<p>Also, I know of some really bright people who are attending some of Cornell's other schools.
One of my good friends is at the agriculture school right now. </p>
<p>He's there because of an interest in science and for financial reasons. He would have been accepted into any other school in Cornell with ease and stood a strong chance at getting into just about every college but he chose to apply ED to CALS since he knew Cornell was his dream school.</p>
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He's there because of an interest in science and for financial reasons. He would have been accepted into any other school in Cornell with ease and stood a strong chance at getting into just about every college but he chose to apply ED to CALS since he knew Cornell was his dream school.
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<p>And yet you still come on here and make disparaging remarks about Cornell as a whole? Look. Cornell has a fair number of students in niche majors like agriculture, design, architecture, art, hotel management, and arbitration where SAT scores are simply not that important. The fact that it still has an average overall SAT score of 1400 despite having twice as many students as most of its peer schools, and a more socioeconomically diverse student body is impressive, to say the least.</p>
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I was just a little ticked off by the fact it seemed like that Cornell students were snobbish towards transfer students when Cornell students (and neither are Duke students) are not perfect.
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<p>I wouldn't inform your views of an entire school by the anecdotes of a couple of insecure students on a message board. By any measure, transfer students at Cornell make the most of the opportunities granted to them and reach much success in school and in life.</p>
<p><a href="I%20actually%20didn't%20get%20into%20Cornell%20but%20got%20into%20Duke-%20point%20for%20Cornell,%20I%20guess">quote</a>
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<p>So we can agree that college admissions is idiosyncratic and that there are many good schools out there and we shouldn't make disparaging remarks about other schools based on ill-formed opinions?</p>
<p>I'm a GT and I sometimes feel like I side-stepped my way into Cornell by going to a community college last year. However, I'm pretty sure that I'm the only person who thinks of my situation that way -- I've experienced absolutely no bias or negative reactions when I tell people that I'm a sophomore transfer.</p>
<p>(Also, it's snowing!!)</p>
<p>^Yesss it's snowing here too! (Oswego)</p>
<p>And it's great to hear that you have not experienced any bias!</p>
<p>people do not know your story. if you feel you cheated by transferring, 1. that is weird, 2. you don't have to tell anyone. and to the people who say it is easier to earn a high GPA as a transfer... what?! where is the basis for this ? to say you avoided freshman weed out classes is a very premed thing to say. if anything it would seem like the opposite. you think someone can easily adjust from the ease of a community college or state school to the rigor of cornell? i would imagine that academic adjustment is extraordinary; if someone earns a 3.5+ in their first year as a transfer from a CC, that is a very, very impressive achievement to me.</p>
<p>uh not everyone transfers in from a CC or even state school. A lot of GT students do, simply to save $ their first yr of college, that makes sense. But a lot of transfer applicants are those who went to a good college they liked, and realized they don't belong there...I know a lot of freshman at NYU who want to transfer out, at least 2 to Cornell.</p>
<p>^^ i know. i was one of them. i went to northwestern my first year and came in as a regular transfer as a soph. while not ALL of the transfers during transfer orientation were state school/comm. college kids, about 95% were. regardless of the reasons why someone would attend a CC or state school (and the money is a very compelling issue, especially today) my point was that for these majority of transfers, the level of effort required at cornell trumps what they were more than likely used to , and consequently, makes the adjustment difficult. i was lucky in that northwestern is an equally tough place to study- had i come in from a CC, i'm positive I would not have done very well.</p>
<p>This thread is too long for me to read right now but I just wanted to say that as a transfer I never ONCE had anything EVER said to me that was negative. EVER. I never felt bias AT ALL. It sickens me that people who are applying are being told there is a bias. The author of that article probably just has a very low self esteem (or is just an annoying jerk off that people find an excuse to insult). All of my transfer friends are extremely intelligent and constantly making deans list and being invited to honor societies. I've been told by an admissions officer that transfers do as well as 4-year students. I think it is disgraceful that people would try to ever discourage other transfers from coming to Cornell. Cornell has been a dream since I have transfered and to take this prospect away from other potential transfers is plain wrong. Unless u have a low self esteem and somehow try to pick out comments that could be skewed the wrong way you will definitely never feel tension against tranfers. Not once have I ever even suspected it. Cornell is a great place and some cynical person cannot take that away.</p>
