Despite Cornell admission office claiming that all departments are equally competitive, the hotel management seems significantly easier than others like engineering. I am a male.
For example 105/208=37.5% acceptance rate for men for hotel management.
and 1047/6601=15.9% acceptance rate for men engineering.
SAT Critical Reading 25th Percentile 640(engineering) 590 (hotel management)
SAT Critical Reading 75th Percentile 730(engineering) 680 (hotel management)
SAT Math 25th Percentile 730 (engineering)640 (hotel management)
SAT Math 75th Percentile 800 (engineering)740 (hotel management) http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000003.pdf http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000176.pdf
Should I just apply hotel management and then transfer into engineering even if application is filled with stem?
Hotel school has very a very rigid curriculum. It doesn’t allow for many electives. At the same time,
{quote]Students who hope to transfer into the College of Engineering from another undergraduate college at Cornell should take courses in mathematics, chemistry, computer science, physics, and engineering that conform to the requirements of the engineering Common Curriculum
[/quote]
If you are successful in transferring into Engineering, you may need to spend extra time at Cornell to get your degree. My kid’s BF transferred from CAL to Engineering. He had to spend one extra semester at Cornell.
I agree with the above posters, they probably look for people who are just trying to find an “easy in”. You need to show a genuine interest in the specific school you’re applying to, through your background, experience, and essays.
That is a dumb tactic; apply where you want to instead of trying to bluff it because it’s not going to work. Even if you do get in, you’re taking away a spot of someone who really wants to be in CHA.
When I went to the Engineering info session a year ago, they said if you want to transfer into Engineering, they make you wait a year in your first college before allowing you to transfer. So I would NOT recommend it.
Right, scores and grades are not as relevant to hotel school as they are to A&S. So students with lower scores and grades may be admitted. But the school is just as competitive as the others. Just on different dimensions. They will look for experience in hospitality. I’m sure they reject loads of students with straight As and top scores-cause that isn’t the dimension they are most concerned about.
Gaming the system works sometimes, but it needs to be planned out carefully. My nephews wanted to major in business, but knew AEM was very hard to get into, so they decided to apply to CHA instead. They knew CHA taught business with focus on hospitality, and also had a real estate minor. They started to intern at hotels and restaurants as early as 10th grade and made contacts with various Hotel alums. Both of them were admitted ED without top stats by CC standard. The older one just graduated. He is working at a real estate PE firm and the younger one probably will intern this summer at a major WS firm.
My older one graduated from CAS few years ago. After working on WS, she wished she had gone to CHA because she is very interested in hotel real estate management.
If you want to be pre-med or pre-law, there are multiple schools that could fit your need. If you are a NY state resident, going to one of land grand schools could cut down on your tuitions. Some of those schools are easier to get into than CAS or COE. If you were to write a compelling essay on Why School X, I don’t think adcoms would really know which school is a better fit.
As someone who came in as an engineer and realized they wanted to do hospitality and transferred to the hotel school, I would strongly not advise it. The hotel school pre-enrolls you in core classes for both your freshmen and sophomore years which means that you will only be able to take one, possibly 2 classes (if you apply for overload) in engineering/math/science. Even though engineering has a little more flexibility in the classes you take, it still took me till junior year to be able to transfer. Granted, I didn’t come in with any credits for the basic math/science intro sequence in engineering so I had to take all of the classes.
I am thankful that hotel classes are not as sequential as engineering ones are or I would have to stay a lot longer than just one extra semester.
All the colleges look at fit and I agree with what everyone has said. It could work if they don’t see through you but you have to be willing to focus only on classes for a while.
Don’t worry about the stats so much either, I didn’t have great SATs, make sure to show your interest in your essay.
@oldfort, I wouldn’t classify your post as “gaming the system” though, in the true sense of the word. I would call your post more like “strategic planning”.
The reason why hotel school is seemingly uncompetitive is because not a ton of people apply and the ones who do almost all have a hospitality background. With zero experience or interest in hospitality/business etc. you most likely wouldn't get accepted.
If you did get accepted, it would be very difficult to transfer to engineering. You might be stuck in the hotel school and never get an engineering degree.
Lying about your interests and intended majors on your application is actually a felony. Yikes.
I’m just going to reiterate what every other poster has said: DO NOT DO IT! If you apply to the Hotel School, I give you a 99% chance of being rejected. The Hotel School, possibly more than any other, is about fit, so they really look at your extracurricular activates and the interest portrayed in your essays. If your application, as you put it, is more STEM focused, they will see right through you. They only want to accept people who actually show a passion for their subject.