My D was contacted last week by a recent Cornell alum, and they agreed to meet up at the local Starbucks this evening. The alum who contacted her lives in this area, and graduated from D’s HS in 2012. I believe that any alum who has volunteered to do these applicant interviews was given the name and contact info of an applicant to contact within the last week or so. I work with a Cornell alum who was given someone to interview just a few days ago.
D sent in her ED application on 11/1 (nothing like waiting till the last minute!) We live in Orange County, NY–just a little north of you.
Just had my CAAAN meeting. We met at a Panera for around 30 minutes and just talked about Cornell. She explained that she wasn’t looking for a typical interview where I would just list my involvement and achievements; admissions already knows my extra-curricular involvement and academic credentials. She wanted to talk about what I was interested in, what I was hoping to gain from my education at Cornell, and if there was anything that I left out in the application. I could also tell that she was testing my knowledge on how much I knew about the program I applied to so if you do have a meeting, come with questions. Also, make sure you know the program you applied to. It helped me to re-read my Cornell supplement and look at the Cornell website. Lastly, make sure to come across as presentable and act friendly! At the end, my interviewer said that oftentimes people are so nervous and anxious that it reflects negatively.
@Lindaya Check you spam folder. That’s where I found my contact. I had let it go almost two weeks before I thought to check there and so I had to scramble to get a meeting and apologize profusely for missing his initial attempt to contact me. If you didn’t get a request from an alum, don’t worry. Everything I have read on this site indicates that it is random based on availability of the alumni in your area. About 30% never do an interview and it doesn’t affect your application. They just want to help answer questions. Yes they write a 250 word synopsis but from what I have read, most of the time the just write “nothing new to report.”
@Lindaya to clear this up for you: Cornell only requires interviews for Hotel School and AAP. Interviews are not required for the other colleges. Cornell Alumni Ambassador Network (CAAN) may contact you if for an informational “interview” but these do not have bearing on your admission. If an alumnus lives in your area and has signed up to be a CAAN representative, you may or may not get a call. My daughter got contacted by a CAAN rep in our area when she applied, but he never got back to her to schedule a meeting, so she never had one. So don’t fret about this. You cannot request one.
Financial aid stuff due today and I submitted my IDOC stuff on the 20th. They haven’t been processed yet, so it’s still not completed on Cornell’s site. This should be ok right?