<p>The reality is that transfers from community colleges comprise fewer than 2% of students. They are primarily in the contract colleges. Athletic recruits are only 6-7% of Cornell students, a much lower percentage than the rest of the Ivies. All Ivies enroll about the same number of athletes each year [200], and since Cornell is a larger school, they comprise a smaller percentage. Recruited athletes at Dartmouth are over 15% of the class.</p>
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<p>I have no idea. Also, I suspect Cornell contract colleges still have that ‘guaranteed transfer’ thing going on.</p>
<p>Also, this really sucks for me. I worked hard in high school and got into Cornell, graduated with a top GPA after hard work and graduated with a sense of pride. I will be attending a top 6 law school next year, btw.</p>
<p>In my family, no one respects my Cornell degree. It is because my cousin who is a dumb-as$, who got like 21 on ACT went to a community college, got like 3.6 GPA there, and transferred to the Agriculture school at Cornell. Even my parents were telling me that Cornell needs to step up its selectivity by several notches and such dumb kids shouldn’t get accepted in large quantity.</p>
<p>Such kids won’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell if they apply to Harvard or Princeton. It really is a shame that Cornell takes these community college transfers in noticeable quantity.</p>
<p>Last week, I was really ticked off when one of my brother’s friends came over to my house and asked me where I went to college. When I said ‘Cornell’, this kid laughed and told me ‘man, I know a lot of dumb kids who got into Cornell’. And, this kid attends Indiana University yet he was making fun of Cornell, for Christ’s sake!</p>
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<p>I would like to see the source of this claim and I suspect the number is higher than that. But I hope I am wrong. Also, it’s not fair that some of highly qualified applicants to Cornell are rejected in Freshmen admissions, for whatever reason, yet these garbage community college transfers are getting in. This speaks to how screwed up admissions policy at Cornell really is.</p>
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<p>Most of the “garbage” community college transfers only temporarily attended a cc because they received a guaranteed transfer from Cornell when they were a senior in high school. They were accepted up front, and were completely qualified. Many choose the temporary cc to save money and be close to home. The percentage of transfers that fall into your cousin’s category are exceedingly small.</p>
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<p>I don’t have hard stats to back up my claim, but I’ve run into a fair number of kids at Cornell contract colleges who admitted that they were NOT guaranteed transfer students and transferred from community colleges despite like 23 on ACT. Many times, these kids remarked how easy it was to get into Cornell and they seemed to be surprised about this themselves. It is anecdotal, but yeah I’ve known too many people who fall into the exact category we are discussing, so I am guessing ‘my cousin’s category =/= exceedingly small’.</p>
<p>Lazykid - LOL. Somehow you attended Cornell and are still attending a top 6 law school. You doth protest [■■■■■?] waay too much.</p>
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<p>I think I’ve read norcalguy post on GTs before, so I’ll repeat a similar version here. Why does Cornell’s state schools even have GTs? What good does it do? If it’s as great as some people mention, why aren’t other ivies using this program?
