<p>OK so this is the PDF of the Faculty Advisor Handbook. This is what Cornell tells it's Freshman FAs straight up in their guidelines for freshman advice. You can be assured of no manipulated statistics. I feel this source should be very candid. Here it is <a href="http://www.arts.cornell.edu/stu-adv/fachndbk/fachndbk.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.arts.cornell.edu/stu-adv/fachndbk/fachndbk.pdf</a>. Check out page 17 about course load and course selection standards. It talks about what is good enough/decent at cornell. There may be a lot of other useful info elsewhere in it.</p>
<p>below 650 SAT = weak <em>gasp</em></p>
<p>it says 'generally' my friend...that means there are many exceptions</p>
<p>It says generally scores in the high 600's are good, and but it does not point to a generally specific for cornell and it makes that point in the next line where it says: whereas scores (for cornell) below 650 are weak.</p>
<p>I think the first line is for the national universities as a whole and the second line is cornell specific...my friend.</p>
<p>ok, using pure logic, one can deduce that a 650 isnt weak for EVERY cornell student. Students come from various socioeconomic, cultural, geographical, household factors. The generally also applies, yet may not be specifically stated, to the 650 and below weakness comment. For example, as stated afterwards concerning APs, etc. Lets imagine the student received 4s and 5s on all their APs, for example a total of 6. That outweighs a 640. Therefore that 640 wont be seen as "weak". There is logic to indirect statements.</p>
<p>This is CAS specific, if you look at the server for the site. Some other colleges and schools at Cornell obviously value things other than SATs more than CAS does.</p>
<p>BK2CU: I don't see the logic in 650 not being weak for only some cornell students. It's a score relative to the average student enrolled in CAS. It's not like the average is different for some students enrolled in the college. If it's a weak score for one student in the college it would be a weak score for anyone in the college. Based on the same stream of what I feel is faulty logic, it's not like a 750 wouldn't be a strong score for someone just because he had perfect everything else in his application.</p>
<p>From reading your post I'm gathering that your point is that having a 640 is not death in CAS applications. I will agree with you there. Other factors in which an applicant excells can certainly outweigh a weakness. Examples of other factors would be outstanding GPA, rank, athletic prowess, musical skill, other desirable talent, or exceptional connections. Is that what you were trying to say?</p>
<p>my friends, where are you guys seeing this? I just BRIEFLY went through and didn't pick up any important info about admission statistics.</p>
<p>Like what page is it on?</p>
<p>my friend, ;) I said check page 17 and it talks about admissions standard pertinent things. I'm not saying there's anything useful anywhere else in it, only that there might be, given that it's talking about course selection advising for the advisor's point of view, and it thus might reveal candid, and assuredly unmanipulated, standards and statistics for the average student in CAS. I just randomly came across it while investigating my Econ placement for next semester.</p>
<hr>
<p>Edit to the following poster: I thought a sentance directly following it explicitly stating that you should look at page 17 was enough! ;)</p>
<p>Page 17? You should have made it more distinguishable among all the words. I saw the web address and that automatically just took over. But thanks, Sparty.</p>
<p>Well, i was trying to say that an immigrant who scored a 640, while a white, suburban affluent student who afforded tutoring and private training got a 750, CANNOT be comparable. Come on. We all know that by now. Standardized tests arent really on the same level. Cus you can never put people on the same level. Anyway, thats my point. I fervently believe that i am correct, as ignorant and stubborn as that sounds. Also, average is one thing, individual holisticism is another. ON AVERAGE, a 650 is weak, but the key word is on average, meaning the mean score is lets say 700, so obviously below 650 is weak. But thats statistical data. Data is always skewed and doesnt present the facts accurately.</p>
<p>Yeah you're right about the two guys not being comperable, and because of that, cornell evaluates holistically. I'm just saying this site/book is giving an indicator of a candid stat., unlikely to have been manipulated in either direction.</p>
<p>Naturally that immigrant you speak of would have to have an indicator of his intelligence and work ability other than his SAT score, along with obviously the unquantifiable benefits his uncommon perspective would bring to campus, to get him in with that score along with a bunch of 750 kids.</p>
<p>I still think your point and mine are different. Mine is that if you look at things ceteras paribus, numbers are numbers, and 650 being low compared to the average for one guy means 650 is low for any guy in that group.</p>
<p>Your point is more along the lines of a 650 for one student possibly not being an accurate indicator of his intellectual capacity because of a disadvantaged situation when compared to the suburban white guy you mentioned. I agree with you on that point completely, and that is why cornell and many other colleges evaluate holistically and not with a purely quantitative admissions formula.</p>
<p>I'd have to disagree slightly. A 650 (or some arbitrary relatively low SAT score) can be considered weak. True, an immigrant who knows little english is expected to have low SAT verbal/writing scores, but isn't that indicative of a weakness in english? I think the only exceptions you can make are for those who are poor test takers. Being weak in an area isn't necessarily a bad thing; we all know that SAT doesn't measure intelligence, but rather how prepared you are for that test. </p>
<p>On a side note, did you guys see the next page where it says you CAN take fewer than 12 credits? I know of a lot of people who wanted to drop classes but couldn't; maybe now they can (though I bet the process is really long and annoying).</p>
<p>they are supposedly more lenient first and 2nd semester.</p>
<p>I don't understand why you would want to take fewer than 12 credits, that seems like it wouldn't be much work at all (i'm not saying that less work is bad, but at that low amount of credits it would seem like you would have too much time on your hands), but I guess the upside is that you would be able to work harder in those fewer classes and get better grades.</p>