<p>Sorry if this comes across as too passionate but I just really think that this thread sends a horrible and largely untrue message (at least from what I read of it)</p>
<p>Thanks BigRed it's nice to hear that a lot of posters on this board who are transfers stated they never felt any bias at Cornell. Then again, there are the posters who insist that transfers have it easy because we sneak in from Community Colleges where we do no work, get 4.0's, and stroll on down to Ithaca. </p>
<p>Whatever, even if everyone had responded that transfers are dumb bags of rocks, I would apply anyway. I'm applying for Fall'09 or Spring '10.</p>
<p>I graduated about 4 years ago and was a guaranteed transfer. I think there's differences between normal transfers, GT transfers who apply in hs, and those who come from the upstate community college agreement. </p>
<p>The GTs who applied in high school and were sent a letter stating that they would be admitted but there is not room in the freshman class showed no signs of intellectual inferiority (since they were accepted on the same basis as those admitted). I can't prove it, but I found a large percentage to be really intelligent people from financially poor backgrounds (and Cornell didn't want to pay for 4 years). A number were borderline students whose parents were titans of industry (and Cornell just wanted their alumni money but was perhaps worried they wouldn't make it through 4 years). There were obviously others.</p>
<p>Perhaps the only ones looked down upon are those from the Upstate community college route who never had to apply and get accepted on their own merits. I can tell you from firsthand experience that, on average, they are not academically up to the same caliber. But, most are in niche programs, such as agriculture, that require a different skill set and are critical to sustaining the Upstate economy. So, I applaud Cornell for putting its reputation on the line and living up to its mission for a greater good than mere prestige.</p>
<p>Stargazerlilies - No one's going to look down on you for coming from NYU or for earning your way in on your own merits. Seriously. It's a good school.
I hope it works out for you.</p>
<p>Applejack- That was really interesting to read. I definitely see what your saying, and I think your response makes a lot of sense.</p>
<p>Anyone who applies to Cornell, knowing the selectivity of the university, does so with the idea that they are qualified and completitive to be accepted. A GT offer is bitter sweet. Students are accepted providing they jump through this one last hoop. State and commumity colleges are a cost effective and logistically practical way to achieve this goal. Lack of rigor in the courses vs Cornell standards doesn't really come in to play, considering many of the smaller schools have full professors teaching in the undergraduate classroom vs. a TA. When you consider a 3.3 to 3.9 GPA is required to transfer, I would say the pressure is on for all freshmen, no matter where they go to school. So the rigors of Cornell should come as no surprise for the successful transferees who are used to challenges and hard work!</p>
<p>Let me clarify my position to make it explicitly relevant to the topic.</p>
<p>I do believe, from personal experience and conversations I've had with both adminstrative faculty and faculty advisors, that transfers, ON AVERAGE, are less intellectually able than regular admits. I also believe many took an easy route to Cornell b/c they could not garner acceptance directly from HS. (Note: GT's belong in this category. Cornell offered them the GT option b/c they didn't want them as much as the regualar admits. You can apply euphemisms to that truth all you want, but you can't ignore it.) There are of course exceptions and maybe a sizable minority exists.</p>
<p>But in regards to transfer bias, I never experienced any AT ALL in my 3 years at Cornell. Maybe this was b/c I was doing better than everyone else, but even amongst people who weren't in my class, I never felt looked down upon. </p>
<p>If you prove yourself, then no one will care or even have the justification to care about you being a transfer.</p>
<p>Dontno</p>
