<p>It's worth paying attention to how the numbers break down. Princeton still accepts half of its class ED, and there's a 25%+ acceptance rate in that pool. Because of that, in the regular round it has a tiny acceptance rate -- even less than Harvard. I think Columbia had a similar gap. All the other schools have a big difference between ED and RD acceptance rates, but it tends to be 2:1, not 4:1 as at Princeton (most accept only 1/3 of their class early; Princeton accepts half). Also, if you look at Columbia College separately from the Fu School of Engineering, it had a lower acceptance rate than Princeton. All of the schools (including Cornell) that have separate applications for engineering will tend to have higher acceptance rates because of that. The pool of qualified engineering applicants tends to be smaller, so there are fewer people applying, although their SATs, etc., tend to be higher than those of the regular applicants.</p>
<p>Sure, Cornell has an acceptance rate much higher than all the other Ivies. Last year, it accepted more students than Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia College put together. Its RD admit rate was like Harvard's and Yale's ED admit rate. Part of that is it loses more candidates to other schools, so it has to admit more kids to fill its class. Another part is that those figures include applications to all of Cornell's separate schools (engineering, architecture, hotel management, agriculture, industrial and labor relations, human ecology), some of which get fewer applications per slot than the College of Arts and Sciences (and some of which may get more, since three of them are much cheaper for NY residents). The separate schools represent almost 2/3 of the students at Cornell; the engineering school is more than half the size of CAS (vs. about 1/5 the size at Columbia), so its higher acceptance rate affects the totals more. I don't think Cornell makes public the breakdown of applications/acceptances among its schools, but I would guess that CAS on its own probably has an acceptance rate much closer to Penn or Dartmouth than it appears.</p>
<p>Thanks! That's interesting: The overall rate is increased a lot by the 35% acceptance rate for engineering and 27% for ag. The overall rate is also lowered about 1.1% by over 1,000 applications in which the applicants don't specify which school they are applying to, and which have an acceptance rate of 0%. If those applications are essentially thrown in a circular file, then I question whether Cornell isn't puffing its numbers a bit. If those applications are actually considered as CAS applications, they would lower the CAS acceptance rate to 18.6%. (The effect is the opposite for yield -- the enrolled/accepted yield % at CAS is lower than at the other schools.)</p>
<p>Anyway, the data make clear that Cornell CAS accepts a greater percentage of applicants than other Ivy League Schools, but that the real rate for CAS is 4-6 percentage points higher than Dartmouth, not 10.</p>
<p>EDIT: It's not a question of not treating Cornell like one university. It's just that a prospective engineering student or ag student should look at the numbers differently than a prospective CAS student (and the same at Columbia). Of course, I suspect there is a higher admission rate for engineers at Princeton or Yale, too. That's buried in their numbers, since the applications are not separate. But the Columbia and (especially) Cornell programs are much larger, and have a bigger impact on reported acceptance rates.</p>
<p>Dartmouth's acceptance rate is about 15%, Penn about 18%, and brown 13.5%, but even this difference isn't clear. Penn combines its SEAS into its acceptence rate (but also has Wharton) while Columbia doesn't, Dartmouth is the most self-selected, etc. </p>
<p>Truthfully the list looks like this:</p>
<p>Cornell Hotel
Cornell CALS
Columbia SEAS/ Penn SEAS
Cornell Engineering
Cornell CAS
Penn A&S
Brown/ Dartmouth
Columbia College
Princeton/ Wharton
Harvard/ Yale</p>
<p>I think SAT ranges would be a better indicator of selectivity than acceptance rates. Acceptance rates are a function of the number of applications.</p>
<p>One thing that distinguishes Cornell's New York State statutory colleges from the rest of SUNY is that the SAT scores are 100 to 200 points higher.</p>
<p>"I think SAT ranges would be a better indicator of selectivity than acceptance rates. Acceptance rates are a function of the number of applications."</p>
<p>"If it's all one big university, we're justified in calling it all part of SUNY"
"Cornell is just as much a part of the SUNY system as it is a part of the Ivy League"</p>
<p>What do you mean by this? Cornell's only connection to SUNY is through money. The state doesn't have any control over the university or what the university does. Common misconception made by the public, there's plenty of information about it online. </p>
<p>The common analogy is a private research hospital that receives extra funding from the state. All of Cornell is united as a private university. </p>
<p>After all, Cornell just received $50,000,000 as a gift from the state of New York to update part of the vet school. Everybody else has to hassle their alumni for this kind of money.</p>
<p>"Cornell is just as much a part of the SUNY system as it is a part of the Ivy League……" </p>
<p>Cornell isn't really part of SUNY except for a few colleges only in name. They get funding from NY, but then NY doesn't ask them to do things. Cornell is part of the Ivy League...period. They meet with other ivy league schools and compete against them. The closest Cornell gets to a SUNY is maybe having a picture of it on a SUNY website. Cornell and SUNY are pretty much seperate besides for NY throwing some money Cornell's way. (and believe me...I know, we had a month where there were like 15 people all asking this question, so the conversation got really in depth). </p>
<p>edit: lol I guess this turns out to be a continuation of what Gome said while I was typing it lol</p>
<p>There is definitely some element of public when New York throws 50 mil at it. It may not be official, but there is some connection there. The state doesn't do that for nothing. Else the taxpayers would be quite angry.</p>
<p>I think taxpayers are happy enough to have 2 ivy leagues in it's state to attract people. Northern NY gets a LOT of business and world-wide attention because of Cornell. It's making an investment into it's future. You are an outside spectator, and this rumor is just about as true as the suicide rate. Until you actually look rumors up and find the truth they continue to just be rumors. (sui rate is WAY below average)</p>
<p>The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is one of three undergraduate colleges at Cornell that are also part of the State University of New York (SUNY).</p>
<p>The schools are also listed on the SUNY site as part of the system.</p>
<p>-Im not saying that Cornell is any less in the Ivy League, but it is also a part of the SUNY system ..But Im sure you all know more than Cornell and the State of New York themselves </p>