I thought my post was clear. Repeating my earlier statement, “admissions decisions can be largely predictable with sufficient knowledge of this process and sufficient information about the application.”
How do you know this? Among Cornell CoE class of 2022, male applicants had a 6% admit rate, which is on par with HYPS overall admit rates – lower than the overall Yale class of 2022 admit rate. Test score ranges for this CoE group were higher than the overall averages for some of HYPS, although I haven’t seen the latter program down my engineering vs non-engineering. I wouldn’t assume that Yale engineering is more selective than Cornell engineering, and I certainly wouldn’t assume that this Yale > Cornell selectivity applies to all subgroups of engineering students.
The CDS does not say interviews are “only for information purpose.” Instead the CDS says interviews are mandatory for some applicants – “Required of Some” for admission in section D5. Different Cornell sub-colleges use interviews differently. CoE does not have mandatory interviews. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t assume that CoE interviews have no influence on admissions.