Short answer: Because it’s not…Cornell just wants their tuition, as is the case for the overabundance of state school transfers. Funny how they refuse to use the waitlist and yet send out tons of these GTs. *Although the quality of GT students is still much better than those of the cc transfers.</p>
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<p>I feel your pain man. I’ve come across this scenario with others too. Like you mentioned, Engi and A&S have like <10% transfer rates and I have only met 1 state school/cc transfer in my years here. Yet I see these kids who have no business being at an Ivy school running rampant in some of the other colleges. I swear half of ILR are transfers; I’m not even exaggerating.</p>
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<p>This is the core of the problem which I don’t understand either. Cornell spouts all this bs about “fit” when they reject highly qualified 2300+ valedictorians during freshman round, yet they accept 2.0 HS GPA, SAT too embarrassing to mention, etc. guys in droves just because they got a 3.7+ in some no name community college, which I’m sure most of us could do blindfolded. Like some posters mentioned, not only is that not fair to the highly qualified rejects, but it also isn’t fair to the current students when Cornell absolves 4 years of idiocy in high school for 2 good years at some random state school.</p>
<p>In the end, I think it comes down to money. The state schools are desperate for funds, and since they get millions in grant money from NY state, they are obligated to accept underqualified NYS residents as compensation, not to mention their 40k tuitions.</p>
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<p>Many of the cc transfers are GT students. GT students, if I am not mistaken, can pick from a pretty broad array of schools to attend for a year.</p>
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<p>If you spend some time on campus at other top-20 schools you’ll come to realize that they too have a small minority of students that don’t exactly belong. Why? Things like athletic recruiting, legacy admits, students who got in through fraud, admits based on family-funding of buildings, et cetera.</p>
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<p>And many, many more of cc transfers are not GT students. Also, don’t quote me on it, but I think part of the GT agreement was attending a 4 year university if I’m not mistaken, although the bs 3.0 GPA minimum is so low it’s laughable. They really need to raise that if they’re going to keep GTs. </p>
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<p>I’m pretty sure Cornell has MUCH more of these students. Cornell probably accepts more cc transfers in 1 year than Stanford accepts total transfers in 4 years.</p>
<p>^ I do not believe that Cornell has “MUCH more” of “these” students. How much experience do you have at other top universities? I have some experience at a couple others, and I can assure you that they have their fair share of problematic admits (though still a small minority).</p>
<p>While the percentage of CC transfers is small (although much much higher than at other top schools), the impression made is far beyond their representation. You can meet 10 hard-working Cornell students but it’s the one subpar student that makes the greatest impression.</p>
<p>Some changes I’d like to see:</p>
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<li><p>I understand that Cornell needs GT’s for their tuition money. But, I think the requirements for a guaranteed transfer needs to be toughened up. They should require GT’s to attend a 4-year college for their first year as well as maintain a 3.5. More than reasonable for a chance to get an Ivy League degree.</p></li>
<li><p>Tougher transfer admissions. I’d like to see more transfers accepted from peer schools like Boston College, Tufts, NYU, etc. Frankly, all things being equal, I’d rather take someone who got a 3.5 at Boston College than a 3.8 at a community college. I think ALL transfers should have to show their full high school record, including their standardized test scores.</p></li>
<li><p>More marketing to clear up the myths regarding suicide rates, grade deflation, “there’s nothing to do in Ithaca,” etc.</p></li>
<li><p>More aggressive use of ED (no need to go to WashU/Penn proportions but 40% admitted via ED is not bad). More aggressive use of the waitlist. More stringent RD admissions.</p></li>
<li><p>More emphasis on test scores and GPA. Every year, from the ED thread, I can’t believe how many 2300+ scorers are rejected via ED. Cornell needs to realize that no matter how great an essay is or how good the applicant’s EC’s are, the greatest predictors of college performance are GPA/SAT scores. Cornell needs to cut down on the number of sub-2000 scorers it is admitting.</p></li>
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<p>The thing is: it benefits EVERYONE to have a few stellar athletes or to admit a kid whose family donated 2 million dollars. I can understand the breaks that are given to donating legacies or to recruited athletes.</p>
<p>But, community college transfers? </p>
<p>Cornell has by far the most lenient transfer admissions of any top 15 school. If it doesn’t want to be looked at as a state school, it needs to stop policies like guaranteed transfers from NY community colleges just for maintaining a 3.0 GPA.</p>
