Good Admissions Stories

vegita256
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 22:38:25 +0000

I have one, but it’s not * that* crazy.

It’s New Year’s Eve. I’m in San Francisco on family vacation. I’m in the car with my older brother and he asks me, “So vegita256, what colleges did you apply to?” I list off what I think are pretty top-notch engineering schools (Georgia Tech, UIUC, Purdue, etc). Then he looks at me like he’s the most disappointed he’s ever been in his life and mutters, “Oh…”. The car was silent for a little while. The air was heavy for with his disappointment. I could tell he was visibly upset. I knew my brother–being somewhat of an arrogant asshole (and I say this lovingly)–wanted me apply to better schools like Stanford, MIT, and Ivies. Finally he managed to compose himself and ask me, “So is it too late to apply to other schools?” I told him most of the deadlines were tomorrow and there’s no way I could write a bunch of supplements. Also, the only schools I had loaded on my common app was Cornell (whose deadline is actually January 2nd) and Carnegie Mellon. He’s like “You should apply to CMU and Cornell! I’ll help you! Apply! Please!!!” I told him I didn’t want to. I thought Cornell was full of a bunch of preppy, privileged kids. I was using this as a defense mechanism because I didn’t think I was going to get into either one and that it’d be a waste of time. But eventually I caved in and said I’d apply.

Anyways, on New Year’s Day we spend the whole day writing an essay for CMU to meet the deadline. The next day, January 2nd, comes and my brother and I have had enough and we are like “Fuck it.” We decided not to write the Cornell essay. Then, as my brother and I are driving to meet up with my parents and other siblings, I said to him, “What if we submit like a joke essay. Like what if my essay just says ‘Screw u Cornell.’ Let’s just submit it as an experiment, see what happens.”

Fast forward a few hours. My family and I are all in the car driving around San Francisco on our way to dinner. I realize it’s 11 EST and I only have ONE hour to write my Cornell essay before the midnight deadline. I start flipping out. I’m like “I have to write my Cornell essay!!!” My family’s like, “Wait? You’re still going to apply?” Obviously I didn’t have access to a computer in the car. I used a notepad app on my phone and wrote my Cornell supplement essay that asks you to describe your interest in engineering, future goals, and how you plan to meet these goals in the Cornell COE. I didn’t answer the prompt at all. In that half an hour time span, I wrote an essay on my phone that can be best summed up as “Screw you Cornell. I don’t need you.”

Now we’re sitting down at dinner. I’m trying to upload my essay to common app. It’s not working on my phone. It’s 11:45pm and now I am really panicking. I’m screaming,“I NEED A COMPUTER.” I look up a the nearest FedEx office on my phone. My dad and I leave the restaurant SPRINTING FOR OUR LIVES around San Fran. Finally I reach the FedEx office. The lady at the front is like “We close in 10 minutes.” There’s only one computer open. I log on. I sign in to common app. Heart pounding, I finally hit submit at 11:54pm.

Now fast forward again to March 14. I’m on the phone with my friend and I see a notification on my phone. An email from Cornell. I open it… and it’s a likely letter that reads You will be accepted into the class of 2020.

tl;dr Applied to Cornell mostly as a joke and got in.