<p>I applied to Cornell CAS and indicated Biological Sciences as my major. I realize now that I could have applied to CALS and majored in Biology too. From what I've heard, the admittance rate to CAS is lower than that of CALS. My stats are pretty low compared to others admitted to CAS but I may have at least had a chance with CALS. Plus, the CALS supplement was just about the same as the CAS supplement. I guess it's too late to do anything now but cross my fingers, huh?</p>
<p>don’t stress it to much, you could still get in! Just 7 more days…</p>
<p>AEM and biological sciences rates are comparable (if not lower than) to the CAS acceptance rate. Don’t misjudge their competitiveness based on the CALS aggregate. You wouldn’t necessarily have a better shot if you applied to CALS so don’t feel bad.</p>
<p>IMO there can be more to a choice of colleges than one’s prospective major.
A major typically accounts for only about 1/3 of one’s courses. The other 2/3 consist of :</p>
<p>-distribution requirements, which are typically mostly in in one’s own college, and</p>
<p>-electives, which, though they can be at any college, may be limited by overall graduation requirements for a certain minimum # credits taken in one’s own college.</p>
<p>I have not analyzed all the above to compare prospective courses that would likely be taken for a CALS bio major vs. a CAS bio major. But IMO someone contemplating a choice of different colleges at Cornell might want to do some noodling about this.</p>
<p>Moreover, most people in college wind up majoring in something other than what they initially anticipated. In that light, another consideration might be: if they change their mind, what other majors can they switch to from a particular college, that they might be interested in changing to. It’s true one can apply for intercollege transfer, but approval is not an absolute certainty. As I understand it, particularly in the case of CALS, even change to certain majors within a college is not a certainty.</p>
<p>Finally for NYS residents there are significant cost considerations.</p>
<p>“AEM and biological sciences rates are comparable (if not lower than) to the CAS acceptance rate.”</p>
<p>I’ve seen stats printed for AEM, but I’ve never seen any stats broken out for the CALS biological sciences major specifically; please post link, if you have it. It actually makes sense to me that it would be very selective, but I’ve never seen proof.</p>
<p>^My source is a CALS administrator, with whom I spoke after I transferred a couple years ago (I’m a biological sciences major in CALS). She said the acceptance rate for CALS bio is around 14%. Unfortunately I have no link. Since you apply specifically to a major in CALS (instead of to the entire college of Arts and Sciences), it would make sense that there would be variance in competitiveness according to major.</p>
<p>An overrepresented major is an overrepresented major. It’s going to be harder to get in for any two of the schools. Your pool is probably a bit easier in CALS, but it doesn’t matter now. The competition for bio major in CALS is higher within state, for out of state, people tend to flock to CAS even for bio.</p>