<p>For Cornell, anyone know if the same person reads both essays + recommendations and everything else?</p>
<p>Yes, I’m pretty sure they do. This is why it’s usually pretty good to have a theme running through your application, ranging from your extracurricular activities to your essays and recommendations, because everything gets read together. </p>
<p>As a side note: this is from a long time ago, but according to a book written about the elite college admissions process, it mentioned that Cornell had two readers for their application–the regional admissions officer and a professor in the major/concentration they were interested in. If both of them went over the entire application and said yes, the applicant was in. If both said no, then he or she was out. And if there was a split, I think the applicant would either get deferred/waitlisted or referred to yet another reader. (I’m not too sure if this process still holds true or if it ever did, but just for a general idea of the admissions process…)</p>
<p>Best of luck! </p>