<p>Does Cornell take into consideration of family matters that have affected academic performance in the past? How important are teacher rec letters? I’ve heard that they don’t even look at some essays.</p>
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<p>By “bad”, if you mean top 10-15% of your class, you are a competitive applicant. By “bad” if you mean you are bottom 50-60% of your class, your chances are next to none, unless you are a recruited athlete.</p>
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<p>Cornell takes everything into account. They do read all essays. Teacher rec’s are pretty important, although not as important as your transcript or SAT score. Not sure if Cornell will give much of leeway to someone who has poor grades due to family matters. They may forgive a couple of C’s on your transcript, but if you got D’s and F’s, that’s a different story.</p>
<p>Does Cornell take AP credits?</p>
<p>Hi NYULawyer, thanks for doing this.</p>
<p>I’m currently a freshmen enrolled in Electrical and Computer Engineering major, and I’m seriously getting my ass kicked by these core engineering classes. Sure, I’m getting a lot out of it, but I doubt I’ll be able to manage a single A this quarter and I might be bordering on a C as well 
My plan was to minor in the Dyson Business Minor for Engineers, load myself up with a bunch of finance internships and end up applying for some IB jobs upon graduation. I figured a STEM background couldn’t exactly hurt when it came to applying for financial jobs, but judging by the state of things I seriously doubt I’ll end up getting that 3.7+ GPA. Do you think that my GPA can take this fall if I hope to end up getting a job in financial services? Or do you think it’s worth salvaging my GPA and switching out of ECE (my real interest) into another field? </p>
<p>Closely tied with my predicament – how much impact does a C have on your transcript? Forgive me for my apparent fixation on GPA. I just really just want to be competitive in that IB candidate pool :/</p>
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<p>Yes, fortunately.</p>
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<p>Electrical & Computer Engineering majors are both brutally hard majors. However, these majors also give strong employment options to students. (provided that you manage to graduate with a decent GPA)</p>
<p>If your true goal is to enter I-banking, you should be concerned with getting a high GPA. Period. I-banking firms won’t likely to give you slot for an interview with a 3.2 GPA in electrical engineering, over those dozens of AEM/CAS/PAM/Hotel kids with 3.7-3.8 GPA’s, even if you may have worked much harder.</p>
<p>The reason for that is, I-banking firms don’t really care about your major. Most I-banking analysts don’t use any more of quant/math skills beyond basic high school algebra. Most of what analysts do is make PowerPoint slides for pitching to clients, run “models” on excel spreadsheet, do tons of data entry, and other grunt work. Hence, these firms don’t care if you know how to solve differential equations or not. They just want to hire well-rounded, decently intelligent, well-pedigreed students with top notch GPA and internships who are capable of handling 90-100 working hours per week without screwing things up.</p>
<p>That being said, staying in a hard engineering curriculum does get you an edge outside of IB jobs, such as certain quant-focused hedge funds, prop trading shops, or research sides of finance. Or, in case you strike out at IB jobs, it gives you the fallback option of attaining engineering-related jobs. But just for vanilla IB or Consulting analyst position, the most important factors are top GPA + strong relevant internships in landing interviews. After you get the interview, what matters the most is your ability to seal the deal.</p>
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<p>I understand you are stressed, and rightfully so. You are majoring in one of the most difficult courses at Cornell. A C does really kill your GPA. One or two, and rest are high B’s or A’s, then you are fine in the long term. But, in engineering, that scenario won’t likely to happen that easily. </p>
<p>You’ve got some things to think about. Ask yourself exactly what type of career you are interested in, and if the answer is I-banking by a land-slide, you should consider switching your major to something ‘easier’.</p>
<p>Does Cornell have a limit on the number of AP credits it takes?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/academics/undergraduate/curriculum/handbook/2010/upload/adv_placement_intl_credentials.pdf[/url]”>http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/academics/undergraduate/curriculum/handbook/2010/upload/adv_placement_intl_credentials.pdf</a></p>
<p>Okay. Thanks!</p>
<p>NYULawyer has provided lots of helpful, first-hand information about Cornell. </p>
<p>However I feel it necessary to address this statement he made:
“Con: -Lack of legit sports teams (sorry, Cornell sports teams are a joke)”</p>
<p>While some regard athletics among the Ivy League schools as less than competitive, Cornell has regularly succeeded in a number of athletics at the national level. </p>
<p>To name a few…………….</p>
<p>-Cornell Wrestling has for years been regarded as one of the best collegiate programs in the nation, currently ranked #7, and often in top 3 -5 in the nation, producing multiple National Champions. </p>
<p>This is from the NCAA’s current Front Page:
CORNELL’S DAKE MUSCLES PAST PSU’s TAYLOR: In the headlining event of the NWCA All-Start Classic, Cornell senior Kyle Dake began his pursuit of a fourth consecutive national title with a tiebreaker victory against Penn State’s David Taylor.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Cornell Men’s Hockey is currently ranked #4 in the nation.</p></li>
<li><p>Cornell Women’s Ice Hockey is currently ranked #2 in the nation. </p></li>
<li><p>Cornell Men’s Soccer (14-1) is currently ranked #14 in the nation.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Anyone who follows college athletics knows national rankings like these don’t come easy and are hardly “a joke.”</p>
