Cornell waitlist 2026

Basically, except last year, Cornell’s Yield is stablized at 60% around. So, the admits is: enrolled / 0.6. In other words, most of years are 5300± admits for the past 5 years. Why this year suddenly CUT to 4908? The only reason that I can tell is: last year, for some unknown reason, Cornell’s yield was UP to 64%…(First time ever)

If this year, Cornell’s yield is down back to 60-61%, then 4908*0.6 = less than 3000. Then Cornell will have to bring lots of kids off the WL. 200-300 off from WL.

Lets see. I hope my data model is correct.

4 Likes

It seems like several schools had an over-enrollment last year and are trying to put together a smaller freshman class this year to make up for last year. My hope is that they were cautious with the acceptances but will move to the waitlist as long as their yield is not up again.

This may have been discussed in this or related threads, but there’s a few moving pieces related to housing and enrollment at Cornell. Last year two new freshmen dorms opened up on North Campus and enrollment was increased to account for that. But the freshmen class (class of 2025) was overenrolled and several double rooms were turned into triples which wasn’t ideal for the students involved. For Fall 2022, I believe two additional dorms and dining halls are opening up on North Campus (all part of one large expansion plan). But, at the same time, starting this fall, because of all of the new housing, sophomores will be required to live on campus (living in frats/sororities satisfy that requirement). All of these changes coupled with last year’s over enrollment may have effected the initial acceptance numbers and may be why numbers look different from prior years.

3 Likes

good info. lets see what’s going on. I predict that this year’s YIELD of cornell will NOT able to keep 64% as last year. The reasoning could be very simple. The top percentage of accepted students have higher possibilities to drop Cornell and commit other schools including HYMPS. So, cutting 900 admits will meantime cut YIELD…
If my reasoning makes sense, lets say, the YIELD will drop back to 60%. 4908*0.6 will look not good if Cornell really wanna maintain its class at 3200-3300 kids.

1 Like

Did anyone else just recieve an email asking for continued interest and ask if you are accepted, would you enroll?

2 Likes

which college?

Which college? CALS?

1 Like

There is a similar discussion on reddit and it sounds as though some WL candidates from the CAS received this e-mail Saturday with a deadline for responses of 8am this morning (Monday) and then another batch of WL candidates received the same e-mail today with a deadline for responses of 12pm tomorrow (Tuesday). Not sure whether they are rolling this out to indicate ranking/preference or whether it is simply a case of the system sending batches out at different times due to size of WL.
I have only seen one response indicating a WL candidate for CAS that did NOT receive this note, but there may be others who have not weighed in publicly. . . .

1 Like

Was waitlisted at CAS but never received an email

me neither!

When did you submit your loci?

The first group received their email on Friday at 4pm with a response due today - Monday by 8am. And then this second group received it today at noon with a response due tomorrow - Tuesday at noon as well.

Link is here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/uf168g/received_an_email_regarding_the_cornell/?sort=new

1 Like

I think these are soft waitlist offers. One of the Reddit posters had very good stats and ECs and received an ISEF nomination in the spring.

What do you mean by soft waitlist offers? I would imagine all have submitted LOCI and perhaps additional information since being waitlisted.

Because not everyone who submitted LOCI got these and it’s similar verbiage to other “soft” WL offers that turned into real ones.

1 Like

Thanks for the explanation.

This is one example from Reddit. Duke’s waitlist offer (2 steps):

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/uf172u/accepted_from_duke_waitlist_questions_you_may_have/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

1 Like

Any international who got the email?

CALS got the email?

You are correct … 3765 was too many. Last year, colleges used their usual formulas to predict yield and how many applicants to accept, and more applicants accepted than they expected. So Cornell’s yield rate unexpectedly rose. This, coupled with more gap year students showing up that had been accepted the year before due to Covid caused an excessively large class of 2025.

This happened to many T100 universities. Most experts are not predicting that yield rates will go back down this year.