<p>Hi, I'm applying to the primary school for Arts and Sciences and an alternate for Engineering. How do I know if this will hurt my chances or not? For Engineering I have math and science ap's and excellent grades in those classes and I also took writing courses in high school. So is it fine if I utilize the primary/alternate?</p>
<p>i woud also like some feedback on this as I am sort of in the same position. what do they mean when they say only 'exceptional candidates should utilize this' i mean w t f?</p>
<p>when i visited, the lady went on about how you shouldn't use primary/alternate unless you are super unsure which one you should be applying to and you are an excellent cadidate for both. she said not to just use it as a primary/alternate way to get into cornell as a whole.</p>
<p>i think that you can apply to 2 schools if they have the same or very similar major. if you want to apply to the hotel school though, DONT do primary/alternate because nothing at cornell is really the same as it</p>
<p>What if I do CAS for an English major and Engineering for Chemical Engineering.</p>
<p>IS that too far apart?</p>
<p>If Cornell uses the primary/alternate system, there's absolutely no way they'd disadvantage someone for use it over someone who doesn't!
Don't worry about it, seriously. They're probably not going to scrutinize your primary/alternate choices, let alone what you think your majors will be at this point. My guess is that they'd look only at your primary choice and hardly take into consideration your alternate until they've made a decision on the primary.</p>
<p>Since this is the first year Cornell has used this system, it is difficult to say exactly when it should be used--only when your interest could be satisfied in two schools, like Computer Science or Bio for example, or when you have two disparate and competing interests like English and Chem Engrg? From my son's experience, the CAS admissions rep told him that they don't really look at the alternate college information, including essay. They evaluate the application for what the applicant says they want to do in CAS. So I'd be sure that the primary school is the one you want to attend most since they evaluate your application first and see how it goes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. So do you think I should do two choices or not?</p>
<p>Final decision =P</p>
<p>yeah... i applied to CALS biochem and CoE bioengineering...
I ended up getting accepted to CoE
as long as you show passion for both, i think using primary/alternate is a good idea</p>
<p>FAJISTE: do it only if you truly have passion for both fields. From what I heard basically, the primary/alternate is for extremely similar majors in two different schools (i.e. bio in CAS or CALS, bioEng in coe or CAls, etc. etc.) OR if you really are passionate in two areas and can support your claim, obviously choosing your greater passion as your primary.</p>
<p>Well in school I've always excelled in English and Math and Science. In college, I want to take pre-med courses while majoring in English. That's my dream, which is why I applied to CAS. However, I wouldn't mind taking Chemical Engineering in the college of engineering especially because I excel greatly in Math and Science. Is that reasonable then to utilize primary/alternate?</p>
<p>i'm doing primary electrical in CoE and math in CAS. i think it's legit. you?</p>
<p>How about PAM in Human Ecology and AEM in CALS? Is that somewhat similar?</p>
<p>Well my choices aren't similar at all, but nonetheless I wouldn't mind being in any of them. I still want to do something in the science-type career however I'd love to major in English.</p>
<p>this is for people who are currently in Cornell or know what they're talking about. </p>
<p>When applying Primary/Alternate, will the primary school see the essay for the alternate school and vice versa?</p>
<p>Also, does it make sense to apply to CoE as a primary and CAS as a alternate? My choice of majors and likings fit more for CoE and but CAS has a computer science department which I'm also interested in.</p>
<p>Yes, can someone answer these questions? I mean in one school I'm applying with an English major, while in the other school I'm applying with a Chemical Engineering major. I fancy both however. I have no idea......</p>
<p>HIgirl, I'm a highschooler, sorry, but i may be able to help.
first, i am doing the same two schools in the same order, and on the Cornell website they say that the schools may in fact look at each other's essays.</p>
<p>Since both CoE and CALS have bioengineering majors, which is what I want to do, I'm going to apply to both of them. However, their essays are rather similar, so would it be a bad idea for me to use the very similar essay for both schools? Or will Cornell see me as being lazy? But I really don't know how I would write a different essay for similar prompts.</p>
<p>I would change it a little, because your primary college gets to see the essay. That is why I did not apply primary/alternate , to me it is a little sketchy.</p>
<p>HIgirl, my son applied CAS for computer science and alternate to CoE--btw, it's the same comp sci department, not different. He was accepted to CAS. We spoke with admissions people in both colleges to see how this would work and whether there would be anything he might not be able to do as a CAS comp sci major vs. a CoE comp scie major. First, the admissions rep for CAS told us they would not look at the alternate school essay--we had asked how a student would present themselves to two schools indicating his interest in both. I think the schools obviously can look at both essays but I'm not sure they will--after all, they have lots of stuff to look at. Second, on the question about Comp Sci majors in CAS vs. CoE, there is no difference, except in the distribution requirements for the colleges. In CoE, I think you have to take physics and chem and an engineering intro class that introduces you to the various disciplines within engineering. In CAS, you have to fulfill the language requirement. Everything else was open to both--the coop program, working in a research lab in CoE. For my son, his other interests tended more toward the liberal arts--history, etc. and less toward the hard sciences, so CAS as primary made a lot of sense (and it worked out for him too). CoE looks very closely at math and science grades. So, yes, it makes sense to look at applying to both--but obviously you have to write both essays.</p>