<p>With this year's application season about to begin, I'm faced with a dilemma. As you may have inferred from the thread title, I don't know whether to apply to U Chicago EA or Cornell ED. The problem is the due to family circumstances I am not really able to travel, so I have only been able to visit Cornell. On one hand, I am sure I would like to go there, but on the other hand I don't know what other schools are like and U Chicago seems awesome. There is also, of course, the matter of getting in. Last year Cornell had an ED acceptance rate of 37% and an RD acceptance rate of 17%. They plainly say on their website the ED applicants are at an advantage. For a school that large and a difference that drastic, I have to believe them. This factor is especailly important because both schools are mid-to-low reachs for me (30%-50% chance or so I think).</p>
<p>My GPA is 3.75 (or 93%) unweighed. We do not have official weighed GPA but it would be 4.36. My school does not take honors/AP classes into account when determining class rank so my rank is much lower than it should be but still top 10%. My SAT score is 2290 and my SAT II scores are nearly perfect (4 tests, none below 790). EC's, recs, and writing ability are all what you would expect for someone applying to these schools. I am also first gen but I believe that's a minor factor.</p>
<p>Which option would be better? Discuss please :) I am cross-posting this on the U Chicago forum, the Cornell forum, and the College Admissions forum. I hope this is allowed.</p>
<p>If you feel you will be prepared to apply early to these schools then do so. Since Cornell is binding and UChicago isnt, if you want to go to UChicago more, don’t apply to Cornell ED, just to Chicago EA. If your first choice is cornell, there is no harm in applying to both early since Chicago is non-binding.</p>
<p>I would go with UChicago EA. Your SAT and subject tests are all very strong so you may not even need ED to get into Cornell. That being said, if you do get in early, you’ll have little control over you financial aid package. Also, I think UChicago also has a pretty high EA acceptance rate so that would probably be a better option.</p>
<p>I’ll be a freshman entering Cornell this year. I applied ED to cornell and EA to chicago. I got in to both. I think we might be able to help you out a bit more if you told us what you were thinking of studying.</p>
<p>I would ask what your priorities are in getting a college education and experience. It does not seem like the type of campus matters to you, since Cornell is rural and UC is urban. I hope you’re not applying to these schools for status reasons, without considerations for other factors that may influence your enjoyment over 4 years at a particular college. I would not apply to places that you believe are “good” schools because of ranking/prestige and how good of a “chance” you have to get in there. If you truly don’t have a preference for schools and you’re just looking to get into the “best” you can, then I would not apply anywhere ED, because that may have some ramifications down the road (i.e weak financial aid package).</p>
<p>I think those 2 schools attract different kind of students. There are probably more pre-professional students at Cornell than Chicago. More students from Chicago probably go on to get PhD or go on to research. Cornell attracts more students who could walk and chew gum at the same time. You would have more fun at Cornell than Chicago.</p>
<p>You could apply ED at Cornell and EA at Chicago at the same time. But if accepted at both then you would need to go to Cornell if it’s financially feasible.</p>
<p>yah, I don’t know about that either, it seems like everyone from my freshman dorm at Cornell has a Phd now (except me). If I hadn’t also been interested in engineering U chicago might have been on my own list.</p>
<p>Cornell has a very diverse student body, and IMO that includes a large chunk of students, particularly in CAS, who probably would have been quite happy academically at U Chicago.</p>
<p>There are many obvious and stark differences between the universities:
U Chicago’s core curriculum, locations/settings, the various colleges at Cornell not one.</p>
<p>OP needs to decide where he sees himself best thriving over the next four years. If you can’t reach that decision via comparison on paper, then I don’t know how you do it without visiting.</p>
<p>hii guys …im also on the similar prob…
ed at upenn or ea at u chicago ??
but one of my frens has informed me that internationals arent allowed to ed at one n ea at another , is this true?
HELP ME OUT GUYS</p>
<p>Internationals are treated the same as US students, and everyone could ED at Penn AND EA at Chicago. It is not the case with Georgetown. If you EA at Georgetown, you could not ED/EA/SCEA anywhere. It is different with each school when it comes to EA. As I mentioned before, if you did both and were fortunate enough to be accepted by both schools then you will go to the ED school.</p>
<p>Can’t you do both? Although ED is a binding agreement, Cornell doesn’t bar you from applying early anywhere else, and neither does UChicago. Unless I happen to be misinformed?</p>
<p>I got into Cornell '14 RD (and accepted the offer), but earlier opted to apply to UChicago EA instead of Middlebury ED (best decision of my life)–because what if, by chance, I got into both? I knew I’d hate to be forced to say ‘no’ to Chicago. I got into UChicago, and ended up not applying to Midd at all because I realized I didn’t want to go to such a small school. If you are unsure about a school that uses ED, I’d highly discourage applying early for the higher admit rate. Granted, UChicago’s EA rate was far higher than their RD rate in the end – unprecedented from earlier cycles. Perhaps you’ll find a similar advantage applying this fall…
If UChicago is really on your brain like it was for me, just apply EA and apply to Cornell RD. My whole college gameplan changed dramatically from August to October, October to January, etc etc. So you really never know what you’re gonna want in the end.</p>