Good luck all RD applicants!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
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<p>Strangely enough- even though I’m black myself- I hate affirmative action. Despite this, there needs to be clarification since people exaggerate the effect of affirmative action greatly. Especially when it comes to the whole “well, a qualified white/asian could have had that spot!” </p>

<p>Let’s use Cornell as an example. Take a look at the Class of 2015:</p>

<p>

Let’s say that we decide to remove affirmative action. Since Blacks are the primary benefactors of affirmative action they’ll be affected the most if it’s discontinued. So without affirmative action let’s take out 100 Blacks just for the sake of simplicity. Ok, now 100 Asians and Whites (50 to each) take the spots of the removed Blacks. </p>

<p>Now let’s see the distribution…</p>

<p>Blacks: 3.2% (down 3% in terms of overall population, down 52% in terms of change in Blacks)
Asians: 17.8% (up 1.4% in terms of overall population, up 9% in terms of change in Asians)
Whites: 42.7% (up 1.5% in terms of overall population, up 3.6% in terms of change in Whites)</p>

<p>The above illustrates nicely why there is affirmative action. Without affirmative action, the black population at Cornell would shrink tremendously. What’s more is that there is only a marginal increase in the amount of Whites and Asians who are now admitted. And of course, this is assuming that all blacks are truly unqualified to begin with.</p>

<p>Basically, for every 10 blacks that are taken out and switched with white applicants, the change in blacks is -5% but the change in whites is only +0.07% or +1.7% for Asians.</p>

122

<p>I’m submitting my app as soon as I wake up today. I’m positive that that didn’t make sense. Well, good night all and have a happy new year! I hope we all get acceptance letters :)</p>

123

<p>Happy new year. Deferred ilr looking forward to hearing back in April</p>

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<p><a href=“P.S.%20-%20@%20norcalguy%20-%20how%20did%20you%20get%20over%204.0%20at%20Cornell%20as%20a%20premed%20student??%20That%20is%20a%20remarkable%20accomplishment.%20I%20did%20not%20know%20of%20anyone%20at%20Cornell%20who%20had%20such%20sick%20stats”>quote</a>

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<p>I graduated Cornell with a good 3.94 GPA. My best semester was 4.2+ (almost straight A+'s) but my worst semester was a 3.5. I really enjoyed my time at Cornell. It was the best kind of academic experience. If I was on my game, I came out with good grades. If I was too complacent, Cornell still kicked me in my butt a little. </p>

<p>Medical school, on the other hand, has been a humbling experience. I remember scoring in the bottom 15% of my class on the neuroanatomy final, something I couldn’t have fathomed at Cornell. The irony is that I will be a neuroradiologist in the future. </p>

<p>The great thing about medicine is that no matter how much of a hot shot you think you are, there is not a day that goes by when you aren’t humbled on the wards. </p>

<p>I’m someone who thinks that the students contribute as much to the academic environment as the professors. Having quality, smart, competitive classmates really pushes you to do your best. This was the case at Cornell for me. This is the case in medical school for me. I really enjoyed both my time at Cornell as well as medical school.</p>

<p>Happy new year everyone. The drunk people were definitely out in full force tonight. God, I love living in the city.</p>

125

<p>Skittlescutie, the vast majority of Cornell students are very satisfied by their experience and would do it all over again, as evidenced by the senior surveys the university conducts. One would have to be crazy to accept the advice of a handful of anonymous posters on CC, who you may not have even know attended Cornell. Maybe they needed something to do on NYE?</p>

126

<p>oh boy, what a sad new year’s eye that must have been. so, any new year’s resolutions anybody? i’m going to just start going down my bucket list… :)</p>

127

<p>My NYE resolutions are to spend less time on CC, and not to feed the trolls! Happy New Years to all [trolls excepted].</p>

128

<p>Lazykid post this on <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/1076037-ed-regrets-5.html#post11961900[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/1076037-ed-regrets-5.html#post11961900&lt;/a&gt;

from this thread:

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<p>It was back in March when you posted that your dad is a partner at a law firm, but you transferred because you couldn’t get good FA at Georgetown? I know even VPs in my department wouldn’t be eligible for FA (I pay them). How much does a managing partner at a law firm make? Lets sure hope it’s over 200K if he went to Harvard law. You could be whatever you want on the internet, but you just need to be consistent.</p>

