Several days ago an assistant dean from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences told me that she had received my early decision application. She took the time to write this letter, which was personal. It got sent to my primary email, (not spam promotions from colleges that go to every student) so I tried to pay close attention to what she was saying. She told me thatI selected the Bio Engineering program and she wanted to be sure that I had mad ethe right decision. I have a feeling that if she took the time to email me, that they liked my application, just not for that major. I am trying to email her back and ask her what major she thinks I should apply for (you cannot apply undecided for Cornell), but I was wondering what major in CALS that’s related to Biology and or Chemistry that I may have an easier chance to get in to and get accepted for. For these purposes, I would like to ignore scores and GPA. My ACT are above the 90% and my GPA is above a 4.0, but I do not need to get into specifics. I am simply looking for a major that still has my interests but may be less competitive and easier for me to get into, because I see this deans email as a big red sign that says if I stay with Bio Engineering, I won’t get in. Please let me know! Thanks
PS: Here are CALS majors (http://cals.cornell.edu/admissions/academics/majors/)
You CAN apply undecided to Cornell, but that may be only for CAS.
This is really interesting and not something I’ve ever heard of happening before. You can be undecided in CAS and engineering I believe, but yeah I don’t think you can apply undecided for CALS. I’m not sure data is released on the acceptance rate of each major (aside from AEM). There are a ton of biological sciences majors (and a lot of biology and society majors) but I would assume there are a ton of people who apply to those majors to begin with.
I’m really interested to see how this plays out.
Not sure if this is the same thing, but emails were sent to all Cornell ED applicants a few days ago reminding them that ED is binding and if you are no longer interested in being considered (whether that’s for your major or for Cornell in general) that the deadline to withdraw is November 25. It had nothing to do with whatever major you selected or the choice of admissions; it was simply informing you of the deadline to withdraw if you no longer wanted to apply ED.
However, if this isn’t the email you’re referring to, then that would be really odd. But if you still feel like you should switch your major, there’s lots of other biology-related majors in CALS 
@beachykeen
It was a different email, directly from the dean and privatized. But I’m super excited for RD in a couple days!