<p>After looking through threads on here about primary/alternate admission at Cornell, I was surprised to read the false assumptions people had about the primary/alternate process. </p>
<p>For instance, several people on CC have been stating that the primary college evaluates your application and decides whether to send your application to the alternate college or not (if the primary doesn't accept you in the first place.) Well... on the Cornell Website it states: "The decision to consider an application is at the discretion of the admission committee in the alternate choice college." So what this means to me is: if you're rejected by the primary school, then whether you get considered for your alternate college is up to the ALTERNATE college, not THE PRIMARY. So... you guys need to stop spreading false information, or you need to add a disclaimer at the end of your posts saying you don't know what you're talking about. Kids actually browse this website to gather useful information about the college admissions process; therefore, don't post information that you make up.</p>
<p>As another example, some CC posters have said that VERY few applicants get accepted into their alternate colleges. Well... where is this information coming from? I haven't seen anything on Cornell's website about the admit rates into students' alternate colleges. Are these posters making more stuff up? Let this be the definitive thread on Cornell's primary/alternate admissions process so we can collectively learn to understand this abstruse process.</p>
<p>“So… you guys need to stop spreading false information, or you need to add a disclaimer at the end of your posts saying you don’t know what you’re talking about”</p>
<p>Policies have changed since inception and they continue to change frequently. Perhaps don’t rely on information from 2007. </p>
<p>“As another example, some CC posters have said that VERY few applicants get accepted into their alternate colleges. Well… where is this information coming from? I haven’t seen anything on Cornell’s website about the admit rates into students’ alternate colleges. Are these posters making more stuff up?”</p>
<p>I used to work in admissions. I’d say it’s certainly true, but I’m not giving you numbers. The “only exceptional candidates” statement is a pretty obvious hint, FYI.</p>
<p>“Let this be the definitive thread on Cornell’s primary/alternate admissions process so we can collectively learn to understand this abstruse process.”</p>
<p>What’s so hard to understand about “accepted” and “rejected”?? In the end, you don’t need to know much more.</p>
<p>“Policies have changed since inception and they continue to change frequently. Perhaps don’t rely on information from 2007.” The information I have read has been from recent posts, not from posts in 2007.</p>
<p>"I used to work in admissions. I’d say it’s certainly true, but I’m not giving you numbers.
“The “only exceptional candidates” statement is a pretty obvious hint, FYI.” Used to work in admissions? When did you stop? Because like you said, policies have changed since inception.</p>
<p>“What’s so hard to understand about “accepted” and “rejected”?? In the end, you don’t need to know much more.” There’s a lot more I need to understand, like how to write the supplement essays for both the primary alternate college? For example, if you’re wanting to study biology in either CAS or CALS (and you make these schools your primary and alternate choices), how do write the two essays differently?</p>
<p>I stopped a few semesters ago from official work, but still maintain contact with the good people I worked with. My advice: feel lucky if your alt. college reviews your application. Adcoms are always incredibly swamped with primary applicants, do you think they really want to spend countless additional hours on the alternatives people?</p>
<p>Yup, extremely difficult, which is why it is highly likely that Alt College acceptances are rare, and not the norm. One thing to remember is the NY tuition angle. A New Yorker may apply to CALS for the cheaper tuition, but be more of a liberal arts-type so would fit better in CAS, so a referral is made. Or, a kid applies to CAS prelaw and has wanted to be a lawyer since watching Perry Mason reruns when he was two (instead of Sesame Street). In such case, perhaps CAS refers to ILR. It only makes sense that Primary will reject/defer before the file is passed to Alt. </p>
<p>Last year on this board, one student posted that the Primary College called him/her at home and asked if s/he wanted to be considered by an Alternate College. (The obvious implication was deferral or transfer option at Primary College.) Student said yes and was accepted by Alt College. But, student was also hooked.</p>
<p>“My advice: feel lucky if your alt. college reviews your application.”
