<p>^ED does make it easier for less “hooked” applicants. There are only so many legacy and athletic recruits after all, and they don’t all account for the 10%+ increase in acceptance rate. Many such applicants are weaker statistically, so an applicant with a higher score would surely make him/herself stand out in the ED pool.</p>
<p>The notion that ED makes a ton of a difference is merely speculation.</p>
<p>^ but it a correct speculation. It may not make a “ton” of difference, but it certainly makes a noticeable difference.</p>
<p>vossron is right. Cornell recruits a few hundred athletes and they mostly apply ed, there are also hundreds of ed strong legacy. after those admits, the unhooked are in a very competitive pool
look at Cornell’s data about athletes
it is very questionable if there is any ed benefit for completely unhooked applicants
there are a ton of threads here about the cornell ed myth</p>
<p>I think we all agree that ED makes at least some difference at most schools. For unhooked applicants the degree varies from zero to perhaps significant.</p>
<p>I doubt that after those “special hook” admits, unhooked applicants would be in a very strong pool. If you a strong candidate and you believe that your chances in a school is already good, chances are you would not bind yourself to such a contract. That is not to say that there are strong ED applicants without such hooks that apply to the school because they just love it so much and want to consolidate their chances, but there are many people who aim to apply ED to make their chances at their “reach” school higher. These are the type of people that you would contrast yourself against if you had strong stats and you did not have a “special hook”.</p>
<p>with o string hook, the ivys are probably a reach for most everyone, even those with perfect scores, gpas and ecs.
your points are well taken antiflamer</p>
<p>Ok, the truly gifted top students don’t typically apply ED to Cornell. They rather apply ED or EA to other top schools. (note: HYPSM, Wharton, MIT, Duke, Columbia, Brown, etc) Many of these ‘top’ students wouldn’t want to absolutely commit themselves to attending Cornell and would rather test their luck at other desirable elite schools, hence they’re likely to send RD apps to Cornell.</p>
<p>RD is a much more competitive admissions process compared to ED since it is more difficult for an applicant to stand out and gain the admission. 1) RD pool is stronger than ED pool. 2) RD pool contains far more applicants than ED pool, with smaller number of seats available for each applicant in proportion during RD compared to ED. 3) ED admit rate is above 35%, RD admit rate is like 14%. Is anyone seriously prepared to argue that the huge discrepancy between these two numbers doesn’t imply noticeable advantage for an ED applicant? </p>
<p>The bottom line is applying early is a noticeable advantage. (maybe except for Yale EA or Stanford EA) This is also true in law school admissions. If you apply early in the application cycles and have strong stats, you significantly boost your chances of gaining admission to a top law school.</p>
<p>1) RD pool is stronger than ED pool.
3) ED admit rate is above 35%, RD admit rate is like 14%.</p>
<p>The appears to be a contradiction. Why would any school want to take weaker ED applicants if it knew stronger RD applicants were coming?</p>
<p>^ That is the typical trend. Many others also wait for RD so that they can see what schools they get into so that they have options. They may engage themselves later in the college selection process, when it’s definitive which school would take them and which school won’t, and pick the one that is in their opinion the best for them. Early decision in Cornell is much more rewarding than early programs in most other ivies. Regular can get very tough.</p>
<p>“The appears to be a contradiction. Why would any school want to take weaker ED applicants if it knew stronger RD applicants were coming?”</p>
<p>1) Yield protection.
