<p>I wrote about how I was skipping band class one day (yeah, I'm a rebel lol) and I found a bassoon and it "changed my life" <em>wink wink cough cough</em>. Yeah, and my supplementals were about how a dioramma of Albert Einstein influenced my decision of a science major (how cheesy, I know). No one read them over and I didn't even proof read them. That was probably not the best thing to do. :o</p>
<p>Someone might have mentioned this already, but....</p>
<p>Apparently 1364 applicants to the class of 2011 did not specify the college/school that they were applying to (~4.5% of the entire group of applicants). Just goes to show how many challenged kids actually apply to the top tier schools....</p>
<p>Yeah, I made that point i think, but someone said that it's because they just didn't complete the application by not turning in the supplement. They either changed their minds about applying halfway through the process, or procrastinated and didn't finish their entire app on time.</p>
<p>i agree with the people who said that applying to an alternate is a bad idea. i never heard that directly from an admissions officer, but i met this guy on my colgate tour who said that the admissions officer for cals was really adamant about not applying to two colleges. i know, it seems silly to base things on hearsay. i don't quite understand it ... any ideas?</p>
<p>second of all, my essays. I wrote my commonapp one on the title of my autobiography but I wrote it as if it was a book review in a newspaper, so it was third person. Seems pretty lame compared to all yours, but I think it got the point across to the officers, hopefully. oh, and i decided october 27th to go for early decision so i had to write all my essays in 4 days. it was .. a blast.</p>
<p>luckily, i did declare a college, lol. it'd definitely suck not to.</p>
<p>crap i applied primary to cals and secondary to engineering...my interviewer said it was perfect for a person like me but i didtn know the adcom hated the option.</p>
<p>trust me its fine...they're giving student this option so that they can trick them.</p>
<p>=( now im nervous...a cornel studnet comment on this please</p>
<p>I applied primary to human development and alternate to cals biological sciences.
my essays were almost the same for both since the subjects are very similar
would this hurt me in any possible way?</p>
<p>I did the same thing for biological engineering in CoE then CALS. I asked and admissions counselor what the process was for the primary/alternate choice. She said that basically your primary school reads through your entire application minus your alternate essay. If they want you, they keep you. If they don't, they decide if you're good enough for your alternate school. If they think so, they'll forward your application to your alternate school's admissions office. They reserve the right to throw out any applications if they don't think you're good enough for your alternate school. So it doesn't really matter if your essays are similar because one school never sees the other's essay, and vice versa.</p>
<p>I actually really regret applying to two schools. I applied ED to primary - Human Ecology and secondary - CAS. I thought that the second school was good for if your primary did not see the best fit, or thought that the second school was a better fit, or i don't know, the majors were rather similar too. I attended another information session, and the guidance counselor advised against it.</p>
<p>rollercoaster838, the primary college has the right to read BOTH supplement essays, and so can the secondary college. Second, applying to two colleges will not hurt ur chances if you can show that you really want to study them and not just doing it for sake of getting in. thats my opinion and i never talked to dean of admissions but im sure they introduced the 2 option thing for a reason. So people can USE it and not just tricking people to see whos only interested in getting in......</p>
<p>IHateS@T - that's just what i heard from the admissions counselor who said they don't, but never anything about not having the right to read the other college's essay</p>
<p>I completely agree with you on utilizing the primary/alternate option. No matter how much we hate college admissions and collegeboard and sats and all that crap, they're not out to hurt us. They're just out to have the best, most interested/interesting students attend their school.</p>
<p>I agree with IHateS@T because they clearly want to give us a second chance with the primary/alternate option; otherwise, they wouldn't have introduced it. That being said, both majors should probably relate to one another.</p>
<p>both of my majors are completely related to each other so i basically wrote the same essay with different endings...do u think that will hurt me ?</p>
<p>i am just worried about the essay part....</p>
<p>I highly doubt it. I applied to biological engineering in both engineering and cals and the points I wanted to make for both essays were similar, so the essays were similar. I don't see where that would be a problem.</p>
<p>The purpose of being able to apply to two schools is for students who could pursue their interest in two different schools (i.e. Bio in CAS or CALS or BioEngineering in CoE or CALS, the HD/Psych thing was also a good idea). So in theory the essays really would not be too different. You are only considered for your alternate IF you are not accepted to your first choice and after your alternate school has determined all of their admissions. Alternates may take the spots of students let in off the waitlist. I would concentrate much more on your primary school and only apply to an alternate if you feel like you could pursue your interest in both of those schools.</p>
<p>lol i applied to AEM and chem engineering which are completely unrelated.</p>
<p>Once again, CornellECEgirl has it right. The rationale for the primary/alternate application process was to allow for the fact that more than one college might satisfy the academic needs and interests of a particular student. So, it would seem to make sense that the student's applications for the two colleges would be similar. At least the admissions rep in CAS that I spoke with said they would not read the alternate essay. I don't know that that is a clear rule across the board however but I would imagine that these admissions reps have more than enough on their plates with just reading the common app essay and the one supplemental essay plus all the other work they do to analyze all aspects of the application. I think the admissions people are going to view the essays in the context of how well you explain why this particular college and how it meets your academic interests. And rollercoaster is right that the primary college decides whether or not the application is forwarded to the alternate college. It is not a given. I don't see how this could disadvantage someone unless it is clear from the applicant's essays that they are only using this solely as a means for trying to increase their chances for admission to some part of Cornell. If you have thought about what makes sense for you and communicate it well in your essays, you should not be disadvantaged at all.</p>