<p>They send a packet that describes what classes/grades they need for the department. That packet gives you a lot of information. I would contact the transfer advisor for cals. The ILR transfer advisor has really been great and I would expect the same is true for CALS. They can answer all of your specific questions.</p>
<p>Congratulations for your S and welcome to the college years!</p>
<p>I’ve got new info. for anyone following my s’s experience with the Cornell GT offer–We’ve just heard back from Cornell on courses. Cornell was kind enough to look at the entire set of course descriptions for year 1 that were suggested to us by 2 other colleges as matching up with Cornell’s list of req’d courses (don’t know if they’d want me to broadcast that this way, but I think it is useful for other families to know). Cornell tells us that all courses specified will transfer from either college our s is considering for year 1, so now he is free to decide between the 2. He’s leaning very heavily toward the 4-year SUNY so at least he may have some fun during this awkward year away from Cornell. He’s thinking he should at least enjoy his first year (he knows people going to the 4-year, one of whom is a close friend), whereas he envisions himself as unhappy going to the local CC. He would have done it if that school’s courses transferred and the 4-year’s didn’t, however. The GT offer means that much to him (even when he had acceptances at other colleges that would have eliminated all of this fuss and bother completely).</p>
<p>Parents and other GTs–Is there anything else we should think of before he takes the leap and commits to one of these schools?</p>
<p>TrilliumCB–Thanks for your comments–that’s another very good consideration about the 4-year school. He could stay there, since they do have his major, whereas at the CC, he’d still have to transfer to that 4-year or somewhere else if the Cornell GT didn’t work out. Thanks, too, for the offer to write privately. I think that we’re doing pretty much by phone with his contact what you and your d did in person with Ian. We did ask about specific schools, etc., for example, ease of working with the program in each case, etc.</p>
<p>karkasha–Thanks for posting in this GT forum. I’m always eager to read about other families going through this experience. I can’t imagine what getting a GT offer for your first child in college would feel like! We have one older child who is at the other end of the college spectrum. He’s now finishing college, and he was accepted ED. I think for this to work the most smoothly, from our experience so far and from what I’ve been reading on the board, you or your son needs to contact the college and set up a plan early that Cornell is in on from the start. To my understanding, if you only send in the gold form, they will just send your son a short application in December, and that would be it. Working with someone at Cornell from the start ensures that courses transfer. As it says in the papers the students received, they are willing to coordinate courses so the transfer happens effectively.</p>
<p>The GT strikes me as a great opportunity, but one in which the student and his family need to be proactive to make work.</p>
<p>Dr. Mom
Thanks for your comments. Did you email the course descriptions from the SUNY’s to Cornell? Did they contact you by email or phone or letter? Would you mind if I asked whay SUNY’s your son is considering?
Thanks!
Karcarsha</p>
<p>Hi, Karcarsha–I’m trying to respect my S’s privacy, I guess, by staying away from announcing his college at Cornell or too many of his specifics, etc., since I’m the one participating on this forum and not him. However, I can tell you that he received lots of papers with his original GT letter (did your S get those papers?). On them, they have the list of courses Cornell wants the GT student to have, listed by major. Some majors have more req’d courses than others. They also list course descriptions from Cornell’s catalog. My S’s letter and papers said he could call with any questions and gave the number. That’s what we did. We asked if Cornell would be willing to look at courses from 2 schools he was considering for the first year to help our S make his decision about both the GT offer and the school he’d attend year 1, and they were very accommodating. I’m sure they will work with you and your S the same way if you call or email. My guess is that they might prefer to OK courses from the student’s one preferred school for freshman year, so I don’t want to advertise that they will regularly look at lots of schools for kids, but they did do that for us–the key was, I think, that we asked first if they would be willing to do that. I would ask rather than assume, in other words. Yes, though, once we got the OK to do that, the process became that we emailed them course descriptions we found from the colleges’ online catalogs. We also called and emailed the 2 colleges and asked their advice on matching courses as well. Did this all take some time to work through? Sure. Do we feel more comfortable about our S taking the GT deal, though, instead of taking one of his other good college acceptances and not bothering with all this transfer stuff? Yep.</p>
