@yoyohi
Do you mean an alumni interview? Yes, I did. It was enjoyable (though keep in mind that most alumni interviews for most schools don’t really do much for admissions. They are usually to get alumni involved and also for students to learn more from alumni)
@eidetic
So Cornell has a very interesting “set-up” with the combination of land-grant and endowed schools/colleges. In fact, all the bio-related majors are across three colleges: A&S, CALS, and HumEc. Don’t worry about the prejudice in between colleges/schools. They are all equally “Cornell.” The distinction between land-grant and endowed is only for funding purposes. Land-grant schools get some funding from the state because a portion of their schools’ goals is to support the state of New York in terms of research, activities, etc.
Grad schools see all schools equally, and your son might like CALS because there are a lot of life-science options over A&S. And students usually take classes across all colleges/schools (for ex: I am in HumEc but the majority of my classes are in A&S). As a bio major, your son will take majority of the same bio classes as a bio major in CAS, the only difference is between distribution requirements which are different for each school. And inter school transfer is relatively easy at Cornell as well so you can always switch schools if one really wants to.
@matrixsurgeon So if I wanted to go to another Ivy League school for grad school, or MIT, Caltech, Stanford, UofChicago, etc, would Cornell be a wise choice for undergrad considering how tough it is? From what I have heard a 3.8+ gpa is pretty much required for most of the previously mentioned grad schools. Do you happen to know any Cornell seniors who are going to any of the above mentioned grad schools? This is pretty much my deciding factor…thanks!
@ArthurDent42
Unfortunately I might not be the person to ask about specifics in terms of physics grad school and stuff…But a 3.8 is not impossible by any measure. If you are smart and you put in the work (which you sound like you are willing to do lol), I’m sure you can work towards a 3.8. It also depends on what other schools you would be considering for undergrad and how their physics department is. Perhaps you could check on the Physics dept page for Cornell and do some research? I am sure that Physics students at Cornell go into great grad schools.
And haha yea, finals are usually right around mid december and school doesn’t start back till after mid-January. It can be boring too…believe me…I wanna go back to school.
@amy989 Cornell provides interviews exclusively to applicants to the hotel school. They may do a CAAAN thing, which is when an alumni contacts you for a “meeting”, but in reality, this is just another way for you to learn more about the school and it also gives you a chance to update recent leadership roles attained.
I’m not applying to the hotel school. However, a Cornell alumni sent me an email saying I can have an opportunity to have an informal “meeting” with an alumni. Then the email goes on to saying that “this is a completely optional meeting. It’s not an interview nor is it part of the formal application process. However, after the meeting, we will complete a contact report if there is background or additional information that you would like to submit to Cornell that may not be captured in your application.”
@yoyohi – I wouldn’t decline unless you have a really good reason, such as, the interview is an hour away and you do not have transportation. While these alum interviews are informational only, declining makes it appear as if you do not care about your Cornell application. If nothing else, you may learn things you never knew about the university.
Comment to above: SHA interviews are no longer mandatory, as of this year, and I think AA&P may still require them, but am not certain of that this year as I have not been paying attention.
Cornell’s winter break seems excessively long this year----perhaps as much as one week longer than recent years, and I have no idea why.
I completely agree with everything that has already been said. I’ll add that interviews are actually quite fun in most circumstances and its usually nice to get to talk to an alumni that lives near you and ask about their experiences.
@CT1417
And the irony is that they gave us an extra week in one of the warmest winters on record…lol
My daughter is a freshman this year and this break, even in her own admission, is a bit too long. All her HS friends are back at their respective schools. She came home on Dec 17, but she had a final on the last day of the two week final period. Otherwise, she would have had an extra week on the front end.
@ClarinetDad16 15 students have committed suicide from 1990-2010.
The national average is 6.5-7.5 suicides per 100,000 students (which is how this stat is measured). That means Cornell, with about 20,000 students, should average fewer than two suicides a year.
@TiggyB62 thanks for the actual statistics…it further shows that Cornell does NOT have a “suicide problem.”
Yea, I am not 100% sure why we got the extra week this year in January. And I think we don’t even make up for it in the back end of the spring semester which is odd as well…
I’m actually applying as a HBHS major and plan to pursue either the pre-med or pre-dent track.
I have two questions:
Did you submit an SAT subject test? ( I know HumEc doesn’t require it but from what I’ve gathered on this site it seems that a lot of people who were accepted submitted 2 subject tests)
What qualities do you think the Human Ecology College looks for in particular? Reading through the threads related to HumEc I’ve read that “fit is very important” and was hoping you could elaborate on that a little.
I think I did, but only because I had taken them for other schools and done well on them. I relied on my ACT the most and the subject tests were just submitted for the heck of it. Don't worry about it in terms of admissions though. If they said it was recommend or required then I would obviously go for it and do well on them and submit. But if they are not required, then a lack of them will not be the reason you are rejected.
Human Ecology is all about "fit" because of what I said earlier. There are so many specific, special majors in HumEc that people should know exactly why they want to come into the school. HBHS is an excellent example because it is the most unique "bio-related" major I have seen (and I researched way too many schools in HS). In your supplemental application, I would find a way to show how you would fit in to the school/major. Refer to accomplishments/goals that you had in high school and how the school/major would work for you in college.
My D applied RD and the status says that all information has been received and is currently being reviewed. Does this mean that Cornell does not want midterm grades?
Also does Cornell post decisions before April? Or will all decisions be posted at the same time?
@amy989
I believe Cornell will explicitly tell you if they need midterm grades. In my situation, I had my first semester grades by the time of my application so I am not sure about your case specifically. Your D can always feel free to send them an update when those become available, especially if the grades are good.
Cornell releases decisions during the one day that all the ivy league schools post their decisions. The only other way I know of is through “likely letters” or “diversity programs.” Basically these (often the same thing) are given to either high priority students or top diversity students where Cornell lets them know of their “likely” admission weeks (even months) before the actual date. But its usually not a good idea to hope for these because so few are given out and the vast vast majority never see one from a single school.
Re: grad school at other Ivies and top schools; having a super-high GPA is not nearly as important in the application to grad school as it could be in application to undergrad programs. There are so many different components to applying to grad school, and it’s an entirely different process anyway. I’m a current grad student at Cornell (this break is way too long!) and can confirm that you don’t /need/ a 3.8 undergrad GPA to get into the top schools anyhow.