<p>unless you discovered a cure for cancer, won a Nobel Prize or are a amazing athlete(im talking top 10 in the country) in addition to having a perfect SAT and perfect GPA Cornell is not a safety. Your guidance counselor is an idiot if they say that, i’m sorry but he/she is. Schools like the ivies, MIT, Standfor, CalTech are by no means a safetey for anyone. Please have the realistic mindset to apply to a school that is actually a safety for someone with your stats and get advice from someone not your counsuler because he doesnt know what he is talking about. </p>
<p>I believe your GC was quite precipitous to declare Cornell as a “safety school” (for you or anyone else). Yes, you have a splendid record – deserved congratulations – but safety implies 100 percent admittance assurance (plus full financial affordable). Fundamentally, you are assuming ALL the risk for the GC’s “bold” statement – if the GC’s assertion proves wrong, the GC suffers not at all and you are left “holding the bag.” That’s an unfortunate fact. Be prudent; don’t regard Cornell as a “safety school.” </p>
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<p>I guess it depends on your definition of “lots”. No doubt those are incredible results for that school (hence the reason it was newsworthy), but the overall numbers are pretty low. Of 1.85 million tests taken last year, there were about 1,400 composite 36s. That’s 0.075%. </p>
<p>Yeah, but if you happen to be from this high school you are not so special after all.</p>
<p>@DrGoogle I thought we’re compared to the entire applicant pool not within our school? </p>
<p>It’s my understanding that certain schools don’t like to accept too many students from one school. So, if all the students with perfect ACT scores applied to Cornell, the school might compare each student to each other as well.</p>
<p>I think you compete from the same school because the teachers have to decide who to put in best student or something like that. For example, when my daughter asked one teacher for letter of recommendation, he said he needed to check what one student he favored and already asked him for Stanford where he was applying to. Had my daughter apply to Stanford, she wouldn’t have gotten better recommendation from him.</p>
<p>If you are applying to Cornell’s Hotel School, it might be your safety. If you are applying to Cornell’s Engineering School, it probably would not be your safety. The only engineering school that is significantly more selective than Cornell’s is Caltech. It depends on your credentials and on where you apply at Cornell.</p>
<p>Maybe your GC meant that of all the colleges you are applying to (so far), the most likely for you to get into is Cornell.
Here on CC we always recommend to apply to a true safety/match (e.g., your state flagship and hopefully the honors program)</p>
<p>duplicate</p>
<p>Given the OP’s application list consisting of safety-for-no-one schools (other than perhaps UCSD, but it won’t be affordable for the OP, so it cannot be a safety for the OP), it looks like the OP’s default safety is a community college.</p>
<p>Re #27: “If you are applying to Cornell’s Hotel School, it might be your safety. If you are applying to Cornell’s Engineering School, it probably would not be your safety.”</p>
<p>Not to quibble, but, IMO, OP’s relative likelihood of admission to these two colleges there may well depend on the rest of the application. My impression is the Hotel school is among the colleges there least interested in these academic stats, and wants to see some relevant hospitality industry exposure and a sensible reason for why the applicant wants to matriculate there, consistent with its mission. It probably has some shields up about being used as a “back door” to another college there, and may well reject a high-stats applicant lacking the rest of the package it wants to see, Whereas my guess is engineering is probably the college there that cares most about these stats, because the student has to be able to survive and thrive academically in their challenging program. And of course also wants to see from the application that the applicant belongs there. IMO not every applicant can demonstrate “belonging” equally to these two colleges. But besides that my point is these colleges may place different relative weights on the purely academic factors.</p>
<p>But I agree with the “big picture” point, that admission there is by college, and each college has somewhat different applicant pools and admissions criteria. In fact I posted that previously on this thread.</p>
<p>I’d still apply to a school that is an absolute 100% financial and academic safety. Cornell may be highly likely for your with your stats (I can’t opine on that) but admission and aid at the very competitive schools are never an exact science.</p>
<p>Personally, I always like to have an EA/rollng acceptance in hand by mid-Dec. There are plenty of great ones that you’d be almost assured of getting, and nothing is safer than an actual acceptance with FA package.</p>
<p>Agree with @ monydad’s assessment in post #31 completely. </p>
<p>If I get into MIT or Caltech early, I don’t have to worry about safeties right?</p>
<p>If you get any early admission to a school that is affordable (note that this means knowing the financial aid offer), then that school is a safety. However, if the early action/decision schools do not release their admissions and financial aid decisions before the application deadlines to schools that you would otherwise apply to as safeties, you would have to apply to those other schools anyway.</p>
<p>why not applying to UofMichigan EA? Application is free.</p>
<p>@DrGoogle wouldn’t UMich OOS be just as unaffordable as UC OOS?</p>
<p>yes, but it’s a bit cheaper than some private schools, maybe cheaper than the UC for OOS.</p>