Rejected-Desperately need help

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>Cornell has been my top choice university ever since I have heard of it. Yesterday, I was rejected from COE and I am very confused because I really believe I have the necessary stats/extracurricular/essays. You can see my full stats below but in short i had 2320 SAT I and 3x800 SAT II's. I do not want to come off as arrogant, but I really do think I am qualified. I know this because a friend of mine at my school was accepted to CoE early decision with similar stats (actually quite lower stats and credentials. I also had many science and math awards that he didn't), and decent but not super spectacular essays (I edited them all). He is a great applicant and I have no doubt that he deserves his spot at Cornell. But I am very confused why I was plainly rejected and not even given the option of a guaranteed transfer or wait list. Again not to be arrogant, but I really can't think of much else I could have done at school or for my application, I went all out all of my 4 years and I am not one of those candidates who did it all for resume building either. I am going to try and appeal my decision if possible, but I really don't know what to do. Any advice, aside from those saying i should just move on would be greatly appreciated. It's not that i am bitter about my rejection, but just really confused. And congratulations to those who were accepted.</p>

<p>*Rejected COE: *</p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT Reading:760
[</em>] SAT Math:800
[<em>] SAT Writing:760
[</em>] SAT Total:2320
[<em>] SAT II:Chem 800 Physics 800 Math II 800
[</em>] AP/IB taken/scores: Full IB diploma Physics SL 7, Econ SL 7, French SL (predicted) 5, Chem HL (predicted) 7, Math HL (predicted) 7, English HL 7
[<em>] GPA unweighted: 4.0 (90 something on 100 scale)
[</em>] Rank or % estimate (if applicable): top 5%
[li] Academic Awards:[/li]These are the ones I listed on common app, but I did send in a full resume for awards not listed</p>

<p>OAPT Physics contest: 2nd place nationally
Gold Standard in Galois Mathematics Contest
Champ Math Contest: Top team and Highest Results Distinction
6th place overall in DECA provincial competition, 2nd place in multiple choice test provincially
Peel Regional Science Fair: 3rd place</p>

<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Essays: top-notch
[</em>] Teacher Rec #1: Excellent
[<em>] Teacher Rec #2: Excellent
[</em>] Additional Rec: n/a
[<em>] Counselor Rec: Excellent, i was quote "best physics student I have seen in my entire career"
[</em>] Hook (if any):</p>

<p>[/ul]Location:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country:Canada
[</em>] School Type:Public
[<em>] Ethnicity:Azn
[</em>] Gender:Male
[<em>] Legacy No
[</em>] Recruited No
[li] Important ECs:</p>[/li]
<p>Again one's listed on common app:
- computer related hobbies: web designing, tweaking computer systems, reading about computers, etc
- The Investors of Tomorrow-an online stock market competition (co-founder and president)
-Varsity Cross Country
- Deca (VP of Training)
-Athletic Council (Head of Media)
- Math Club
-Tutor for ESL summer camp</p>

<p>[/ul]Other Factors:</p>

<p>Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted/offered guaranteed transfer:</p>

<p>General Comments/Congratulations/etc:</p>

2

<p>weird, I would have thought you would definitely be admitted, don’t really know what to tell you, maybe there was a problem with your application or something.</p>

3

<p>The problem isn’t you its the number of qualified applicants. There is really no rhyme or reason to college admissions. Not sure if you can actually appeal a denial. Early Decision applicants show the college that they will go no matter what and is gives them an edge in the admission process. While your friend might not have as high scores etc, he made up for it applying early.</p>

4

<p>Are your class Rank and national honors are all in Canada? I seem to notice that Canadian students tend to have difficulty in admission. Your SAT I & II scores are definitely super.</p>

5

<p>We do not have class rank and nation honors. But transcripts are all Canadian. I understand that my friend applied early, I did not because I was heavily pressured by my parents to apply to more “prestigious” schools and for financial reasons.</p>

6

<p>My best advice for you is to move on. I went through something similar to this when I applied for colleges. I got rejected from UCLA, my state school, with similar stats as you, 1550 SAT I, 800, 800, 780 SAT’s, 3.98 UW GPA from a top Norcal HS that sends 30+ a year each to Berkeley and UCLA. In fact, 2 weeks before decisions, I got a letter saying that I was being considered for the Reagents Scholarship at UCLA so you can imagine my surprise when I didn’t even get accepted. And this was 5 years ago when college admissions were a lot easier than they are now. But, I ended up getting into Berkeley, my top choice at the time and all was well. I’m sure you have some good acceptances and you should just look forward to going college there rather than wonder about why you were rejected at Cornell.</p>

7

<p>Berkeley is a great school though. I’m stuck with an engineering program in Canada that does not allow me to get a liberal arts education or minor/double major etc. The curriculum is not flexible at all.</p>

8

<p>The application number for CoE was up 17% from last year (it was up 3% university wide)…they had a lot of tough decisions to make</p>

9

<p>nonetheless, what can I do? I pretty much have nothing to lose nd i’m willing to put a lot of effort trying to appeal to this decision. And I understand that they had to make some pretty tough decisions, but even then why wudnt they at least give me a waitlist if it’s just a numbers problem?</p>

10

<p>while your credentials are excellent, you apparently didn’t have enough to offer to build the class they wanted to build. it’s not that you’re under qualified, it’s that you don’t have anything to add to their picture. </p>

<p>btw, if you’re so good at physics, why did you take HL in chem instead? is it something with the way your school was offering it?</p>

11

<p>yea my school didnt offer hl physics, they only offered sl physics and hl chem</p>

12

<p>what else did you apply, id say go to the next best US school on your list if you have one. then transfer in 2nd year.</p>

13

<p>if you didn’t apply anywhere else in the U.S. and would prefer a U.S. education to a Canadian one you could always take a gap year and apply to a couple of U.S. schools next year.</p>

14

<p>I applied to a few of the other ivies. nd I wud go to the next school on my choice but I don’t really have one. I understand my rejections at the other unis, the only reason i applied to them was because my parents pressured me to apply to other “prestigious schools”. I just wanted to go to cornell.</p>

15

<p>Cornell seem to accept many transfer students - I saw students from Wisconsin and Michigan transfering. My S had some other colleges he really wanted to go, but was rejected from them. Now he had to settle to two schools which he did not even think about when he applied. Its tough, but you have to move on, my S has to move on. Your dream schools are not everything in life. School names have maybe about ~5 year usefulness after you graduate and after that it is all on your own pretty much. I do not believe any school will go back and reconsider applicants, if they do that they are asking for a whole lot of trouble for nothing.</p>

16

<p>Without any new information, appealing is useless.</p>

<p>I will emphasize the fact that you can be happy at more schools than you think. Cornell was not among my top 3 choices when I applied. In fact, I totally forgot about my Cornell decision and didn’t check until the day after it came out. But, I ended up having a wonderful experience at Cornell. Likewise, I didn’t get into any of my top 5 choices for med school either but I am happy where I am. There are a few people who are lucky enough to get into their top choice for everything but know that you should be able to find happiness at many places.</p>

17

<p>Ethnicity:Azn</p>

<p>^ We ORMs are just too uppity, bro.</p>