129

<p>I am in the camp of going to the best school be surrounded by high calibre students with the same drive and intellectural curiousity. When people are challenged (pushed by their peers), they tend to do better, and it certainly would make for better classroom discussion. What I do not buy is by raising SAT scores few points would drastically make Cornell a better institution. What it would lose (attracting talented fashion designer, architects, hotelies) is more than what it would gain. </p>

<p>As far as prestige, only high schoolers and maybe new college students, would rely solely on the US News ranking. I appreciate the fact that it must feel good to tell a friend that you go to a school which is ranked #8 instead of #15. Trust me, just for that, I would have liked to say to my friends that my younger daughter is going to Yale instead of Cornell. But at the end of day, would she have been happier at Yale, receive a better education at Yale, have better post-graduate opportunities? Knowing what I know today by looking at my older kid, her friends from Cornell, her friends from HS who went to other higher ranking schools, and her colleagues at work (enough data for you?), my conclusion is Cornell would be a very good schoold for D2 and she wouldn’t be missing out by not going to a school like Yale.</p>

<p>I know most of you are still focusing on your academic stats - if I got 780 and he got 720 then I have a better chance of getting into a school, if I worked hard for to get 3.9 then it should my right to get a spot at HYPS instead of someone with 3.7. In the business world (even in IB where it is very numbers dirven) it doesn’t work like that. It is not the smartest person who gets promoted and it is certainly not the smartest person who gets to be a manager. I know that because it has taken me a lot longer than some of my peers to get to where I am. Even when you have the best idea, you need buy in from your senior managers, your colleagues, and more importantly people who work for you. </p>

<p>When I was younger, I thought it was enough to just walk into a boardroom, wow people with my brilliant idea, everyone would clap, and we would be done. Little did I know, my new idea may make a senior person look bad, or a vendor I want to replace may be a long time friend of someone at work, or it could mean displacing a large number of employees. I also found out that emotion is a very big factor when people make business decisions, it is never just about numbers. Very similar to holistic admission.</p>

<p>SAT does not measure emotional intelligence (EQ), without it, you will not get very far in a lot of careers. I have known high performing traders, bankers, lawyers who were let go because they couldn’t work well with others. </p>

<p>Schools like WUSTL, Chicago, JHU…have moved up in ranking. As someone who is in the position to hire, my response is “so what?” My firm still doesn’t recruit at those schools. I get friend kid’s resume from JHU or other non-target schools because a lot of those banks just don’t recruit on campus. JHU is trying to re-make itself by attracting more well rounded “normal students,” but it will take few years for it to stick (image takes a long time to change). NU gets more kids into banking and consulting than Chicago. I think most people would say Chicago students have higher IQ than NU students or Michigan, but employers like NU, Michigan, Cornell students. </p>

<p>One last thing, in real life, people do not talk about “lower Ivy,” worry about if UPenn is higher ranking than Cornell, most people probably couldn’t even name all 8 Ivies (the one that’s left out is usually Brown). Go where it will be the best “fit” for you, even when it comes to which school within Cornell. The quality of education is not going to be that different between a school ranked 15 vs 10.</p>

130

<p>^ Thank you oldfort for providing some extremely excellent “qualification” to this sometimes wayward thread. While I agree that it could be in Cornell’s interest to make some well thought out changes, I also want it to avoid “selling its soul” in the process.</p>

131

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<p>Oldfort:</p>

<p>You are soooo dumb it is pathetic.</p>

<p>My dad is a lawyer, not partner. He used to work at a large law firm as an ASSOCIATE and WORKED FOR other partners. After his stint at large law firm, he practiced law as a solo and now doesn’t practice law at all. Now he runs a small business. You do know that over 95% of all lawyers at large law firms will NEVER make partners, right? I somehow suspect you may not know this, too.</p>

<p>Also, when did I say my dad went to Harvard Law?? He went to Northwestern Law, actually, but that doesn’t matter in this discussion anyway. Also, many of lawyers even from Harvard Law don’t make 200k, either straight out of law school, or even in long run.</p>

<p>Vast majority of lawyers at BigLaw leave after several years into the job, either voluntarily or by force. Biglaw has ‘up or out’ policy, meaning, if an associate at the firm doesn’t make partner within 7-8 years s/he is forced out of the firm. After Biglaw stint, most lawyers (yes, even Harvard Law graduates) won’t make over 200k a year if that person is to keep practicing law.</p>

