How does CALS admissions work?

Hey everyone,

I’m really confused on how CALS admissions works. Is it similar to a state public school where your chances are severely diminished based off where you live? Also, are you applying to a major? The supplemental clearly states, why are you a fit for the major that you have selected. I’ve heard the AEM/Bio majors are the most popular. Are those the hardest to get into? When you apply, are you compared against the other people applying to your major, or the larger applicant pool? I’m just wondering this, and any help would be very helpful.

Thanks, ezbreezy

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CALS is a land grant school, so preferential treatment is given to New York State residents in admissions and tuition. As for admission, if you are applying to CALS, the same committee will look at your application regardless of which major you put down. For that reason, there is no incentive to put down an “easier” major. The most important thing is fit, so if you are, for example, interested in business and have a lot of finance type extracurriculars, applying to Dyson would be a good idea. So you are not being directly ‘compared’ to other people in the major, per se. Let me know if that helped.

There’s no proof/statistics that show that New York students have an easier time getting into CALS. They just get a tuition discount. For CALS, you apply directly to a major and some are more competitive than others, with AEM having the lowest acceptance rate. But your best chances are to apply to the major you want to pursue and can demonstrate the most fit and passion for.

@Ranza123 @barackhussein AHHHH! u guys legit just gave me answers that are polar opposites of each other. so which is it? can anyone else chime in?

Ranza, i’m applying into biometry and statistics, would you care to shed some light on how competitive this major is?

I’m not disagreeing that an overall CALS committee looks at all of the applications regardless of major (I honestly don’t know one way or the other), but the different levels of competition across majors leads me to believe you are weighed against other people of the same major; of course, this could only be the case for certain majors (such as AEM). Since they don’t publish data on acceptance to individual majors other than AEM, I’m not sure how competitive biometry and statistics is. Anyone who gives you an answer is probably basing it off of guesswork and anecdotal evidence. If you’re a good fit for that major, you’ll have a better chance of getting into it than a major you’re a poorer fit for.

NY kids definitely have an advantage. This is from one of their materials:

What is the relationship between Cornell and the State University of New York (SUNY) system?

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is one of three undergraduate colleges at Cornell that are also part of the State University of New York (SUNY). As a New York State “state-assisted college” we have a unique responsibility to conduct research and public service programs that will benefit the people of the state. In return, the state contributes a significant portion of our operating expenses which provides us with additional funds for student support, faculty salaries, and improved classrooms and laboratories. It also helps keep our tuition lower, making your Cornell degree more affordable. This alliance with the State University of New York allows us to work closely with SUNY’s University Colleges of Technology and Community Colleges in advising students on transfer opportunities.

How does this arrangement influence the College’s commitment to resident and non-resident students?

As a statutory college within the State University of New York, we are committed to maintaining a strong presence of New York State residents in our student body. A majority of the students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are New York State residents.

@Ranza123 it seems like there is an advantage ^ care to chime in

There may be an advantage, but it is not proven by the above. Commitment to maintain a strong NY resident presence could be implemented by taking steps to jack up the NY resident applicant pool, not necessarily accepting a higher percentage from that pool. Such steps would include focused recruiting efforts in NY state. But the biggest one is discounted tuition to NY residents.

There is no doubt that the discount is significant to the parents of many middle class NY state residents, who can’t easily shell out the dough for private college tuition but would not qualify for any material financial aid.

There are also other ways they get NY State residents in aside from freshman admission. I’m particularly thinking of the articulation agreements they have with a number of community colleges across New York state. Also the contract colleges are known to offer a fair amount of deferred admissions, these could be offered to proportionally more NY state residents, who knows.

Their last sentence seems to be no longer accurate, in any event. The reported data I posted for 2016 shows a NY State resident percentage of 48%, which is less than “a majority”…
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20090771/#Comment_20090771

The love NY kids, but Bc the resident tuition is lower, the competition from IS is fierce. Lots of apps.

AEM only take 100 or so, so again, fierce competition. Don’t know much about Biometry tho.

thank you @HRSMom

@monydad sir, do you know anything about biometry and stats and it’s competitiveness??

What @monydad said is my general impression of the “New York advantage.” The applicant pool from New York, especially to the land-grant schools who recruit heavily across the state and who offer a significant tuition discount, is huge. But there’s nothing to suggest that, given two similar candidates, CALS would accept the New York student over a student from somewhere else. The most qualified student/the student with the best fit will still be the one admitted. You can also think of it in the sense of the United States as a whole: my year, I believe 49 states were represented (all but North Dakota I’m pretty sure). I’m sure Cornell would have loved to say they had students from all 50 states, and it would have been really easy to just give preferential treatment to someone from North Dakota, but the most qualified candidates didn’t come from there, so they took the fall by omitting a state. Not exactly the same as the New York issue, but is still further evidence that they don’t really take region into account.

I find it also necessary to point out the demographics of New York state. New York is the fourth largest state by population and is full of boarding schools/college prep schools/other top schools that funnel students into Ivy League schools. Looking at a list of Forbes top college prep schools, New York makes up 5 of the top 10. And looking at the class of 2020 demographics for other Ivy League schools, the percentage of students from New York is always high compared to other states. New York is the third most represented state at Princeton and the top represented state at Columbia, despite the fact that neither of those schools offer tuition advantages to New York students. So really it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that, when you add heavy recruiting and extremely discounted tuition to a state that already has a high representation among Ivy League schools, the percentage of students from New York in Cornell’s land-grant schools is so high.

@Ranza123 @HRSMom @barackhussein
hey guys, thanks for your help but i have sent in my app and am hoping for the best! I just wanted to know another thing regarding Cornell. If i’m applying to CALS, am I in a separate pool than those that apply to the College of Arts of Sciences/Engineering/or any of the other colleges??

I know at some colleges, one admissions reader reads all the applications from the same school. Of the 14 people that applied from my school, 12 people have applied to CAS, while 2 others (include me) have applied to CALS. Would my reader be reading me and the other person that applied CALS or all 14 applicants?

Yes, your pool is separate. For CALS, to en extent, each program is separate (to ensure they don’t overenroll).

@HRSMom oh, this is interesting. so when I applied to the bio and stats program, I’m compared against the other bio and stats kids rather than the entire applicant pool is this what ur saying?

pretty much.

wow this is really eye opening @HRSMom ive heard biometry and stats is a relatively small program (idk why but its not that popular). they have about 15 undergrads per class, would this mean my chances are higher? Or is the type of situation where hundreds apply, but it’s super selective and they take 15? Would a well (but not super qualified applicant like me (3.86 GPA, 35 ACT) stand a really good chance at this program?

That I dont really know. I would presume it is very competitive, but your stats are very high, so be positive.

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