<p>The fact is, none of these schools saw something in you that any other applicant didn’t have, and the chances are that the students they took over you had something to contribute to campus more than you did. Stats only take you so far - these schools need to see something inspiring in you. To be honest, your ECs were lacking and you seem to not have initiative or true passion. Take this as a lesson that you shouldn’t take admissions for granted just because you got good grades. You hear this all the time, but top schools reject cookie-cutter apps left, right and center, and it seems like your app was very calculated and formulaic. </p>
<p>It hurts, I realize that, but coming to the Cornell sub-forum and asking for solace by insisting that Cornell is mediocre isn’t exactly a winning strategy. </p>
<p>But let’s not be pessimists. You’re going to Cornell, one of the best schools in the world. Enroll - there are plenty of brilliant kids there just like you. If you really want to, transfer after your first year… you have the numbers to back you up, just not the passion/ECs.</p>
<p>^
Wait, lacking ECs? I was a DISTRICT GOVERNOR and the Chairman of the International Governors’ Council! I thought that was a 10/10 EC! And it was something I truly cared about. As Governor, I safeguarded an ENTIRE Ugandan village from malaria with mosquito nets. I wrote my first essay on how my work with Interact helped me overcome my cynicism and misanthropy. </p>
<p>Eagle Scout is fairly common, but nothing to scoff at certainly. Ac Dec co-captain? Run of the mill, yes, but a nice throw-in. Are you sure it was ECs that got me rejected and not grades? I only had a 3.87 unweighted.</p>
<p>What I’d really like right now is for someone to bash on all seven Ivy Leagues and talk about how Cornell is really the best. As it is now, I feel like I was unwanted almost everywhere. And yeah, it’s like the Groucho Marx joke. I wasn’t even good enough for Duke and NorthWestern. Why would Cornell take me, unless Cornell is a significant downgrade?</p>
<p>Look, I’m really grateful to the adcoms for doing what no other private school did. But people always joke about Cornell all the time. They say it doesn’t belong in the Ivy League or is a glorified community college. Or the suicide capital of colleges (distasteful joke, but it’s said fairly frequently.) I really feel like people are just going to laugh in the future if I tell them I’m a Cornell alum.</p>
<p>The thing is that this is a very selfish post, to every single person who has ever attended cornell, planning to attend cornell, those who are accepted, and those who are rejected. I do not empathize with OP in any way. It’s like seeing a beggar complaining about getting a $100 bill. None of these colleges have any obligation to accept you. If you don’t want the acceptance, don’t take it, simple as that. There is no reason for you to say something like this especially because you already know that it is false (assuming that if you were academically able you would probably have known this in the first place) and you are using this thread to selfishly express your disappointment in your top choice school. Realize that for many people Cornell is their top choice school and the selfishness that you have shown here on this thread.</p>
Quality of education has nothing to do with selectivity - just look at JHU. Cornell is top notch in engineering, architecture, medical/vet, sciences, business programs (AEM and hotel), labor relations, and more. Cornell also has the widest selection of studies among all of the ivies and probably among all colleges in the world (and they’re pretty highly ranked on average too). Going beyond educational opportunities, Cornell gives you a LOT of extracurricular opportunities. Research, internships, grad schools, job prospects (cornell is a major feeder for many firms and for positions across all fields), connections (large number of alumni in high level positions), salaries - If you really care about reputation that much, then your salaries would speak for themselves:
<a href=“http://■■■■■■/H5N3YR[/url]”>http://■■■■■■/H5N3YR</a>.</p>
<p>If you truly feel that way, don’t come here. It is really that simple. That way of lofty thinking won’t get you through four years of Cornell. By the way, you are really the “formulaic” applicant that someone else mentioned in the thread. You do things just to look good for colleges instead of doing things out of interest - colleges recognize that (particularly strongly in the case of ORMs) and that may be the reason that you are rejected - not that you aren’t doing enough, but you did too much and it revealed your character and the distortion behind your motivation.</p>
<p>“It’s like seeing a beggar complaining about getting a $100 bill.”</p>
<p>But that’s just it. I feel like a beggar. This was literally all I have to show for four years of work. I really wanted to go to Princeton.</p>
<p>I do agree that this is a selfish thread. I’ve seen similar ones on other forums (schools that I was rejected from), and they really ****ed me off. But it’s like the Universe just threw me a consolation prize or something. I don’t know if you can understand it… It’s just so disheartening.</p>
<p>Why am I posting it here? No clue. This feels like the only place where I can post now. Doesn’t feel right to post in forums of schools where I was rejected.</p>
<p>I really hope that this puffed-up, ungrateful, whiny, and in my opinion somewhat ignorant OP chooses another school. Please – PLEASE – do not choose Cornell. In this case I think the adcoms on the hill in Ithaca made a mistake – despite his stats.</p>
<p>^^^
Believe me, I would be the first to trade my Cornell acceptance for a Columbia one if someone offered (and if it was even possible.) I’d trade for any other Ivy League, Chicago, Duke, or Northwestern.</p>
<p>My predicament is that it’s either Cornell or Berkeley. If you haven’t inferred this already, I’m not exactly a huge fan of Berkeley either. Basically, I’m screwed.</p>
<p>I really hope you don’t come here - we really don’t need people like you. Your “consolation prize” is a lottery ticket winning to many, many people. It’s your choice not to take it. Just stop your ignorant, selfish whining. You are obviously not going to listen to reason or understand whatever I posted. You tried to exploit the system and you are getting your just desserts. It’s regrettable that Cornell offered you any empathy despite how wretched you are. It is pretty darn clear that you did all those things not out of philanthropy but because of your own selfish goals of getting into college.</p>
<p>There’s a really easy way for you not to be screwed. Just don’t go to either. Go to a local CC since the only difference in this college and that is that this one is “glorified” and costs $50k more.</p>
<p>Oh, by the way, realize that your college doesn’t define who you are and how you will do in the real world. It’s what you choose to do with your time and education.</p>
<p>^
You don’t get it. I have NO CHOICE. I was rejected everywhere else except the UCs!</p>
<p>I don’t see how I exploited the system. That’s an absurd accusation. I got screwed by affirmative action if anything. </p>
<p>Look man, I realize how offensive this is. I always wanted to go to Princeton for my entire life, and if not there, then HYWSC. I literally got rejected from my top ten choices. Man… Nobody on this board will get it.</p>
<p>Sincere apologies to anyone who didn’t get into Cornell and is offended. I hope you got a Duke or UChicago, or something. /:</p>
<p>Edit: That’s what EVERYONE ELSE is saying. But if that were the case, why is everyone else trying to get into HYP?</p>
<p>Grow up Saugus. Clearly you have always managed to get what you wanted, and now you have been rejected your mentality can’t adjust to the rejections.
