@hamsamcam17 it’s not official until they send us the emails the monday/tuesday before, we just have to wait and see but it appears extremely likely it will be thursday.
Okay, so- I need a few of you to come up with an honest, honest answer to some of my questions. No matter how a University may cover it up, they are ultimately a “business” at the end of the day that needs money to fund their academics, trips, and so on. How much does a “full paying student” look vs a “financial aid student”? Do legacies, donors, and other connections help significantly? I heard Cornell is one of the ivies that is very loyal to their alumni, especially when they are a donor. So in reality, what is the TRUE advantage of those students vs a regular applicant? Is it worth applying when you are a little below average for Cornell’s “middle 50%”, or do you need to be a legacy or connection to have that “push”?
- A curious prospect student.
@hoghedge Honestly, I say apply. Admission is not always based solely on scores or gpa. At Cornell “fit” to the particular college you are applying to is incredibly important, and they really emphasized that in my info session. That may just be for the school I applied to (which was HumEc) because I applied already knowing what I want to study. If you have really good essays and are a good fit for the school (for the right reasons), go for it!
@hoghedge And to answer the legacy question, I think it does have an advantage when deciding between two people with very similar applications, but just because someone is a legacy does not mean they will automatically get in and you will be rejected.
@hoghedge not to be totally and completely basic but you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. That being said you should definitely apply! In regards to the financial aid student vs. a full paying tuition student, I believe that cornell has blind acceptance meaning they don’t know who’s who until you actually commit. Now I am the first in my family to go to college so all of my information is from reading blogs like this and fairs, so I might be a little wrong. Ultimately in an ivy league environment every little thing counts because we all have the same grades and scores, they want us to bring more to the table.
Has anyone’s financial aid to do list been updated? On two of the items on my list, it says that their due date is 11/01/2017.
Anyone else in a similar situation?
@hoghedge There is certainly an advantage to having legacy, but they only make up under 15% of students at cornell, and many of them are strong students as well (pushed by parents who did well). Cornell is need blind admissions unless you are international I think (not sure on international part).
4 d a y s f a m
but hey, look on the bright side! even if we all get rejected, rogue one comes out on the 16th anyway. there’s always star wars and junk food, folks. you can’t go wrong.
@lulu0207 that’s what I was saying; your major is very particular and scarce so your chances are greater. 
@hoghedge I agree with the others. Don’t let perceived stats deter you. Anything can happen. I had one admissions person at Duke flat out tell me, if you misspell the Pratt School of engineering, you go right to the reject pile. I’m assuming you’re considering RD and have not already applied ED? Anyway, in my obsessive search for answers over the last four months, I found somewhere deep in the Internet (I wish I could remember where) an article that showed published statistics on how many Cornell legacies of the freshman class get in, how many athletes, and how many that leaves left over for the other ED applicants. This is just my memory here, but as I recall Cornell fills about 40% of their freshman class early decisions, legacies, and athletes. According to published info there are about 4800 early decision applicants to get about 1340 spots in the freshman class, and another 30-40% of those go to athletes and legacies, meaning less than 1000 spots go to the rest of us. The total class size is about 6500, so after ED, the other 5000 spots go to RD and differed applicants. There were more than 40,000 RD apps for last years class alone. That’s why it’s so hard to get in. Grades and test scores are certainly important to get you past the massive first pile and into the second pile, but like the others have said the right fit for the college or a great hook is what is needed most.
It’s easy to compare your stats against those who were rejected, deferred or accepted for the class of 2020 on another thread that was started last year. Check it out. As you will see, plenty of people in the middle 50% got in. And a lot with better stats did not.
Thankfully, 95% of us on this thread are realistic and hoping for the best but preparing for Plan B. There are three or four incredibly arrogant people that have been on here, but most have been nice. I hope the nice ones get in.
I was reading an article somewhere that talked about the reality of “need-blind” admissions, especially among top schools… they can basically tell that you can pay full tuition if you went to private school, so they go ahead and admit a lot of promising private schools students first as guaranteed sources of income. I have no idea how much that factors in at Cornell, but that might be a contributor to those stats as well.
@curiousstudent12 Mine has the same. I think most of us have something like that. At this point it doesn’t matter because financial aid really doesn’t affect your application decision. If you’re missing something and you get in they will let you know.
Does anyone here know when decisions are officially coming out? I heard that it’s sometime this week but I want to know exactly when.
According to the Cornell Daily Sun article about last year’s ED admissions, 14.4% of ED acceptances were to athletes and legacies make up 22.8% of “admitted students” (ED and RD, I would assume).
@nargles19 I read something similar. That’s another reason why no international students get Cornell grants and also why there have been an increase in international acceptances, since most have to pay full price. Colleges are big business. I mean the endowments at Ivies are larger than some country’s GDPs. Sad reality but true. Personally I like a really diverse school, but international students have a disadvantage, just like if Americans wanted to go study in Europe. It’s really hard to get in if you can’t pay full price.
What does it mean if Cornell didn’t ask for this semester’s grades? My semester isn’t finished and I’m going to be taking finals next week …
Also, good luck to everyone!
Here’s yet another spreadsheet where everyone can draw their own conclusions.
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■/2020-ivy-league-admissions-statistics/
Has anyone received a “likely” notification of some sort? Does Cornell even do that kind of thing?