<p>On so many topics, you display so much ignorance and idiocy that it is really embarrassing. You need to stop posting at all if you are to say this kind of dumb things for a long time. And, what kind of company would hire such a clueless person with unimpressive reading comprehension skills for their supervisor role? </p>

<p>Yes, we are upper middle class (closer to middle class now) and I couldn’t afford to attend a college paying 50k a year.</p>

<p>Again, you are really dumb and immature for your age. I suggest you work on your reading comprehension skills.</p>

132

<p>I said:</p>

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<p>From what I said here, when did I say that my dad is a partner at a law firm? When did I say my dad went to Harvard Law? Is your reading comprehension really that bad? I bet my 7 year old cousin can read better than you.</p>

<p>To other posters: don’t bother arguing with oldfort. She is really ignorant and lacks reading comprehension skills. That is the reason, I suspect, she doesn’t even respond to your arguments because she can’t read for crap.</p>

133

<p>Well, LazyKid, a comma after the phrase “My dad is a lawyer” would have gone far to eliminate any confusion. Just sayin’</p>

134

<p>In my humble opinion LazyKid exposes his mean spirited and petty tyrannical nature with his over-the-top and absolutist bombast. Also, if I’m not mistaken English is oldfort’s second language – so she has done incredibly well in this country for both herself and her family considering this obstacle. She is clearly quite the opposite of an intellectually challenged human being.</p>

135

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<p>I doubt it would make difference for oldfort. Also, “My dad is a lawyer and the managing partner at the firm he worked at” is pretty self-evident in its implications. If someone doesn’t get the meaning of this kind of simple sentence, I wonder what SAT score that individual may have gotten. </p>

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<p>Ahh, that helps explain why she can’t read English.</p>

136

<p>Lazykid, why are you so obsessed with SAT scores? Aren’t you in law school? Also, you’ve spoken of all of the “dumb” community college transfers into Cornell, but did you ever encounter any smart ones? (Ones that are pretty much indistinguishable from a regular Cornellian.)</p>

137

<p>My apology, you meant to say your Dad AND a Managing Partner at the law firm, two separate people. </p>

<p>Actually half of my families are lawyers, including my sister and her H. They met at Stanford Law. They are all still practicing law, as all other lawyers in our family. Some are practing corporate law at IBs and utility companies, and some are partners at law firms in NYC. I wouldn’t call myself an expert when it comes to a career in law, but I do get some info from time to time. Now that D2 is going to be pre-law, I am sure I will become a lot more educated.</p>

<p>LazyKid - your attitude will be a detriment to your future career someday. I will also point it out to you again that what you are posting here may come back to haunt you someday. So many posters think they are anonymous on CC, but in fact they are not, myself included. I make sure whatever I am posting here, I wouldn’t have any issue with my employer, family or friends reading it. This is just a free piece of advice.</p>

<p>I do fine with reading - read enough prospectus in my days. Writing is one I struggle from time to time, but I have a chief of staff who writes most of my reports and emails. I often speak in front of hundreds of people now - of course speech written by my CoS.</p>

138

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<p>I am not obsessed with SAT scores. The reason we are talking about it is to highlight the problems associated with the current admissions system Cornell deploys.</p>

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<p>No, not yet, I deferred my enrollment at law school. I am now working to save up money for law school. I didn’t want to take out 200k in loans with 8% interest. My parents won’t support me for law school. I will likely to attend law school next year.</p>

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<p>Transfer students in engineering and college of arts and sciences were, most times, well-qualified. Transfer students to contract schools of Cornell, on the other hand…</p>

139

<p>

Haha, I see. Is ILR a contract school? I’d hate to get accepted and go to ILR and have a stigma attached before I’ve even proven my worth. After working for 5 years since sophomore year in high school and having quarterly OSHA meetings, I have to see the inner workings (hence ILR). </p>

<p>Did you read my post on the last page regarding affirmative action? Do you still agree with it after reading?</p>

140

<p>LazyKid - I am sure you have looked at all of your options…Did you apply to a school like Berkeley or Georgetown? My daughter’s best friend got a full scholarship at Berkeley, and I think Georgetown too. She turned them down because she is the only child and her parents were willing to pay. Her GPA was probably .1 higher than yours. I think law school is 75K+ now, it could cost you close to 250K to get your law degree. I would think twice about taking out that much loan. I can’t imagine you are making that much money at your current job to make a dent to 250k.</p>