I would assume that Cornell always accepts people off the waitlist no matter the year, so it’s not that they over-enrolled, but more that they didn’t have as many waitlist admissions to offer this year.
I think this also sheds some light on the top of the waitlist letter. Cornell had projected the number of admitted students to be on the lower end by May 1. Thus, they sent out plenty of emails before May 1 to potential admitees off the waitlist to keep their attention and fill the class. However, when May 1 rolled around, the number of students they enrolled at the time was higher than they expected, so now they can only choose select people from the pool who received the email.
So I just emailed CAS about their waitlist, and they responded to me within 15 minutes.
Here is my email:
Dear College of Arts and Sciences Admissions,
My name is XXXX, and I am currently on the Cornell Class of 2024 waitlist. I am writing this email to reiterate that Cornell is still my number one choice, and I would love to have the opportunity to attend Cornell. If there are any additional documents or information you need from me (third marking period grades, an additional letter of recommendation, etc.), I would be more than happy to provide these documents as soon as possible. My Cornell ID is ####, and my date of birth is XXXX. Thank you for continuing to consider me for admission to Cornell’s Class of 2024.
Sincerely,
XXXX
Their response:
XXXX, (my name)
Please feel free to send in anything new that you think will help you get off the waitlist.
We hope you are doing well.
Sincerely,
Arts and Sciences Admissions
I don’t really know what this means, but I didn’t send anything else besides an LOCI and the form from the “top of the list” email.
Clear as mud… But at least CAS responded. I am not sure if that is good meaning there is actually still a chance or bad meaning they just continue to string the applicants along. My D, and I believe many others, are still waiting for some reply, ANY reply or acknowledgment from CALS about status of their WL.
@Throwaway39429 - I interpret this as a generic response until such time they close the admissions process formally. As they build a class, they seem to be selecting students based on their desired target profile / demographics, I can’t imagine credentials will be the differentiation at this juncture.
The Cornellian Sun article also shows that they have 125 students more enrolled this year compared to last year. This means probably that they are already maxed out.
I feel it’s time to move on - forward and upward to the top of lists that actually matter.
I don’t know if anyone cares at this point, but I sent a follow up email with additional supplementary information after the initial one sent earlier. I posted the original email and response in an earlier post on this forum.
My email:
Dear College of Arts and Sciences Admissions,
Thank you for allowing me to send additional supplementary material to contribute to my original application.
I have attached my latest report card and the research abstract I wrote during my research internship at XXXX University this past summer. Additionally, I have asked my guidance counselor to send an official copy of my updated grades and my AP Statistics teacher to write a letter of recommendation for me. My guidance counselor is XXXX, and my AP Statistics teacher is XXXX. Both educators have informed me that they will send the documents by Friday afternoon, so please look out for emails from them.
Many thanks,
XXXX
They responded in 7 minutes with:
XXXX, (my name)
Thank you for the updated material. We will certainly add it to your application file.
Well I guess that is game over folks. My kid was WL at HumEco but only three people posted from here (they probably took a couple more than posted)–two from Connecticut and one from Virginia. On the bright side, my kid got in off the WL at Pomona and Emory and will go to Pomona. Only waiting on Georgetown now.
I do think on a onsy twosy basis couple of people may get in to Cornell but any big waive ain’t coming. I thought a lot of NYC apps would want to stay in state in Ithaca because I looked at the COVID-19 numbers in Ithaca and they weren’t that bad. They can be relatively close and still out of NYC. My other kid is going to Barnard so smack dab in the middle of it.
We will take the Ws–Pomona and Barnard and move on. Now paying for it…
Idk if I’m still being too optimistic or not…but can someone email CAS asking them to confirm the article… I already emailed them too many times in the past lol
If they have to go online in the fall (which will most likely happen), I’m sure their enrollment will plummet, and they’d have to beg people to pay enormous prices to do college in their living rooms. COVID-19 could bring about a speck of positive change, forcing America to rethink the power dynamic of the higher education system and give control back to the proletaria- … I mean students.
I dont think cornell will go online because the ithaca area is set to start phase 1 of reopening this friday, unlike nyc. and a lot of other schools have also announced that classes will be in person but they will have extra rules and regulations in place.
