<p>gmabcd: Likely letters serve the institution’s goals to attract the top candidates. You can be sure that a URM who is qualified to be admitted to Cornell also is being wooed by a wide host of other institutions. If Cornell truly wants these kids, they have to put their hat in. </p>
<p>Ought you not be happy that if your son were to be admitted and attend Cornell, that the administration made efforts to also attract top classmates from a variety of backgrounds? This is not a zero sum game, gmabcd. Your son is going to be admitted or rejected regardless of what happens in the URM pool. </p>
<p>My straight A, super active daughter who attends a top ten ranked HS won’t be courted by any of my Ivy alma mater’s diversity recruiting tools (she’s half Asian, half Caucasian). It doesn’t bother me a lick.</p>
<p>I think you’re making a mtn out of a molehill. To say it’s unfair and to curtail Cornell’s outreach (whether by this Diversity Likely letter or whatnot) to traditionally under represented applicant pools only diminishes the overall quality of the incoming class. Let’s say there was a hypothetical group of India’s top ten students applying to US colleges and each of them applied to Cornell. Would you say Cornell shouldn’t expend extra effort to woo these superstars if everyone else is wooing them too? Should Cornell be so proud as to say: “we won’t do that”? C’mon.</p>
<p>I completely agree with T26E4. Not receiving a likely letter can be a little disapointing. Trust me, I know. However I do not feel as if you should try to make this a bigger deal than it is. We are only receiving our notice about two weeks before eveyrone else. All Ivys send out likely letters and complaining about it will not make anything change. I will agree that it should not be limited to simple AAs and Hispanics, but they are targeted for a reason. Additionally, there are many URMs who did not receive this, so it did not undermine your son’s chances in fact.</p>
<p>@ Ms92lady. Did you go by yourself or with your parents? I was wondering if it was necessary for my mom to get a plane ticket and hotel on such short notice if many others usually go by themselves. Thanks</p>
<p>can anyone gimme a rough estimate as to how long it may take for a cornell acceptance letter to reach chicago??? i got the diversity hosting email but idk if i will get the actual letter before M30th or afterwrds…</p>
<p>@GMABCD yes, he received a diversity day likely letter, so Cornell does, in fact, consider Jewish students in this program. (And trust me, he is otherwise caucasian.)</p>
<p>Cornell pays for all of it, so I don’t see why I wouldn’t go. Cornell isn’t my first choice, but I still love the school and the location. Maybe the trip will change my mind.</p>
<p>To clear up confusion: Very few likely letters are sent out. I’d say no more than a couple of hundred (I know Penn, per a NY Times article this week, sent out 200; I would assume there is an Ivy cap). The people most likely to receive likely letters are URMs, recruited athletes, female Engineering applicants and a few highly desired applicants. The overwhelming majority of admits will NOT receive a likely letter, so relax for now if you didn’t receive one.</p>
<p>URMs receive it so that plans can be made for them to come to Diversity Weekend (getting notice of this on 3/30 would be too short a window). For Cornell, URMs are African-American, Hispanic, Native American, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and those who are multi-racial. Although Asians and Jews are minorities in the U.S., they are not under-represented at Cornell (and I believe there is no check-box to say you’re Jewish on the common app, although I could be wrong).</p>
<p>Okay, suspicions confirmed. It’s a diversity thing…I was feeling quite inadequate when 3 or 4 of my URM friends who are ranked lower got this and I didn’t.</p>
<p>I was wondering, how it actually works? Is it during weekdays or a weekend? Do you have a choice? For people who went to it last year, how was it? What did you do? </p>
Cornell has definitely grew on me these past couple of months of agony, hahaaa.</p>