<p>There is no easy route to Cornell. It happens that Cornell does value the GT. Do to incredible volume and demographics, they couldn't offer positions to all those applicants they wanted. So they offered the next best thing... the known attrition in the sophomre year would be offered to highly qualified applicants whom they also wanted as Cornelians. This according to the Cornell admissions officers. You state G/T s on average are less capable, however you, being a G/T( I assume by your post) by your own admission, are doing better than all your peers. That must mean the G/T (you) is smarter than the average Cornelian who was admitted the hard way. So therefore, I believe the G/T is an above average Cornelian who can certainly hold their own in this Brave New World.</p>
<p>Dontcare</p>
<p>Gosh, everyone's getting so upset. :( But I'm not gonna waste time worrying about how transfers are treated, because chances are I won't be accepted anyhow. to those of you with Gt, I envy you!</p>
<p>"GT's belong in this category. Cornell offered them the GT option b/c they didn't want them as much as the regualar admits"</p>
<p>um... ouch</p>
<p>Pretty harsh statement coming from a fellow "Gt". I hope I don't experience ignorant attitudes like that during my 3 glorious, cheap, wonderful years at Cornell.</p>
<p>While I don't completely agree with dontno, I do think that GTs were offered this option because they weren't as qualified as those who were accepted via regular admission. Cornell had to make a decision, and they did.. someone else was more qualified than you, they were accepted, you received a GT. Doesn't mean you weren't qualified, you just weren't as qualified.</p>
<p>I've met some really stupid GTs, but I've also met some really stupid regular admits, too. I'm sure there are numbers somewhere for transfer vs. regular admit GPAs and whatnot that would clear up all of this confusion.</p>
<p>I went to community college last year, I've yet to receive a grade lower than a B here at Cornell and I don't think I'm a huge anomaly to the transfer population...</p>
<p>^ well yeah, that's definitely true. But the argument isn't whether Cornell wanted us or not, because they clearly did. The argument is that transfers are less intelligent than 4-years, and there are many that I have heard of, like you, Indigo, that prove that statement false. It really bothers me that intelligence is somehow measured in an admission decision. To me, intelligence is quantified by potential and passion. Two things all transfers have an ample amount of.</p>
<p>For the record, I was not a GT. I got rejected flat out my senior year of HS and I suspect they looked at my application and immediately discarded it. But honestly I never really cared b/c I knew that my high school record and subsequent rejection wasn't a reflection of my intellectual merit. I proved that by graduating at the very top of all engineers. </p>
<p>I guess I can't convince you guys, but transfers (GT's included) are simply not as smart as regular admits. But that's a statement relevant only to the AVERAGE of the transfer population. that doens't apply to individuals. Thats an important distinction.</p>
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To me, intelligence is quantified by potential and passion.
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<p>No, this is the leftism inoculated by public schools who tihnk everyone can be above average. Intelligence is quantified by the ability to reason (and delimited into several realms of intelligence including spatial reasoning, verbal flexibility, logical analysis, etc.). These are well quantified, but not entirely so, by standardized tests including the SAT, and SAT II's, both of which I would assume transfer students have lower scores in. </p>
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You state G/T s on average are less capable, however you, being a G/T( I assume by your post) by your own admission, are doing better than all your peers. That must mean the G/T (you) is smarter than the average Cornelian who was admitted the hard way. So therefore, I believe the G/T is an above average Cornelian who can certainly hold their own in this Brave New World.</p>
<p>Dontcare
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<p>This might be one of the most illogical things I've ever seen on CC. The void of reasoning apparent in the above quote is stupefying. Let me summarize: Because ONE transfer does really well, then THE AVERAGE transfer must be ABOVE average for all Cornellians. Do you understand the concept of a group average? Clearly, you have no grasp of this math fundamental. One data point can not represent a large sample. You are now dismissed from 7th grade math class!</p>
<p>And I could understand you assuming GT's (well self-deluding yourself) are equal to their regular admit peers. But from what premise can you justify believing them to be ABOVE average? Oh b/c disingenuous individuals on this thread offer personal anecdote of small sample sizes as evidence?</p>
<p>Finally, was that "Dontcare" at the bottom some kind of snarky rejoinder?</p>
<p>dontno, if you want to start an argument like you have in every other thread you stick your elitist bigoted nose into, then by all means.</p>
<p>but let it be known, that you indeed are a huge troll.</p>
<p>I'm sure you're going to say my beliefs too were inoculated by the leftism of our high schools?</p>