<p>Wary of the level of commitment of the newly-attracted applicants, the school projects a 2% decline in the overall yield rate, from 50.5% last year to 48.5% this year, as they admitted 250 more applicants than they did for the Class of 2008.</p>
<p>This will be an interesting phenomenon to observe; schools often see the switch to the common app as a "two-edged sword" - with the app number rising, but the "commitment level" dropping a bit, as the marginal applicants may only have applied because applying was easier than previously.</p>
<p>Princeton, for example, enjoyed a big jump in apps this year, but projected a relatively low RD yield rate (for them) of 51.5%.</p>
<p>Other schools - including Penn, Brown and Stanford - have shied away from the switch to the common app thus far, fearing that the consequent higher app total would not be worth the tradeoff in "predictability" because the yield rate might drop a bit.</p>
<p>Most awesome for sure... I would like to see a lower acceptance rate, it really is too high for an Ivy League school. We need to maintain our elitist status here!</p>
<p>Actually, I used 'elistist' and not 'elite' for a reason, as to refer to the cornellians (and their attitudes) themselves and not the school, which is elite regardless.</p>
<p>And trust me, even an elite school like Cornell doesn't have as many students with 'elitist' attitudes as, say, Princeton or Harvard; I have friends who go there.</p>
<p>Plus I have no idea what you actualy mean by that Tranorix. At any rate, I think a drop in the admission percentages can only benefit the school.</p>
<p>Though in all seriousness, Cornell faces the challenge of limited resources (well limited in comparison to its competition--by any objective college standards, they're still astronomical)</p>
<p>Additionally, Cornell must lure top faculty away from groovy connected cities like D.C., Boston, NYC, Philly, etc to come out to the significantly less groovy and connected Ithaca, NY.</p>
<p>However, given what a dump Penn was in 1990 and how much less dumpy it is today, I can safely say that anything is possible.</p>
<p>Cornell has the assets of a fundamentally excellent institution and what appears to be a bunch of fiercely loyal alumni (as well as a HUGE bunch of them, given its size)</p>
<p>I wish you the best of luck--though I wish Penn more luck still, as I am hopelessly biased. Though feel free to take over Brown, Dartmouth, and Columbia.</p>
<p>Haha, it's pretty amusing to hear comments like "You'll never catch us!" First of all, Cornell does not face "the challenge of limited resources". Cornell has the third highest alumni donation and if the administration is more aggressive, Cornell can get even more contribution out of them. Penn did a wonderful job in the 90s by doubled its endowment and tripled its alumni donations. If Penn can do it, Cornell can also do it with the right personnel.<br>
The top faculties do not just gather around in DC, NYC, Boston or Philly. Top faculties go to places that could provide them with the best research possibilities. The big thing back in the 90s was business. In the next few decades, nanotechnology and nanobiotechnology could be the next big thing. Other than MIT and Harvard, Cornell probably has the best research facilities on the East Coast (Duffield + the new life science initiative building). Cornell can attract the best researchers and faculties with these programs even in Ithaca, NY.</p>
<p>You must divide the number of dollars Cornell pulls in by a lot more students.</p>
<p>Thanks to tax incentives, biotech is one of the few areas in which Philadelphia is actually competitive, Penn too has a new bioengineering building going up right now.</p>
<p>Hahaha, good old USNews undergraduate ranking. Maybe one day Cornell would reduce its undergraduate size to improve its ranking. But then again, nobody really takes USNews' undergraduate ranking seriously.<br>
The 600 million dollars New Life Science Initiative Program of Cornell should be able to help us attract some big shots to Ithaca.</p>
<p>"Peter S. Cohl '05, chair of the image committee of the Student Assembly, found this increase in the number of accepted students fascinating.</p>
<p>"Because Cornell's increase in applications is so much stronger than our cohort schools, it's possible that the interest in Cornell could result in a higher-than-expected yield for the University," Cohl said. "Perhaps next year we might want to consider admitting fewer students to increase our selectivity even further. This would likely result in a further improvement in our national rankings." </p>