<p>^ I largely agree with what you are saying norcalguy. I’d just like to keep people from thinking that the student population at Cornell is littered with unqualified students – though an issue, it is still a small minority.</p>
<p>Also, what wavedasher claimed about GT students being required to attend four year colleges is false. From the CALS website for GT information regarding what colleges are acceptable:</p>
<p>“Select and attend an accredited community, two or four-year college/university that provides access to the required transfer courses.”</p>
<p>So, a portion of the cc students clearly are GTs.</p>
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<p>You and me both. Cornell doesn’t have a problem with education. It has a PERCEPTION problem. Although community college transfers make up a tiny percentage of the student population, everyone and their grandmother knows that Cornell is the most lenient of the top schools when it comes to transfer admissions. That perception is what hurts Cornell’s image. </p>
<p>1/2 of the transfers Stanford accepts are from community colleges (although it’s important to note that Stanford only admits around 15 out of 1500 applicants each year). But, those CC transfers are AMAZING and did some amazing things in their 1 year. I’ve looked through a lot of transfer threads here and basically the typical profile of a Cornell community college transfer is horrible HS record + 3.9 CC GPA + a few clubs. That shouldn’t cut it. </p>
<p>I was in a 2.5 yr relationship with someone who attend a community college. Half of my high school friends went to community college (since my HS is next to one of the best CC’s in California). I’m well familiar with CC’s. The quality of education is pretty good but there is absolutely no comparison between the rigor at a CC and the rigor at Cornell. None whatsoever.</p>
<p>As I said before, Cornell should make it mandatory for GT’s to attend a 4-year college. Community college is NOT adequate preparation for Cornell. It’s ridiculous to only require someone to maintain a 3.2 at a community college in order to transfer.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, it may well be that Cornell administrators feel that they are helping to keep New York’s ccs viable (however small the contribution), and that this is the reason for them not requiring solely 4-year colleges (land grant mission). I agree that an accredited 4-year college should be required.</p>
<p>Good luck everyone!</p>
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<p>Couldn’t have said it better myself. I agree 100% and want to see Cornell implement these changes. Of coures, the higher ups don’t seem to feel this way…I’m sure they’re aware of the problems; they can’t be that ignorant.</p>
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<p>He didn’t exactly claim; he said “don’t quote me on it”, so he wasn’t sure either. Plus, the GT options for ILR or HumEc could be different you know.</p>
<p>I am also surprised at how many high quality applicants Cornell rejects ED round, only to accept the typical horrible HS stats, 3.9 cc gpa with mediocre ECs as transfers.</p>
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<p>I’d say he claimed it while admitting that he wasn’t sure, but I take your point – I could have written that refutation better. And you are right that I didn’t check on ILR or HumEc – I’m not even sure if they make their requirements public. My reason for highlighting CALS lenient GT requirements relating to accepting accredited ccs for GTs was just to show that a good portion of these students are better qualified than the likes of LazyKid’s cousin (assuming that his cousin is as unqualified as he claims).</p>
<p>This thread has taken an elitist turn. Thanks to the OP for the good luck wishes, good luck to everyone else as well.</p>
<p>I see the same posters, like Lazykid and norcalguy, complaining about Cornell’s image and reputation on this forum. Is that what college education is all about? It is very disheartening to see someone who has had the best education possible, about to go to law school, is still so insecure and immature. Lazykid will be the kind of person who will need to have the most expensive car in the neighborhood, biggest house, take the most expensive vacation, because he would want to make sure that everyone would know his is bigger than theirs.</p>
<p>MIT is starting to give online free course to everyone, and if someone should complete the course, then that person would be able to receive a certificate from MIT. There is talk that the certificate maybe “worth” something to some employers or colleges. You do not hear MIT students squawking about de-valuing of their degrees.</p>
<p>Sheesh people - get a life.</p>
<p>As a very proud parent of another kid entering Cornell next fall, I would like to wish all the RDers best of luck. My kid is top 1% of her class, with many awards and ECs, she could have had other options, but she chose to ED Cornell. One of many reasons was Cornell’s diverse student body. She believes she will get a very good education at Cornell and have a good social life. She is wearing her big Red sweatshirt when she goes back to school.</p>
<p>Lazykid:
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<p>I am speechless, I hope you do not say things like this when not posting anonymously. But you should know that you are probably not that anonymous - how many 2011 Cornell graduates are going to Columbia law school? By posting things like this could come back to haunt you someday.</p>