I was rejected from Cornell ED. Can someone please tell me some of the potential reasons I was rejected? My scores and extracurriculars aren’t perfect but I at least thought I would get deferred. These are my stats.
SAT I: 2350 (R:750 W:800 M:800)
SAT II: Math 2: 710, Lit: 700
GPA: 3,9 unweighted
AP: Psych(5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Chem, AP Bio, AP Calculus AB, AP English, Economics, Government, Anatomy and Physiology
Major Awards: Scholar Athlete
Extracurriculars: 4 year Varsity Swimmer (state medalist), 4 year Varsity Track runner, National Honor Society, Math Honor Society, Science Honor Society, FCA, tutor, Science Olympiad
Job/Work Experience: Summer job as a lifeguard
Volunteer/Community Service: volunteer soccer coach, volunteer swim coach, volunteer for church activities/trips, volunteer for school/NHS sponsored activities, built a house for a family in need this year (probably 200+ hours total)
Summer Activities: lifeguard, swim coach
Essays: Common App was very good. Supplementals were decent.
Recommendations: probably great
School type: public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Hooks: Legacy
The only thing I can really think of are your SAT II scores which would be weak compared to other applicants. But even that’s being overly critical as the rest of your application looks very good, then again Ivy admissions are so fickle that its become almost impossible to predict an acceptance anymore. Anyhow, good luck with the rest of your decisions.
It is really hard to tell other than the rather suboptimal SAT2 scores. There are just way too many applicants with great SAT scores and still most of them got rejected. It may be related to your GPA and course rigor before senior year as you just show one AP score from junior. There are not sufficient information for any reason other than speculations.
I agree that the only weak point from what you have written are the SAT II scores. A 710 for Math II is 52nd percentile, and a 700 in Lit is 76th percentile. Also, I see a lot of APs this year – could you have taken more before senior year, and you didn’t? Maybe course rigor cost you (although it shouldn’t if your school limits the number of APs prior to senior year, some schools do). Agree that you could ask your GC to check with Cornell and see if there were any red flags (a weak recommendation, something that rubbed them the wrong way in your essays, etc).
@vorvratsaa, it isn’t usually for no reason if a student is a legacy like the OP is with strong stats, and applied ED (so has committed to attend if accepted). I’d follow up with the GC if I were her.
The thing that stands out most to me is the lack of APs prior to senior year. Also could be something in Letters of Rec or essays since they’re subjective and we don’t have access to them. Otherwise it’s just the fact that though you do have very good stats, so does everyone else who applied to Cornell.
Probably the main reason was just that there’s a lot of highly qualified applicants and they can’t take everybody. I take it you probably have some good backup options?
The SAT II scores were already mentioned by others
I noticed that you only had one AP and it was AP Psychology - which is a lite AP course.
Also, it seems like a lot of people are in NHS or build houses for people in need, so those weren’t really unique ECs. Although mentioning that shouldn’t hurt you, it doesn’t really help or make you stand out.
As everyone said already, Ivy League admissions are too difficult to predict so all we can do is speculate why you didn’t get in. I hope you have some good backup options!
Oh, stop it all of you pretending to know the answer to this. We don’t know the context of her school or the depth of her ECs or anything like that. Honestly, it is surprising that a legacy with a 3.9 and 2350 SAT who applied ED was not even deferred at Cornell.
We can guess all we want to but the only person who could get any insight would be the gc and then, it’s too late to correct anything for RD.
I sincerely wish the OP happy results later this month. She will make a great addition to any school.
Thank you all for your feedback! @intparent my school doesn’t really allow many AP courses before senior year. You can only really take psych, stats, or art history junior year. All of my classes beforehand were honors courses but I can see how it would look weak.
If that’s all your school offers then it shouldn’t be counted against you, since colleges view you in the context of your school. However, imo your school is doing you a disservice with that policy.
What school in Cornell? Different schools there look for different things.
Also, looking through Cornell’s ED results thread, it seems that ED admissions to Cornell are very idiosyncratic. At some other schools, you can generally see some logic at to why some are admitted and some are rejected in the ED round. With Cornell ED, it’s really hard to discern a pattern. So who knows? All I can say is that if you’re really high stats and want a strong chance at admission, there are other Ivies/equivalents where it’s easier to predict your chances.
Your athletics are stellar but the other ECs are not as strong. Your mat sat 2 is at the 52 percentile. Granted only very strong students take sat 2 tests but for an Ivy league school (even Cornell) that’s low. You’ve only completed one AP coming into senior year and that one is an easy one. Great GPA but it’s possible you fell short due to perceived lack of academics rigor. I’m sure you will do fine at all your other colleges, don lose hope. March is a tough month for high school seniors