Cornell is a great school. But with your attitude, idk if you’ll be happy anywhere. You overestimate yourself. There will always be people that are more exceptional “ren wai you ren tian wai you tian” if anyone speaks chinese lol. Learn to live and deal with it. Pick yourself up and work harder to go to HYPS for grad school. Honestly, whining now won’t do you any good.</p>
<p>Of course nobody would get it. It’s like punching someone in the face and asking if he feels you. **** no. Honestly people were trying to help but you are just being a baby (and a really whiny one at that). Post this in the princeton forum or something. They’ll love your presence there.</p>
<p>Of course HYP is amazing. You’re rejected, boo hoo, but Cornell offered you a huge consolation prize. But now you are bashing the only school that offered you empathy. It is disgusting to see your posts which epitomize the idea of “biting the hand that feeds you”. Hopefully you’ll sober up tomorrow and realize how immature and just plain stupid you sound right now.</p>
<p>Yuhiko: not sure if that adage works because in this case it isn’t that he’s not exceptional, it’s that he’s an asian robot who had his life designed to just get in college. Well guess what? Doing as many ecs as you can isn’t the way that admissions works. You showed a lack of dedication and leadership in your ecs because being a good leader requires dedication - that means not spreading yourself thin with a bijillion ecs and leadership positions because a person’s time and energy is limited; by spreading yourself thin you are showing that your ECs are superficial, which may be even worse than having a lack of ECs. The way you presented yourself was just repulsive in my mind.</p>
<p>In light of this OP’s misconceptions regarding Cornell, what in the world could have compelled him to apply?? The fine community at Cornell does not deserve this one. He has set himself up to not be happy up on the hill in Ithaca, and to be blind to its huge array of great attributes. Go to another school OP. You have other choices .</p>
<p>I’m in the same situation…I thought as a fifteen year old senior with a 2340 who interned in the solar industry and conducted lectures abroad I would have a good chance at any college so I only applied to a few.
Results: rejected from MIT. Waitlisted for Harvard. Accepted into Cornell (likely), UCLA (likely), and UC Berkeley.
So I was cocky, and now I’m pathetically looking for sympathy?
Yes…but I think I’m starting to fall in love with Cornell, which now I can’t wait to attend for its amazing engineering program. So my advice, just be happy with what you’ve got, since what you have is what some people might give an limb for.</p>
<p>Honey, it doesn’t matter how long you wanted to go to Princeton or whether Wharton has a super rep in finance. “Want” isn’t what gets people in. Not to college, dream jobs, marriages, whatever. You have a chance to either make something out of your choices or complain. </p>
<p>You didn’t get screwed by AA. People are telling you to wise up, man up and quit complaining about three amazing admits. We get that Princeton rejected you. And all sorts of other schools. We get that you are disappointed Do you get how you sound here? I sincerely hope you see things more clearly tomorrow morning. UCB, UCLA, Cornell: wins. If you hate Cornell, you wasted app money and should reject it. The end. You don’t make friends who will convince you, by dissing their school.</p>
<p>^^^^
Oh yeah, that’s only mildly racist towards Asians. And notice how I only have three ECs, and am in a high position in all of them.</p>
<p>And really, if HYP is so amazing, then why would people even want to go to Cornell? You’re proving my point. I only got into Reject-Land, the place where every HYP-wannabe goes to rot. I was hoping someone was going to successfully argue that Cornell is far superior to HYP anyway, but I guess that’s not happening. Christ, I was right from the start. This sucks.</p>
<p>And hell no, I’m not going to the Princeton forum. You really think I want to be around people who actually got in? I’d rather be around people at least stuck with the same situation as me, and it seems only recent HYP-rejects actually get it.</p>