Easy to get in, hard to stay???

ilovemydog
Thu, 29 May 2014 22:44:37 +0000

Cornell may be easier to get into, but it also has a larger-than-most ivies student body, with many different schools and varying acceptance criteria. I would say there are many very bright students there, as well as in many other top colleges (other than ivies). HYP deny hundreds of the top and brightest students every year, and those students are going somewhere–many go to Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, etc. These students are often even smarter than those that get into the “top” ivies. I know at least 8 kids who in the past several years have gotten accepted to Harvard, and none of them are as smart as some kids I know who got into Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and Cornell (and who did not get into Harvard). That being said, you have to work at Cornell to get good grades–especially in engineering, but you have to put in the effort at all of the schools. I know someone who dropped out of Cornell, and I know someone who is really struggling, but I wouldn’t say “most” kids drop out or transfer (it’s just that it is more likely to happen at Cornell that an Harvard or Yale, and that’s probably because of grade inflation at those other schools). Both students I know were probably accepted to Cornell as their “reach” school. Those types of kids will definitely feel stress. Even the very bright kids in engineering feel stress—the tests are difficult, and most median grades are B, B+, so it’s not easy to get grades in the A range. I think this is Cornell’s way of separating the really strong students from the closer-to-average students (who also exist at other ivies, but they choose to equalize everyone once they get there!). Cornell’s system is not a bad thing, but if you are not a really strong student or willing to work really hard, you might want to go somewhere where you can get better grades.