<p>I am applying for Cornell and am using the Primary/Alternate college option.</p>
<p>For primary, I am applying for Dyson Undergraduate (applied economics and management) under the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.</p>
<p>My alternate choice is the economics major under the College of Arts and Sciences</p>
<p>The Common App supplement asks that I write the essay for both schools. Since AEM and economics are relatively similar majors, can I just use the same essay (an essay about how I’m business oriented and would like to go to college to learn more about my passion for entrepreneurship) for both of the schools? Will this degrade my chances at both schools or will they treat the two separately? My essay is essentially interchangeable.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>How important do you think are AP scores? I self reported them on the common app cause I thought it would appear suspicious if I didn’t. But I didn’t do well on the APs at all (two 3s and one 4). I did, however, get really high grades from those classes. Will this make admissions suspicious of my transcript altogether? Thanks!</p>
<p>Hi again!</p>
<p>I was wondering if you could please talk about what corporate law is like - such as what you topics focus on/study and what workload is like I suppose. I really don’t know much about this, so any details would be great - thanks once again!</p>
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<p>I don’t think it matters. If you get rejected from your first choice school, I heard the secondary school doesn’t bother to look at your application.</p>
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<p>Not much.</p>
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<p>I doubt it. AP scores aren’t used for admissions purposes. They’re used for deciding whether to give you college credits.</p>
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<p>I am assuming by ‘corporate law’, you mean those high-end large law firms that handle large-scale litigation or corporate issues for institutional clients. These firms are known as ‘Biglaw’.</p>
<p>What you learn at law school and what you actually practice at a Biglaw firm are completely different. At law school, there is a heavy emphasis on developing qaulity of analysis skills, quality of thinking, and quality of issue spotting skills. At Biglaw firms, there is a heavy emphasis on the quantity, not quality, of the work product done by junior attorneys. Biglaw firms evaluate their junior lawyers based on how ‘billable’ or ‘chargeable’ they are, so they can charge the clients as much money as possible, which would result in increased profit margin for the firm, and ultimately, the increased profit for law firm partners.</p>
<p>As a result, especially at junior levels, most Biglaw attorneys do tons of grunt work, ranging from mindless document review, drafting deals, or researching relevant cases. And, they tend to be evaluated by how much they work, rather than how well they work. The law school education does not teach you lawyering skills. Law firms do. Law schools teach you how to ‘think like a lawyer’.</p>
<p>If you are thinking of a career in a high-end corporate law setting, you basically need to attend a top 14 law school, or rank top 10% of your class from a top 25 law school. The vast majority of law students outside of that school range don’t have a legitimate shot at attaining the said positions. Biglaw, much like investment banking or management consulting, cares a lot about your school pedigree, and these industries tend to hire only from top schools. In fact, I believe investment banking and management consulting firms are even more conscious of what school you attend, since these firms tend to recruit only from 10-15 schools nation-wide. </p>
<p>Re: workload. The first year of law school is very intense. The reason for that is all courses are curved, and the grades earned that year determine your employment outcome for large law firms, since most of Biglaw job recruiting takes place in your second year of law school. I believe I studied about 3-4 times more during my first year of law school, compared to the level of work I did at Cornell.</p>
<p>Lastly, I don’t recommend any person to aspire to become a lawyer without having a legitimate reason or motivation behind it. If you want to become a lawyer after watching a couple of episodes from “Boston Legal” or “Legally Blonde”, chances are, you will be sorely disappointed.</p>
<p>I’ve a applied to Cornell for spring of 2013, my high school academic record isn’t something to be proud of as I dropped out in my junior year and got a GED with average scores for the state. Once I turned 18 I joined the Marines and have been on active duty for the past 8 years. During this time I have attended Hawaii Pacific Univ. I currently have a 3.9 GPA, have 4 combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan (3 as a squad leader in charge of 13 marines), some volunteer work at an elementary school and a letter of recommendation from a previous company commander. Will my past academic mishaps affect my chances of transfer? Is Cornell a veteran friendly school?</p>
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<p>Cornell places more weight on your college gpa rather than the high school record for transfer admissions. I am not sure how friendly of a school Cornell is towards veterans. I hear that the veteran status helps with several types of employment, as well as certain graduate school admissions. (b-school) That being said, I can’t see how the veteran status can hurt you for Cornell; it can only help you.</p>
<p>Lastly, thank you for your service to our country.</p>
<p>@NYUlawyer</p>
<p>Thank you for the praise for my service, I’ve enjoyed the last eight years of my life. Time to start a new chapter. Thank you for taking the time to provide some helpful information on this thread. </p>
<p>SGT
USMC/0311</p>