ED which school--Cornell or Vanderbilt?

Hello. My daughter is about to begin her senior year at a large public HS in Westchester NY. She has a weighted 3.8 with all APs and honors and a 34 ACT. Her heart is set on Vanderbilt or Cornell and she knows she only has one shot at ED. Any advice on her best chances would be greatly appreciated.

Go by things that are important to her. If one is stronger in her intended major, then go there. If she would like to maybe study aboard, pick the one that gives opportunities like that. If she would enjoy college football, then maybe pick the D1 program (Vanderbilt). If she wants to be close to home, then Cornell could work.
What my mom did with my older brother was that they sat down with a computer and just started an enormous pros and cons list for his two schools. I think it should start with a serious conversation too. Point out that she really can’t go wrong with either school. Do some research about both and there are great sites that would let you do a side by side comparisons. Good Luck!

Cornell takes about 1300 students early decision. Does she truly want to go to Cornell? If so go all in.

Thank you that is good advice–but I guess my question was a little muddled–she loves both but wants to use her one ED on her best chances of getting in…by the way she is also thinking of U of Mich (but it’s sooooo cold!)

Hi ClainetDad16 I see Cornell does about 27% ED but as a girl from westchester do you think she has a chance? we know her scores are high and her classes vigorous but we’re thinking so are so many others…

Does your school have Naviance? Many suburban NY area kids have more success with Cornell than Vanderbilt.

Hi TwoGirls…it does but I think (but may be wrong) that that is based on past years–our experience is the application pool for top schools changes with the tide every year–we know she has a good shot at either for ED but again–she’s a white girl from Westchester, and tho we are not affluent and she’s worked for everything she’s got, I think she falls into what looks like a big big pool up here–and our thinking was she may stand out more for Vandy admissions…

Remember you live in NY. That doesn’t add diversity geographically for Vanderbilt (or many top schools). In fact it is their most popular state for enrolled students outside of TN.

Not sure about the actual acceptance rate from the New England area at each school, but at Cornell 11.2% of the class of 2019 was from New England and for Vanderbilt 6% of the class of 2019 was from New England. Now this could just be because students from New England are more likely to apply to schools in their area instead of the south.
https://admissions.cornell.edu/sites/admissions.cornell.edu/files/Class%20Profile%202019%20.pdf
http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/profile/#enrollmentfall2012

According to the common data set, at both Vanderbilt and Cornell geographical residence and state residence are both only “considered” in admissions. Keep in mind that GPA, test scores, essays, etc. are all considered “very important” at each school.
https://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000554.pdf
https://virg.vanderbilt.edu/virgweb/CDSC.aspx?year=2015

I personally don’t think she’ll have a huge statistical advantage at one school over the other. She should choose the school she likes best after doing more research. Which school has the better academic programs for her major? Has she visited both schools?

If your daughter truly likes both schools, maybe applying to Cornell ED would be a good strategy because I couldn’t find anything about Cornell having EDII. So maybe your daughter should apply EDI to Cornell and if she doesn’t get in, apply EDII to Vanderbilt.

My experience is that it has become very hard to get into Vanderbilt if you are in a suburban NY area suburb. Our HS has not had an acceptance in about 3 years, however that was not the case about 5 years ago. We get a lot of wait listed kids, even for those who are at the very very top. These kids simply do not provide much diversity.

Cornell, on the other hand, always takes several (maybe 5) from our HS. Many of these kids were rejected or WL from Vandy. I will PM you.

Thank you all very much. Hi again Twogirls—your thoughts are helpful but frightening! That’s not really what we were thinking—we went to a black and gold day and met the area rep and he basically said my daughter was ‘in’. On the other hand, they also spoke through the entire day to the crowd as if they wanted everyone to apply, and that of course concerns us that they want more applicants to make their numbers more elite. As I said she is a 34 ACT and very very tough courses throughout HS, but only a 3.8 gpa and top 15% in her class. Sigh. The ED s the one ace she holds…

When we visited Vanderbilt they told our group that they go out of their way to think of reasons to accept students. That being said, they routinely WL or reject top 1% kids in our HS who bring nothing new to the table. Your HS may be different, despite being in the same geographic area. That is why I asked about Naviance.

well my daughter is half iranian…that can’t be ticked on the application under race but maybe would help her? The downside is Iranians are historically a group that aces tests, math/science etc so not sure that that is an advantage either…she has some outside-the-box stuff Feminism club etc that again may be less common at Vandy???

@sophie9999 the OP doesn’t live in New England

Here is the map with students by state for Vanderbilt. http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/profile/#undergradstudentpopulation

ED 1 to Cornell and ED 2 to Vandy

@ClarinetDad16 whoops my bad, I always thought NY was part of New England.

OP can still use the links to get an idea of the representation of NY at both schools though.

NY is the most popular state at Cornell and #2 after TN at Vandy.