I was accepted at Cornell ED but I had to reject their offer because they couldn’t give me any financial aid so I considered applying for Harvard RD (Harvard’s Financial Aid policy is need-blind to international students like myself). To Gibby and other experienced individuals, should I mention anything about Cornell acceptance to the Harvard Admission Office?
No.
@intparent : Any thoughts on why that’s not a good idea?
- You no longer have that offer so it's not like you can leverage it for anything.
- Shows you are a person who backs out on agreements, regardless of whether it's for a good or bad reason.
- Even if you did still have an offer from a peer school, their response might be "Go there, then"--they have so many qualified applicants that they don't need to compete for one random student.
Getting into Harvard may make Cornell take notice but getting into Cornell will not make Harvard take notice. There is a huge difference between the two in terms of the qualification of its students.
And that is especially true of the students Cornell accepts ED-the acceptance rate is higher and the qualifications can be lower. Further, Harvard does not even offer ED- and for Harvard’s EA, the credentials are actually higher than RD. In other words, your acceptance to Cornell provides Harvard with no information that would change the outcome.
Thanks a lot for the replies as well as the thought process everyone!
When you’re dating and trying to impress a propect, you don’t tell your target , “Hey, I dumped my fiance because he/she was a cheapskate.”
@GMTplus7 : Hahaha! That’s an awesome analogy! Thanks a lot for a great answer!
I kind of disagree with what has been said, although I do agree with the part about it not making a difference. Your reason for dumping Cornell is very legitimate and it doesn’t show in any way that you have bad character or renege on your commitments/agreements. I would say neither go out of your way to avoid the subject nor go out of your way to discuss it. If it is somehow brought up during an interview, be honest.
All that said, i don’t think mentioning it will help because Harvard simply won’t care that you got into Cornell. If it was the other way around, Cornell would prob do a lot to snatch a cross admit from Harvard but that virtually never happens. When it comes to Ivy League schools for undergrad, Harvard and Cornell actually are the two extremes of the spectrum. Honestly the only school Harvard would care about is Stanford, not even Yale imo, and of course it doesn’t even think about Cornell.
Although Cornell and Harvard play in the same athletic conference, I would imagine that Harvard doesn’t consider Cornell a peer school . . . at least not in the same league as it considers Yale, Princeton, Stanford or MIT. In addition as someone else noted, you turned down Cornell’s offer, so you currently don’t have any leverage. I would NOT mention it to Harvard Admissions.
Even if it were Yale, mentioning it to Harvard will likely elicit the response, “We wish you the best of luck at Yale.”
" at least not in the same league as it considers Yale, Princeton, Stanford or MIT."
This is true but that isn’t to say that Cornell isn’t an amazing institution. It has a different mission than those other schools. But the point remains, Harvard does not care. They know that about 6500 students will be accepted by Cornell, most of whom would not have been accepted by Harvard.
" for Harvard’s EA, the credentials are actually higher than RD. "
Could you explain what you meant there? @lostaccount
@SSundee : I think what he meant is that the profiles of Harvard EA are much more competitive and excellent than those of RD. Correct me if I am wrong.
Even if it were Yale, mentioning it to Harvard will likely elicit the response, “We wish you the best of luck at Yale.”
^^^exactly! and i am sure it would have the same reaction with Princeton. Yale and Princeton are full of Harvard rejects, but there are only a few yale, princeton rejects are accepted to harvard. Of course it is not impossible for a cross-admit to choose yale/princeton over harvard, it does happen, but it happens way less than the other way around.
Truth is only one school has a true rivalry nowadays with Harvard, and that is Stanford. Also Harvard might care about snatching some crazy genius science,engineering cross-admit from MIT/Caltech, esp now that it is trying to beef up STEM, but that is it.
Not to bash Cornell or anything, but for undergrad it is nowhere near this league. I really even doubt there is any substantial number of people who choose Cornell over Harvrard.
There are not many cross-admits who choose the so called second tier of elite schools, i.e Columbia, Penn, Chicago, Duke, over Harvard let alone Cornell which is a tier further down.
Thanks a lot for your thoughts! Especially to Gibby and other people for your time!
Honestly t doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. AND CONGRATS ON THE ACCEPTANCE!! Very impressive!
@Jt128a : Yes, thank you! I have already decided to not say anything so it’s all good. It’s just my mom being kinda salty that I didn’t mention anything about my acceptance lol
I know two Yale rejects who were accepted at Harvard – it isn’t as unusual as you think. Just saying…
@intparent : Thank you for insight! Honestly I think that it comes down to whether the student would thrive or fit the school or not in the committee’s eyes as long as the baseline stats are qualified.