<p>Hi guys I plan to major in business but I have a feeling Cornell (Dyson) won't accept me due to its crazy acceptance rate of around 8%. As a result, I'm doing the Primary/Alternate Option where I decided to choose Cornell ILR as my alternate. The prompt is:
"School of Industrial and Labor Relations: Tell us about your intellectual interests, how they sprung from your course, service, work or life experiences, and what makes them exciting to you. Describe how these interests may be realized and linked to the ILR curriculum."
I want to clarify that I intend to major in business and I know that ILR does have business but is more geared towards the social sciences and law. Will focusing on business make me an inferior applicant? I recall someone saying that Cornell ILR separates businessmen from ILR people and I'm sure if that's a good thing or not.
My essay will be based on my developing interest in social interaction that grew from a business that my family owns. Basically I will talk about how it led to me become interested in the art of speech and persuasion which I feel to be necessary for business majors. Does this seem to answer the prompt? I will relate it to courses in ILR and whatnot but I feel as though ILR does not really focus on business.
I will take all feedback and suggestions, particularly AEM/ILR alumnus!
Thank you so much in advance!</p>
<p>bump</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, the applications rarely get passed on to alternate school choices. It’ll be up to Dyson whether or not they even forward it on to ILR, and then if ILR does get your application, they will review it knowing that their school was not your first choice. Not trying to be discouraging, just saying. </p>
<p>My advice would be to pour your heart and soul into the essay for AEM. I would expect your chances of getting into ILR if/when you’re rejected from Dyson to be slim. The topic of your ILR essay seems pretty reasonable, but, as I’ve said, I’m not sure how much it will matter as you are selecting the school as your alternate choice. </p>
<p>You are right in saying that ILR doesn’t particularly focus on business in the traditional sense. However, you can still take many business-related electives (finance, accounting, management, etc.) as an ILR student. There are ILR students who get jobs as consultants, investment bankers, etc., but I feel as though AEM is the better match for those types of jobs. ILR is definitely more geared toward the human side of enterprise, i.e., focuses on HR, law, labor economics, and labor-related policy.</p>
<p>Don’t sell yourself short on Dyson; it is competitive but so is all of Cornell. What do your stats look like in terms of GPA, SATs, etc.?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for replying! I decided to just focus on Dyson but I feel my chances are VERY slim. My record goes as follows:</p>
<p>Ethnicity: Asian
Citizenship: US
School: One of the best high schools in NY</p>
<p>Class Rank: Grades are so similar that there is no class rank. (around 800 seniors)
GPA: 91.8 (3.6-3.7)
SAT Scores (they suck)
Math: 750
Writing: 680 Essay: 10 (first time) Second time I got a 650 and an 8 but Cornell doesn’t look at writing :disagree:
Critical Reading: 690
***I just took the Oct one and I HOPE I did a lot better ( I’m feeling at least a 2100!! )</p>
<p>SAT IIS: WIll be taking US and Math Level 2 in Nov (WIll they count towards my application?)</p>
<p>5APs: US: 4, Language: 4, World: 3, currently taking AB Calc and Macro/Micro</p>
<p>ECs: 3 years of Lacrosse
2 years of Wrestling
2 years of Ping Pong Club (Co president and co founder of the club)
6+ years of volunteering at a tutoring center during weekends and during the summer
2 years of volunteering at a rehabilitation center</p>
<p>Common App Ess: I wrote about the time when I decided to earn my own money by starting a small sale so I could stop wasting my parents’ money. This is just the gist of it.
Cornell Supp: I wrote about my leadership in ping pong, how it symbolizes qualities of businessmen, and how courses in AEM reflect my desires. It sounds very generic but according to my peers, I executed it in a great way.</p>
<p>What do you think of my chances? If my essays are exemplary, do you think they will make up for my grades. How is a 1440/1600 viewed in regards to Dyson?</p>
<p>didn’t the october sat come out already?</p>
<p>Oops! I just copy/pasted from my previous post! That is my new result.</p>
<p>@uncledrew oh ok. I think you have a good shot at Dyson, there is a lot of emphasis on fit so if you can show that you ARE Dyson, you’ll be fine. </p>
<p>I’d say you have a fine shot. The fact that you’re a NY state resident applying to CALS should help at least a tiny bit. Your SAT scores are fine, especially with regards to Math. GPA may be a bit low, but grades aren’t everything. Hopefully your essay will convey to admissions that you are indeed a perfect fit for Dyson. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Thanks a lot guys! @shockastrika83 You go to Cornell as an ILR major right? Do you have any contact with AEM majors by any chance? If so, can you ask them about their GPA’s when they applied to AEM? I know it’s a lot to ask but it would make me feel a lot more confident. I tried searching everywhere but only found a few people with superb GPAs that got into AEM.</p>
<p>@uncledrew one of the seniors (HS class of 2014) got into AEM 3.7 GPA with a 2040 SAT. ED. White. No hook. Good essays and EC. He said that the big thing is his passion for AEM.</p>
<p>@CaptainVantastic Thank you so much for this information, you literally just made my week! I took the day off and restructured my entire common app and supplement to show my desire for business. After seeing this makes me so happy :D</p>
<p>grades and SAT are good enough so just work on polishing essay and such. </p>
<p>Cornell does look at writing, I e-mailed their admissions department before and they replied saying so. Cornell Engineering does not consider writing, but I can’t imagine why ILR wouldn’t especially since its writing intensive.</p>