I aim to pursue the Food industry management major in the Dyson school of business-However the AEM(Applied economics and management) is the hardest major in the college of agri and life sciences to get into. Hence, should I apply to the Food science(An easier course to get into) major and then transfer in to this program once I am at college?
Ethnicity:Indian
Applying:ED
ACT:32
IB:40
I heard that AEM is very hard to transfer into - applying to food science if you have no interest in it would not only be disingenuous, but also not strategic. How do you plan to fake a passion for food science, especially if your high school curricular and extra/co-curricular involvement indicated a passion in econ/business (I am assuming)?
Look into Econ if you feel AEM is unlikely at this time.
Perhaps repost here?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/
Moving
Hi @ktbktb,
This time last year, I also aimed to pursue the food industry management concentration at dyson. I’ve been giving a few people on these forums advice on dyson, as I was in a pretty similar spot this time last year. You may have read some of this advice if you’ve searched the forums for dyson advice these past few months, but I’ve adjusted it to fit your case:
I ended up applying to dyson ED because I at the time I thought it’d be better to scrape an acceptance to cornell early than to use up my early app on Harvard/Princeton/etc. and get rejected. Ended up getting deferred and accepted in the RD round (yeah my account username says rejected, but I did end up getting in). You should be able to see my complete stats in the comment I made on the Cornell 2020 Early Decision thread, but I will give you the gist of it here. I struck gold with standardized testing and got a 2400 SAT in one sitting and a 35 ACT (I had already signed up for the ACT before I got my SAT back, I don’t think I reported the 35.) 3.98 unweighted GPA at an elite high school in New England (we’ve consistently been ranked in the Top 15 on US News & World’s national best high schools list). I had solid recs and heartfelt essays; I was able to read my recs earlier this month (school policy is we can only ask to read recs once all decisions are in) and they were just phenomenal. I invested dozens of hours into crafting my essays last summer as well. Anyway from what I understand, dyson proportionally has the highest amount of athletes and legacies at cornell, the types of applicants that schools generally prioritize during the ED round. If you are a URM then I’d definitely apply ED, many schools focus heavily on securing URM enrollment during the ED round. I’m Asian-American (Indian) and I think that hurt a lot. Also be careful with the ED commitment-- it’s binding. To be honest I was devastated when I got deferred (I remember thinking to myself that if I couldn’t get into dyson ED with stats this much higher than their averages, I wouldn’t be able to get into any other elite school), but looking back it’s good that I was deferred. During the RD round I got accepted to UChicago (attending this fall!), Wharton, and Dyson, plus a bunch of other matches and safeties. Bottom line is I wouldn’t recommend applying to dyson ED unless you’re an athlete, legacy, or urm. I’m definitely not saying you don’t have a chance at dyson ED, but since it’s likely that they will defer you to the regular pool anyway, you may as well use your early app on a school with high admission rates for the early pool. Harvard, Yale, Princeton have 15-20% acceptance rates for their early pool versus ~3.5% for regular; I still wish I had applied to Harvard early as it was my #1, but what can ya do ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Anyways hope my advice helps-- no matter what happens, you WILL go to a great school. Your 32 ACT puts you at or near the 50th percentile for most schools out there, shoot for the skies!! Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions about college apps, want me to look over any essays, or if you have questions about UChicago (fabulous school!! Although I am a bit biased 
)
Also are you applying for financial aid?