Hi! I’m entirely lost about this whole application process. I’m planning on applying to ILR as my ED. My gpa is 3.89 unweighted and 4.07 weighted. My highest ACT is a 33 right more but I think I can bump it up to a 34. Extracurriculars are OK but not overly impressive.
Honest opinions on admission? Pls be brutally honest.
And if there are any knowledgable alumni or students at ILR now, please let me know!
Hi! I am looking at applying to the ILR school as well! I would say your GPA and test scores are high, but they may be on the lower end of students applying to Cornell. However, this isn’t everything! If your school doesn’t offer a lot of weighted classes, AOs will pay attention to that. I’m assuming you are a rising senior, so I would suggest looking for other ways to boost your application in the next few months, such as looking for an internship, applying to prestigious scholarships, joining leadership clubs once school starts, or participating in volunteer work. Depending on your other activities and qualifications, I think you have a chance and I would definitely apply if I were you!
I’ve looked at admissions statistics on their website. For overall acceptance rate, if you are a girl it is around 11%, but if you are a boy its around 18%. I am guessing double that acceptance rate for ED. As for your application, it doesn’t have much info but you don’t seem too confident. If ILR is your top school, look at how many ec’s are related to making a change/justice/government/international relations and from now until application time, try to pursue one or two more ec’s related to those things that can boost your app. Ex. volunteer for a campaign (it’ll be a small role but indulge in your app). Ex. apply to essay scholarships about government. Your scores are probably enough to get you in… weighted might make it a little harder, but ec’s prolly matter the most. (ILR is a very specific school).
OP, have you visited?
The female admit rate to ILR for 2018 was 14.5% and 17.4% for men. A year earlier, the admit rates were 15.6% women & 14.3% men, closer than @tchit87 posted above. The small size of the program causes admit rates jump around a bit due to the fluctuation in # of applicants from year to year combined with the university’s goal of enrolling a max class size. I do not know ED vs RD admit rates for ILR, but they have be double as the last year’s ED admit rate was 22.6 vs overall admit rate of 10.6. (The huge # of male engineering applicants tends to skew these figures.)
Attending their roundtable info session used to be useful; I don’t know if that is still the case. Assuming they have not changed the format of the info session in a few years, be prepared to answer ‘Why ILR?’.
https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/programs/undergraduate-degree-program/undergraduate-admissions/visit
Have you received mailings and/or emails from ILR? They reach out somewhat regularly, seemingly based on SAT/ACT scores.