degree (ORIE comes to mind), but also potentially CS with a minor in Business.

The College of Engineering is a lot tougher for me to get into, though, as an asian male, and it doesn’t help that my stats aren’t out-of-the-park excellent. I’m basically just banking on my extra-curriculars. We’ll see how it goes.

I read that CALS, like other public universities, are required to have over 70% of their students in-state. Would this make CALS harder to get into than Arts and Science if I’m applying out of state?

This is great- found in another thread.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20507092#Comment_20507092

I am actually wondering for RD if put on waitlist and a spot doesn’t open, does Cornell offer you a guaranteed transfer option for the following year. If not it doesn’t really make any sense to me, in theory if a spot opens up and if you are on waitlist it means you are qualified and ready to start immediately (basically means there wasn’t enough space but if there was they would have admitted you)
the GT decisions that students have received instead of being put on waitlist, implies Cornell wants a years worth of college grades completed before you can be admitted
so if a waitlist doesn’t create a spot, why would those students not get the GT option
this is hard to explain, but does anyone know?

@Beyondhope to answer your question, “for RD if put on waitlist and a spot doesn’t open, does Cornell offer you a guaranteed transfer option for the following year” : No.

IMO, it’s just all a numbers game. Not many at all get off the wait list and some students feel GT is just another cumbersome process they have to go through, not to mention having to attend another college or university for a year, assimilating to that college, and then having to begin anew again. So I don’t know how many actually take the GT option. I think there is a thread on CC for the GT. You should check it out.

Chance Me:
RD to CS (Engineering)
GPA: 3.9 UW 4.5 W (Reported from my school as 97.98 UW 105.01 W)
Rank: Top 10% out of 182
SAT: 1490 (780 Math, 710 English) | 770 Biology M
Rec letters from AP Stats/PreCalc/BC Calc, AP Research/Lang, and CSP Teachers
Academics: hardest available
EC’s:
Band - 4 Years, Band Captain
Robotics - Captain of 2 different teams - Awarded FIRST Dean’s List Finalist (Only 3 in Long Island Selected)
Bowling - 5 Years, Joined team in 8th grade
2 Jobs - 1 in Junior Year and the other the summer of senior year
National Honor Society - Parliamentarian
Tri-M Music Honor Society
Essays: Talked about how I got into programming and robotics. I originally saw it at an 8th grade field trip, and fell in love. When I got to HS, the past programmer had graduated so I had to self teach myself, given only 3 months due to pep rally robot. Learned calc as a sophomore to understand the PID Concepts in robotics.