<p>I was rejected by Cornell, and was wondering if asking them why you were rejected would get you any useful information? Does Cornell accept appeals or have a specific policy for them? Or is it a better idea to transfer later?</p>
<p>No, they will never give you the reason why. </p>
<p>just let it go. Chances are they won’t tell you why you were rejected. Cornell rejects many 2400 SAT 4.0 GPA students. And I would not go to another school planning to transfer later on. See what options you are given and take the one you like best.</p>
<p>Move on. They will never tell you. </p>
<p>The people here don’t work in Cornell admissions. They don’t know what Cornell will do. You have nothing to lose by asking, although it might be better to have your counselor inquire on your behalf. Some schools have the philosophy of explaining their decision if asked, some flatly refuse. See for example <a href=“http://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB124096471555766239?mod=_newsreel_3”>http://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB124096471555766239?mod=_newsreel_3</a>
The answer is a phone call or email away from the Cornell admissions office.</p>
<p>Another option is to talk to your HS college counselor to identify the weaker areas of your application. You can review your RD list while you are there, and also consider ED 2 options.</p>
<p>Colleges are NOT going to give this info out. It opens them up to argument from applicants, and even possible lawsuits. I do agree that asking your GC to review your application is a good idea.</p>
<p>Zero percent chance that asking yields useful information. </p>
<p>That said, there’s nothing to be lost from asking, so if, for whatever reason, you have a burning desire to ask, feel free to do so.</p>
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<p>Yep. none of us work for Cornell admissions. But since the linked WSJ article cites a SINGLE example ( Mount Allison University, New Brunswick, an extremely well regarded 3000 student LAC) of a college that would take time to answer the questions the OP is considering posing to Cornell – you should heed the other posters’ advice.</p>
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No college within these borders is going to tell you an exact reason. You can pretty much bank on the fact that a script is pasted next to each telephone line with the standard platitudes – one for heartbroken and pleading applicants, one for adversarial students or parents, one for confused and pleading HS officials. </p>
<p>It’s not their job to counsel you or advise you on how to polish your app. They’re not gonna pull up your file and read off people’s notes. Please move on. That’s my two cents. </p>
<p>(As an aside: Mount Allison is indeed a fantastic school)</p>
<p>If you were deferred, you might be able to get your GC to make a few phone calls and get a read on how close you were to admission, but a rejection just means they didn’t see any reason to keep you around for the next round and they aren’t likely to tell anyone why. It’s possible you never even made it to committee, and no one really wants to hear that.</p>
<p>Now would be a good time to sit down with your GC and go over your application file and decide your next steps. Some students send in applications to schools like Cornell over their GCs well-founded objections, so maybe it’s time for a reality check. And even if you had your GCs full support, it’s still time for a reality check. Or maybe you just had bad luck with a school you were truly qualified for. A review should cover all of those possibilities. Rejection sucks, but it’s time to move on to the next girl.</p>
<p>Seeing as this is Cornell (an ivy crapshoot), I think most people will be able to answer it for you: “Because we have to cut most”</p>
<p>Cornell isn’t a sure thing for anyone, but I hope you end up where you want.</p>
<p>I know a friend who had a son rejected from many top schools. Had nearly perfect ACT/SAT scores. His dad called the schools. The only one he heard back from was Georgia Tech. The adcom told him it was because he had one ‘C’ on his report card. His dad highlighted all the other amazing things he had done, and GT actually reversed its decision and accepted him! I think they just try to weed out a lot of the applicants early on by imposing a cut-off score for grades or standardized tests. Since the common app came on board, colleges receive so many applications from students and it’s a way for them to bring the # of applications down to a manageable level.</p>
<p>Wait, so if you are deferred or rejected, you can call and ask for the reason why? How would they even remember your file if they went through so many applications?</p>
<p>@MrMom62 “It’s possible you never even made it to committee” so does that mean they weed out people based on GPA without even taking a short glance at the rest of the application? </p>
<p>For schools that use the two independent reader method, it means that neither reader thought you were worth recommending for admission after reading your entire application file. Although I don’t know the exact method Cornell uses, I doubt every application hits the committee, if they have one. Your complete application was likely read by someone or a few someones, it just didn’t pass muster with any of them, for who knows what reason.</p>
<p>In addition,with colleges it may not be a question of why you were rejected, but why you weren’t admitted. Out of the thousands of applications they receive, they try to put together the best class that they can. They simply cannot accept every stellar student who applies for admission. It may not be something that stuck out saying “red flag”, but that there just wasn’t anything screaming “wow”.</p>
<p>ayprcwbjmy: listen to this. <a href=“Behind The Scenes: How Do You Get Into Amherst? : NPR”>Behind The Scenes: How Do You Get Into Amherst? : NPR; Then tell me why those last people didn’t make it. The very people sitting in the room couldn’t tell you what they didn’t make it. There were not enough seats.</p>
<p>why does it matter? Calling isn’t going to convince them to change their decision. Just accept it and move on. Many qualified students are turned down from top colleges and universities </p>
<p>Cornell actually did send my friend a letter last year after rejecting him ED. The letter said something along the lines of he was a really strong candidate and they hope he applies again as a transfer. The letter also included a phone number for him to call to find out why he had been rejected, which he did. Cornell apparently only sent out 6 such letters, so this is a very unusual circumstance.</p>