URM Parent receives email from Diversity Outreach

We just received an email from Cornell Diversity Outreach. Anyone else receive this? It looks pretty standard. Something that perhaps all URMs might get.

Some excerpts:

Greetings from the Cornell University Undergraduate Admissions Office! We are delighted that your student has applied for admission for fall 2020. The application process can be both an exciting and challenging time for seniors and their families. I am writing to offer you our assistance and support.

Please know that the Diversity Outreach team can assist your student in ensuring their Cornell application is complete and that it is evaluated by the admissions committee.

It’s just marketing. Apply if interested. Doesn’t mean your student will her in.

It sounds only informational. But its timing makes it seem like more. For Cornell’s Diversity Outreach office to send this out February 21, only 4+ weeks from decision day, to URMs who are being rejected, does not make sense. Maybe it’s a sign that you will be getting a diversity letter?

We got that email too and I did think it was odd to send it after the application deadline. Trying not to read anything into it and just assume it’s for informational purposes only.

If you did apply, I would respond to the email with a “thank you” and that “I will be in contact should I have any questions”, Just in case.

If some URM applicants to Cornell did NOT receive this February diversity email, that might tell you something.

its a likely

Are you sure it is even if it was sent to our parents?

How do you know? The “diversity likely letter” comes out in March. The question is, is this February email an indicator of a “diversity likely letter” in March???

Have any URM applicants to Cornell NOT received this February email from Diversity Outreach?

Yes, my friend did not receive it and some others on Reddit have not!

1 Like

Based on posts I have since read from previous years, here is what I have gathered:
(1) Not everyone receives it.
(2) Not everyone who does receive it gets admitted. Some get waitlisted.

Therefore, I think this is an indicator that the applicant has not been rejected… at least not yet.

Do you happen to have links to those posts? I haven’t been able to find any information about this specific email!

Last year, there was a whole discussion on this. It was clear that not everyone received it. NMParent000079, for example, did not. Student teddy10143 initially thought parents had not received the email, but later realizes that parent did in fact receive said email.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/2128036-cornell-diversity-hosting-2023-p1.html

Everyone who got the initial email to parents follows-up saying they got invite to campus later. However, teddy10143’s follow-up makes it seem like she does not get invited. A search brings up a post revealing that teddy10143 was eventually waitlisted.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22141667#Comment_22141667

Thank you so much for the info! So does this mean that at the very least we could be waitlisted?

I think the most we can glean from this is that the student is still in the running. teddy10143’s story is the source of sobriety here.

So do you believe that people that did not receive this have been rejected?

Or at least URMs that did not receive this?

I don’t think so. I think that the only thing this can be seen as is a positive confirmation that the individual is still under consideration, perhaps in a high priority pile. From there anything can still happen.

Similarly, a URM who has not received this could still move onto that high priority pile.

Perhaps the real conclusion should be that this means nothing! LOL

My search of CC comments shows:

  • Not all URMs get an email from Diversity Outreach in February.
  • No URM who did not receive a February email from Diversity Outreach was accepted.
  • Those URMs who did receive a February email from Diversity Outreach were accepted (or did not indicate anything in CC).
  • The only outlier to this is teddy10143, who was waitlisted. She initially said she did not receive a February "letter" from Diversity Outreach. Later, she said she did receive one "letter" from "Cornell", but did not specify that it was in February. Not sure what to make of this. Not everything on CC is accurate. :)
  • These two received an email from Diversity Outreach in February, posted in February, and were later accepted: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/1614815-email-from-cornell.html