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CayugaRed2005 · 04-04-2008, 07:58 PM

I would definitely recommend calling the financial aid office. Explain your situation and your unending desire to attend Cornell.

Cornell just may be able to budge. Perhaps meet you half way. They will probably ask you to fax in copies of the Harvard and Princeton offers to prove that you are legitimate. And it would probably help if you had a really compelling hook. For instance, you could be a world class soloist in the viola. Or you could be the top rated wrestler in your state.

The lower-tier Ivies (e.g. non-HYP) take their ability to land common admits with HYP very seriously. Probably too seriously, in fact. But it's a fact of life. Recently, a bunch of alums are riled up over the fact that Harvard's lacrosse team seems to have more connections to Cornell than Harvard:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=522826

I know of a few common admits with HYP that ended up matriculating at Cornell. Some were Cornell legacies, but most of them were athletes who were partial to the coach and the team at Cornell. There's also a cadre of MIT cross-admits who don't want to be dorked out and want a real party scene. A friend of mine was accepted to Yale, but he was from working-class Upstate New York and felt he would be much more comfortable at Cornell. I can't say I blame him.

But, gosh, Harvard and Princeton are pretty decent schools too. Princeton even had a halfway decent hockey team this year. It's a shame that their students and alums failed to notice.

The really frustrating thing about the current financial aid arms race is that Cornell is doing much more than its Ivy peers just to try to keep up. But it's really a lose-lose situation for Cornell, as not only is the school increasingly losing the common admit battles, but in spending more money on financial aid for the upper-middle class, resources are being diverted from faculty hiring and important things like cancer research. Here's a good overview of the issue:

http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2008...nerous_i.shtml

Out of curiosity, what attracts you to Cornell?

04-04-2008, 07:58 PM	#30
CayugaRed2005 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Tralfamadore Posts: 3,157	I would definitely recommend calling the financial aid office. Explain your situation and your unending desire to attend Cornell. Cornell just may be able to budge. Perhaps meet you half way. They will probably ask you to fax in copies of the Harvard and Princeton offers to prove that you are legitimate. And it would probably help if you had a really compelling hook. For instance, you could be a world class soloist in the viola. Or you could be the top rated wrestler in your state. The lower-tier Ivies (e.g. non-HYP) take their ability to land common admits with HYP very seriously. Probably too seriously, in fact. But it's a fact of life. Recently, a bunch of alums are riled up over the fact that Harvard's lacrosse team seems to have more connections to Cornell than Harvard: http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=522826 I know of a few common admits with HYP that ended up matriculating at Cornell. Some were Cornell legacies, but most of them were athletes who were partial to the coach and the team at Cornell. There's also a cadre of MIT cross-admits who don't want to be dorked out and want a real party scene. A friend of mine was accepted to Yale, but he was from working-class Upstate New York and felt he would be much more comfortable at Cornell. I can't say I blame him. But, gosh, Harvard and Princeton are pretty decent schools too. Princeton even had a halfway decent hockey team this year. It's a shame that their students and alums failed to notice. The really frustrating thing about the current financial aid arms race is that Cornell is doing much more than its Ivy peers just to try to keep up. But it's really a lose-lose situation for Cornell, as not only is the school increasingly losing the common admit battles, but in spending more money on financial aid for the upper-middle class, resources are being diverted from faculty hiring and important things like cancer research. Here's a good overview of the issue: http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2008...nerous_i.shtml Out of curiosity, what attracts you to Cornell?
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