But with the massive influx of thousands of undergraduate and graduate students, it is very possible that another outbreak could occur. I guess we will have to see what happens with other universities and how they proceed.
It’s great to be optimistic, but being realistic is also important. Of course many schools are claiming that they’ll be in person. But because COVID has proved to be so unpredictable, there’s no way we will know anything for sure until August. If science and history are any indication, there will certainly be another wave in the fall. Think about all of the out of state and international students who will have to travel to Ithaca in classes were in person. Think about all the spread that will occur in densely populated dorms and dining halls, and from the surrounding community. Think about the lawsuits that Cornell would have to deal with if just one student died from the disease. We just won’t know until we get there.
It sucks. It really really really sucks, there’s no way to sugarcoat it. We’re trying to go to college during perhaps the worse possible time to be going to college. I mean, this is so big it’s gonna be a whole freaking DBQ topic in 20 years (for my APUSH peeps). We are just going to have to be incredibly versatile and adaptable for the next several months. But I’m also positive that we’ll emerge to be one of the most resilient classes out there.
They are holding everyone on the waitlist in case the coronavirus strikes in august and a bunch of people choose not to attend. Same thing MIT is doing. Cornell just hasn’t released an official notice about it yet.
I’m just confused why CALS kept students in the dark when they clearly have more than enough people. They could have atleast sent an email saying it was probably not going to happen.
I’m a current Cornell parent with a rising senior. I’m not surprised that Cornell has accepted more students this year than last year if that is true, because I was just on a webinar yesterday where I found out that Michigan also over accepted by 5% this year. The schools are doing this to protect themselves because there will be schools that go remote and kids will get into other programs that they are waitlisted elsehwere, as well as protecting themselves for kids that don’t come if they do go to remote next year.
There has not been a lot of talk in parent groups of students not coming back if it is online. Some, but not many. My daughter while wishing she were at Cornell, had no issues with the online learning. The biggest concern was the rampant cheating, but many students did get caught and it is being dealt with.
Most likely Cornell is not going to allow many students to defer/take a Gap year, but there’s also a huge unknown as to how many internationals will be able to attend due to visa issues, so that could be another reason for the over-acceptance thus far.
If it is truly your first choice, hang in there. Dorm room requests for next year I believe have already been due and it is stressful having to jump into that process if you get in the middle of that process so take that all into consideration if you’re already going through that somewhere. There are many phenomenal schools out there and Cornell is not the be all to end all. I have another student in a fantastic Honors Program elsewhere and there are things that are definitely better there than at Cornell, but both programs have been fantastic as far as communication regarding opening in the Fall and not rushing to come out before they are ready. For the person who thinks it’s a definite thing because Ithaca is small…please note, that Ithaca only has a few ICU beds, so if there is a cluster there, it is very problematic and Ithaca cannot handle it, not to mention the aging professors, so they really need to make sure it is safe for the students.
If anyone has questions, please feel free to send me a private message. My student is in CS in COE and we are not New Yorkers which makes us the minority in that regard.
Good luck everyone and Go Big Red! My daughter does love it!!
Didn’t the CAS diversity outreach team also send out the same “top of the list” email? If they did, it would be ever more messed up because they are also stringing along many underprivileged students by getting their hopes up as well.
Thanks @gwang968. My twins are in fact thrilled. Both were listed as far reaches for them and both got in off the waitlist. My Barnard kid got notified well before May 1 and my Pomona kid got notified shortly after May 1 (also got into Emory). We are still waiting on Georgetown and Cornell waitlists. Cornell is obviously no chance at this point. Georgetown won’t notify until at least tomorrow and more likely next week.
But at the end it was a good year for seniors who were waitlisted. We are grateful and it is a silver lining in the year being wrecked by Corona/COVID-19. Honestly, would have been a tough call for my Pomona kid between Pomona and Cornell but we wanted the option.
I totally agree with you. I’ve actually been frustrated this whole time. CALS hasn’t responded to my 5-week ago email about a genuine question. The least they could do is send a mass email stating that they aren’t responding to emails. I mean…in no way is not responding to an email after 5 weeks or just disregarding prospectives without any information whatsoever acceptable, even under the circumstances.