<p>I plan on applying regular decision to both CALS and ILR at Cornell. A lot of people have been telling me that applying to more than one school at Cornell is useless because if Cornell wants you they will accept you whether you have a second choice or not. Does anyone know of any people who have ever applied to Cornell and applied to two schools and ended up getting into their second choice Cornell school.</p>
<p>If you do believe that my applying to both of these schools increases my chances of getting into Cornell, by how much do you think my chances are increased? Thank you.</p>
<p>I think the question you should be asking yourself is whether or not you have legitimate academic interests in both schools. If you do, then you should apply to both.</p>
<p>This also has to do with this. I have had thoughts about applying to the college of arts and sciences as a second choice. I am a New York State resident and I would have to pay much more for arts and sciences. However, it seems that the vast majority of my school, because everyone wants to save the money, is applying to ILR and Agriculture. I would guess this is going on all around New York State. Although the overall acceptance rates for CALS, ILR, and Arts and Sciences are about the same, do you believe that because I am a NYS resident my best shot is to do second choice Arts and Sciences?</p>
<p>I think the question you should be asking yourself is whether or not you have legitimate academic interests in both schools. If you do, then you should apply to both.</p>
<p>This is all that matters in my opinion really. No point in applying for a college only for the sake of getting in...</p>
<p>It will not increase your chances. If you are not accepted by the first school, then your app will be forwarded on to your second school, where they can only accept or reject you. Since last year was the first year the did this (I think) it is hard to tell, but talking with admissions officers, most people were rejected from their second choice.</p>
<p>The advice of Cayuga was the best in terms of integrity and honesty.</p>
<p>But I'll spell it out for you, if you're so sore on the point of "increasing chances"</p>
<p>If admissions was completely random, and each decision for each candidate was an independent event, it would be in your favor to apply to every school that you can.
(c.f. rolling a die - Rolling two dice and hoping for 7's is alright....rolling 8 million dice and hoping for 7's will return Many more sevens)</p>
<p>However, that's not how admissions work - apply if and only if you have legitimate academic interests in both schools.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if Cornell is full with NY students for contract schools and you have credential for A&S or Engineering (able to pay full fare), then I believe it would increase your chance. It's only logical.</p>