2) Because there are more seats available and less candidates to consider during ED.</p>
<p>If applying ED to Cornell doesn’t provide any benefits, let’s face it, no one would apply ED to Cornell. ED applicants make the trade-off that they will commit themselves to attending Cornell, for the higher likelihood of getting admitted. If there is no such benefit, why would anyone apply ED to any school? You may as well wait till RD, apply to other schools as well, and compare your options.</p>
<p>Ahh but the ED pool is filled with recruited athletes (250 - 300) Legacy’s ??? and other hooked applicants (URM etc) Any of these may be admitted with lower stats than unhooked and they inflate the acceptance rate in the ED pool.</p>
<p>Yield protection with weak unhooked candidates? At an Ivy? Nonsense. There are plenty of ED applicants to number one choice match schools, wanting to give themselves whatever boost they think is available, and wanting to get it over with, eliminating three months of high stress.</p>
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<p>You said it yourself: ED applicants apply ED to give them boosts. (meaning higher chances of admission)</p>
<p>And, eliminate three months of high stress? Applying ED doesn’t guaranteed admission. Thus, ED applicants would still feel high anxiety or stress concerning the fear of rejection. (Actually, ED applicants may feel more stress. In the case of the rejection from Cornell, they would need to go through additional 3-4 months of stress concerning their college apps during RD.)</p>
<p>Btw, are you a Cornell student or alum? Or a prospective high school student? I don’t know how familiar you are with the admissions process at colleges, but, contrary to your belief, yield protection is still a big deal… even at a top school. FYI, I am a senior at Cornell, and recently got acceptance into a top 6 law school. I’m not sure if you are familiar with law school admissions process, but even at Harvard Law School, yield protection is a big deal. Applicants who apply early in the process stand a much stronger chance than the applicants who apply late in the process. I know several people with truly borderline grades and test scores, who applied ED or early, and got into top 10 law schools.</p>
<p>final answer:
ed does not give the big boost at cornell because so many of the accepted applicants are athletes and legacy, probably about 600 total according to cornell stats.
cornell is apparently second in top school athlete recruits, with stanford recruiting the most by several hundred. Stanford loves their athletes. Just turn on your television over the weekend and it shows.
people will apply ed to schools even without a boost just to end the application process.
after factoring in the ed athletes and strong legacy hooks at cornell ed - which always come before anyone else, applying ed to cornell has a very small edge - at most. nothing more. for the kids that got into cornell ed and had no hook, you guys should be very proud because the acceptance percentage for you was not much different than getting in rd. good luck guys.</p>
<p>“And, eliminate three months of high stress?”</p>
<p>That is a goal, hoping for admission.</p>
<p>“Thus, ED applicants would still feel high anxiety or stress concerning the fear of rejection.”</p>
<p>Only until Dec. 15 instead of April 1.</p>
<p>“yield protection is still a big deal”</p>
<p>Not with, as I said, weak unhooked candidates. Ask you dean if Cornell accepts weak unhooked candidate at ED time.</p>
<p>You’ll be a good lawyer, twisting words and meanings! :)</p>
<p>vossron, I see your comments to lazykid. you make a good point.
I guess the agreement is that for the unhooked applicant, meaning non athletic recruit or connected alumni legacy, that ed at cornell does not provide any big help for admission, and maybe even works against you. is that it? sounds right
even though cornell says they give an edge to ed applicants, when you factor in the athletes and connected legacies, the edge likely does not help much at all.</p>
<p>Either way, scores matter the most. If you look just at the ED posts this year (no way entirely representative of the pool, but it gives you an idea), many are quite weak in comparison to those that got in last year RD. Fact is, ED in Cornell is way easier than RD. Hooks get you in, but you need your grades/SATs at a certain level to even get the chance to get in unless you hook is super amazing. ED in a way acts as that kind of “hook”, perhaps as one even stronger because it makes up for the lackluster sat/grades that many applicants seem to have in that pool.<br>
ED gives an edge to everybody, at least in Cornell.</p>
<p>The hooked and unhooked ED worlds are night and day. It’s too bad the numbers are combined; it causes lots of debate!</p>
<p>solid hooked ed and unhooked ed have nothing to do with each other. recruited athletes, as long as the numbers are just fair, are in ed. real connected legacy, with decent stats, are also in ed. recruited athlete for a major sport or real connected legacy is always better than 2400, 4.0 great ecs when it comes to ed. a lot of perfect stat kids out there, not a lot of great athletes. when you take out the number of athletes cornell admits each year, using their own numbers, combined with legacy, the unhooked ed applicant is still better off going ed, however, it is not a big edge. Cornell recruits more athletes than any top school except stanford. Ed at Cornell is not a hook, no way. After the athletes and connected legacy are admitted (about 600), there are about 600 ed spots left to pick from the remaining approx 2500 -2700 apps. If you are unhooked and going ed to cornell, it still helps. … not much though. That is the Cornell ed myth that is talked about on the web. The school says going ed helps, and it does, but when you figure in the athletic and legacy admits, it is not a major help. Recruited athletes almost always go early. Connected legacy also almost always go early. good luck guys</p>