“It only makes sense that Primary will reject/defer before the file is passed to Alt.”</p>
<p>But doesn’t Cornell explicitly state that the alternate college reviews your application if you get rejected by the primary?</p>
<p>“I stopped a few semesters ago from official work, but still maintain contact with the good people I worked with.” </p>
<p>That’s cool… what college were you affiliated with?</p>
<p>also, whose to say that “The decision to consider an application is at the discretion of the admission committee in the alternate choice college” doesn’t mean that if a student is rejected from primary college but passed to alt. college from the primary college, the alt. college can decide whether or not to review the applicant.</p>
<p>It’s a policy that is open to a little interpretation. IMO, this is on purpose. Also “decision to consider” is not the same as “will absolutely consider”.</p>
<p>“also, whose to say that ‘The decision to consider an application is at the discretion of the admission committee in the alternate choice college’ doesn’t mean that if a student is rejected from primary college but passed to alt. college from the primary college, the alt. college can decide whether or not to review the applicant.” Doesn’t this mean that the alternate college decides to review the applicant for the alternate college, not the PRIMARY college deciding to review the applicant for the ALTERNATE college?</p>
<p>Does it matter? Who cares who decides who will review your application for the secondary college or not? If it gets reviewed, it does, if not, then too bad.</p>
<p>Would it be any different if Skorton himself looked at them? It will get reviewed, or it won’t, and someone has to decide that. The job title of that person is irrelevant.</p>
<p>i was waitlisted at cornell for fall’09 admission. i was in constant contact with admissions about possible ways of maybe getting taken off the waitlist or transferring later on. one of the big questions i asked was how the alternate college thing worked… because, probably like many other applicants, I applied to AEM thinking “well, it’s a hard major to get into, but i have an immediate backup with my alternate so i’m all good.” WRONG. Admissions told me that only about 3 people this past years got rejected to their main choice but accepted to alternate. if you think about it, this makes sense: are you going to make adcoms read 2x the applications? no, that’s torture. so there’s my source</p>
<p>“Does it matter?” Of course it matters. For example, the hypothetical biology student I mentioned in post #3 would want to know how his application is reviewed so he can pick the right college for his primary choice.<br>
Also, knowledge about primary/alternate admission would be beneficial to this biology student because it would let him know how to approach his different supplement essays.</p>
<p>“i was waitlisted at cornell for fall’09 admission. i was in constant contact with admissions about possible ways of maybe getting taken off the waitlist or transferring later on. one of the big questions i asked was how the alternate college thing worked… because, probably like many other applicants, I applied to AEM thinking “well, it’s a hard major to get into, but i have an immediate backup with my alternate so i’m all good.” WRONG. Admissions told me that only about 3 people this past years got rejected to their main choice but accepted to alternate. if you think about it, this makes sense: are you going to make adcoms read 2x the applications? no, that’s torture. so there’s my source”</p>
<p>Thank you so much gosnia for this information. I’m in a similar boat that you were in; I’m also thinking about AEM for my primary. However, I’m genuinely interested in the AEM program because of its extremely interesting classes that are generally only open to AEM majors; I’m not just applying to it for my primary because it’s “harder” to get in. What was your alternate? Econ in CAS, maybe?</p>
<p>“If you think about it, this makes sense: are you going to make adcoms read 2x the applications?”<br>
This is where I get confused. If the alternate rarely reviews your application, then what’s the point of Cornell using primary and alternate admission?</p>
<p>As has been conveyed before, the primary/alternate thing is not really meant for you to be able to apply to Cornell twice. I think some applicants are thinking: “Hmm…if CAS is my first choice and has an acceptance rate of 19% and CALS is my second choice and has an acceptance rate of 25%, then I have a 39.25% chance of getting into Cornell if I apply to both rather than a 19% chance if I apply to CAS alone. Why wouldn’t I apply to an alternate choice?”</p>
<p>That’s not the right type of thinking. </p>
<p>Admissions to the alternate choice is meant strictly for the rare situation in which an applicant is CLEARLY an awesome fit at the alternate choice and would be a good candidate for acceptance there. And, let’s face it, most applicants with their hodge-podge of EC’s are rarely a clear awesome fit at any college. So, it makes sense that few applications are considered for the alternate choice.</p>
<p>“Does it matter?” Of course it matters. For example, the hypothetical biology student I mentioned in post #3 would want to know how his application is reviewed so he can pick the right college for his primary choice.
Also, knowledge about primary/alternate admission would be beneficial to this biology student because it would let him know how to approach his different supplement essays.
<p>You're going to approach your supplemental essays based on the college you're applying to. You shouldn't base it on whether CAS or CALS will decide if your app will be reviewed a second time. </p>
<p>I understand the importance of knowing how to write different essays for different colleges, but the fact remains that whether or not your primary or your alternate school decides whether or not your app gets a second review at the alternate school is an insignificant piece of knowledge. </p>
<p>Like I said before, it does not matter who decides whether it gets passed on or not, it only matters whether you are a fit for both schools. That's all you should worry about.</p>
<p>At the info session I attended with my D last year, the adcom from HumEc explicitly said they did not look favorably upon applications that had alternate colleges listed. That’s what she said, take it or leave it.</p>
<p>At the CAS college info session I was at a two years ago, they explicitly stated that applying to an alt college does not increase your chances of admission. Less than one percent of students rejected from their primary choice got passed on to their secondary choice college. Straight from some assistant dean of admissions at CAS mouth.</p>
<p>I believe I was mentioned in a previous post as I had applied to CALS as a bio + soc major, but was called by an adcom asking if I wanted to be reviewed for CAS instead. I had not applied to an alternate college previously, so I thought this was quite interesting, considering I’m not a NY resident and CAS is generally considered more difficult to get into, not to mention that most of my ECs tailored towards the CALS school. I got into only CAS. I am indeed hooked, however, so perhaps they had a quota to fill in the CAS, that is the only thing I can guess. Funny thing now is that I’m not even a Bio or related major anymore…</p>
<p>As I go here now, I haven’t heard of any other students who got in by alternate admission, and especially not in my type of situation.</p>
<p>Last week, I was at Cornell HumEc for an information session. I asked the admissions officer about the primary/alternate confusion. Her response made ALOT of sense, and will take all of this speculation away. If you are qualified for Cornell, you have the BEST shot at the college you fit the best with. If you can prove a fit with two of the colleges and pick one as an alternate that IS OKAY, it will not hurt your chances to your primary choice, UNLESS you are inconsistent in your essays. She said a very well qualified candidate once wrote in his HumEc essay about wanting to study PAM to work for a non-profit and then wrote an essay to ILR about wanting to run a huge corporation and make millions of dollars… not so consistent right?</p>
<p>so as long as you approach both essays from a direction that proves consistent with your intellectual being and fits each school, primary alt wont hurt you… it may not help but no harm.</p>