Cornell Diversity Hosting 2023

Not sure if Cornell considers international students as URM, but whatever.

Anyway, having put more thought into the Diversity Hosting invitations, I wonder how many of the URM applicants who received an invite come from well-off families and have the financial means to take a one- or two-day trip to Ithaca to view the campus on a whim, as opposed to the rest of the URM applicants who might get accepted on Ivy Day but can’t afford to visit Cornell before college decisions have to be made in May. It’s almost as though Cornell randomly selected a certain percentage of accepted URM applicants assuming all of them come from low-income households, even though admissions isn’t supposed to know about financial aid situation of the applicant. Something to think about, I guess.

got my Diversity Letter yesterday!

@NMParent000079 are you saying that you believe they only invited people who, they believe, can’t afford a trip to campus? Why are assuming URM admits are kow SES?
According to other posters (here and on other pages), LL/Diversity Hosting is meant to sway highly desirable candidates, before they get other acceptances. This directly correlates to the schools yield rate, and has nothing to do with who can or can’t afford to visit.
My DD has been to campus twice before, and they definitely know that. Did your child get a LL/DH invite? Only ~5% of admits will receive them, so if he/she did, congratulations. If not, just wait for Ivy day, and stop trying to discount those that did, and rationalize why you didn’t.

Now, who is going to DH, when?

@17yeargap I wasn’t trying to “discount” the applicants who received an invitation to the diversity hosting, however I do apologize if my comment came across that way.

I think it’s great that Cornell offers such a thing for admitted students, but to me it makes more sense to give an all-expense (minus the registration fee) visit to admitted applicants who don’t have the financial means to pay for a trip on their own. Meanwhile, those with the means to afford such a journey might have already visited the campus multiple times (perhaps that’s the case with you and your daughter). Anyway, the goal should be to achieve true diversity — not only of so-called ethnic/racial background and skin-tone but also of thought, socio-economic status and geography.

I understand that it’s in the interest of Cornell (and every other college) to persuade “desirable” admitted applicants to enroll in order to sustain or increase yield percentage. That’s an unfortunate side-effect of the marketing side of the college decision game. But how does the admissions team honestly select such applicants? Sure, you can make the case that if an applicant has visited the school multiple times it’s assumed to correlate to heavy interest, and perhaps rightfully so. But such a way of thinking doesn’t take into account the amazing applicants who can’t afford such visits or who grew up in a household where a post-secondary education is neither valued nor encouraged so they were never pushed to send messages of interest to Cornell beginning in middle school or whatever, but maybe in senior year started to do research on the school and have since decided it’s the college for them. I don’t know.

I can go on and on about this topic, but I don’t have time here. You hopefully get the point I’m trying to make.

I just want to say that diversity hosting is NOT just for applicants who can’t pay, but is simply just for the purpose if creating a diverse class. I was admitted through diversity hosting, and would never have thought of attending without the offers from Cornell, yet if I really wanted to go from the start I would definitely be able to pay. I think @17yeargap is right on.

https://www.sce.cornell.edu/ss/courses/on/psp.php

Sounds like it can be a lot of fun. But I wonder why some admitted students are required to participate.

If you get a likely letter from diversity hosing, congratulations! You have been admitted for the fall! I’m going to put this out there, students that get a letter for Diversity Hosting, might also get a PSP (PreFreshman Summer Program) invitation. Some PSP invites will be optional, others will be CONDITIONAL. Conditional meaning, you cannot attend Cornell if you don’t go to PSP. PSP is 7 weeks and you will take actual Cornell classes that count towards your GPA. It is paid for by the University, but you must attend all 7 weeks, and you are closely monitored. Getting kicked out of PSP will also forfeit your spot in the university in the fall. PSP ends 8 days before you have to be back at Cornell for orientation, so you don’t get a summer at all.

PSP always gets some mixed reviews. Most people don’t like it, but at least made some friends

@17yeargap We are going to DH on 4/17. Super excited and blessed to have this opportunity. Our D19 has several desirable offers from other schools so we are trying to narrow this very big step down.

@NMParent000079 it’s based on the quality of your high school, the courses taken jr. and sr. year, test scores, and basically if the school thinks that without it, adjusting to Cornell would be more difficult for the student

@jabsmom10 we are checking that date with DD school tomorrow. Her teachers are starting to joke that she hasn’t been in school an entire, week since January. Admittedly, she has been out for scholarship visits and academic presentations, etc at least 2x month. Lol

@17yeargap same here. I had to ask if she will be penalized for missing so many days

Go & enjoy! Just get their work ahead of time, that’s what I did with no regrets! Visited Duke, ND, CMU, BC, UPenn and Williams which help me find my home. When you sleep away on campus and live the life it helps in deciding where you belong. @jabsmom10 @17yeargap

I applied for CALS and received a DH email (:

@BigApple2018 @jabsmom10 yeah, I dont really care if they like it or not…she’s going. Lol These visits have yielded significant scholarship offers, and provided her opportunities to meet some amazing people. I will be glad when she decides, but until then, she is going to have every opportunity to gather all information, so she can make the choice that is right for her. I can’t wait to see what all of these young people accomplish. Congratulations to everyone. Cornell or not, I expect (and am counting on) great things from you!

My daughter also got an invite on Friday! She is very excited about the opportunity to visit the campus.

What exactly are the qualifications to receive the diversity letter? I indicated on my app that I was Puerto Rican and Cuban (live in Florida though), so I thought I’d be a URM.

If I didn’t receive a letter, could this mean that I didn’t qualify as one? Or did I just not get in to Cornell?

@yeehaw23 Not receiving a diversity hosting invite or a LL doesn’t mean you’ll be rejected on Ivy Day. Those letters/notifications are sent to a select few from the accepted applicant pool. Like I mentioned earlier, nearly 800 URM accepted applicants enrolled at Cornell for the class of 2022 and obviously not all of them received the diversity hosting invite last year.

Does anyone know when the PSP stuff would be released? Would we be able to take that into consideration when choosing where we want to go in the fall?

Does anyone know if the application status is supposed to change in our portal yet? On the Cornell portal my application is finished but there’s no decision update. Will this come on the 28th? Or is there some other place I need to be looking?

I got the Diversity Hosting invitation today in the mail today!