<p>I can also tell you that the 2 schools he looked at were both ‘safety schools’ where he had already received acceptances–a 2-year local CC and a 4-year SUNY about 100 miles away. That’s where we are now–since Cornell says their courses both will work, he’s now finalizing his decision between those 2 schools for year 1. Another advantage of this plan is that he already knows what to take in the spring as far as Cornell’s req’d courses go, since he has already gotten them approved for transfer. He will have 1 or 2 other classes that are not in the GT requirements yet to work out for transfer when he gets to the year-1 school, but at least he will be set for the GT part of it.</p>
<p>Does any of this info. help at all?</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! You make many points!</p>
<p>Hi, Karcarsha - We are also going through the process for the first time with our oldest. It was so helpful to read through the multiple posts on this board related to GT. I can’t stress enough, however, that despite the helpfullness and generosity of so many posters you should rely on the GT counselors to confirm answers specific to your son’s situation. Cornell hires the GT counselors in recognition that there is so much to work though with each individual student.</p>
<p>Our d. selected a great school for her freshman year that had great academics/was within the budget. Our attitude was to take a step back - the decision to do GT was strictly hers and she had to work for it. If she decided to stay in her freshman-year school that was fine with us - she’d get a great education at a top SUNY institution with a proven track record of acceptances to grad/law schools by the graduates. All we did was help her by staying informed and by keeping track of deadlines which she had asked for our help with. </p>
<p>Dr. Mom - now that we are almost to the end of this process I can say this: it’s not steady proactive work all the way through - it comes in bits and pieces. You are in the worse part of it right now but it WILL get much better!</p>
<p>Applying our personal experience this past year: Lots of proactive work as your son selects his freshman-year school and works with his counselor to find/register for appropriate classes. Then hard work on his part to do well in the classes Sept - Dec. You have a break until the end of year until the GT’s submit fall final grades/select spring courses; you prepare and submit financial information (required by all). Burst of work again in mid-spring to collect and submit the required spring mid-term grades / any additional paperwork they request. Follow-up time to make sure all paperwork is received and requirements are met. Then sit back with a glass of wine as you re-experience the stress and crabbiness that we all went through the year before as you wait for the formal decision.</p>
<p>Probably the best advice that I have that you can’t get from the GT counselor is that while your child is used to taking the hardest courses possible in HS and challenging himself/herself, this freshman year is NOT the time to register for challenging electives that are tough to get an A or a B in.</p>
<p>Have a GREAT day!</p>
<p>Dr_Mom, how did you e-mail the courses to Ian/Cornell? Did you just copy-and-paste the courses online into the e-mail, or give him a link, etc? And if so, do you list ALL the courses, or pick-and-choose which ones you think are “ok”? </p>
<p>My USC orientation is early June, where we pick our classes, and I want to give him the classes well in advance to make sure there won’t be any difficulties. </p>
<p>Again, thanks so much for answering all of our questions! I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>TrilliumCB -
Did you hear anything from Cornell this week regarding your GT? D received call from them last night but missed the call and the suspense is killing us!</p>
<p>diehldun: I just copied the course descriptions and emailed them to Ian… I did that several times! Just pick the ones you think might potentially work and email them!
it’s a good idea to start soon with the whole process, just think about first semester for now…and don’t be distressed if for some reason you can’t get into all the classes you requested for 1st sem. GL!</p>
<p>diehldun–Ian is not my S’s GT counselor, so I’ll say that up front to clarify. But, yes; we just copied and pasted the course descriptions of courses the colleges told us might be a match into an email message, as we were asked to do by Cornell. We did give them some extra course descriptions in the case of Biology, since that one can be a bit more complicated. It wasn’t bad at all. We were informed the results by email as well. We’re going to keep the emails in case we ever need to confirm the conversation/course acceptances, etc. TrilliumCB’s advice is absolutely right–use these boards to supplement the official information you get from calling Cornell directly–NOT as your main source of information. I could be Joe Schmoe posting here with no experience or knowledge of Cornell’s GT program whatsoever, yes? Work with what Cornell tells you to do, not those of us on CC. CC is anecdotal information that colors and shades in the official stuff you find out. It may not be accurate for your situation.</p>
<p>TrilliumCB–Thanks for your comments. I think what I most meant about being proactive was that I find it hard to see how most h.s. seniors would be right on top of this process in terms of knowing ahead of time what could go wrong without having some sort of academic advice up front. I can envision many of them getting the offer and choosing to go somewhere else to avoid having another year with at least some level of uncertainty OR going wherever they like first year without checking out that the courses will transfer before they get there or that they can be pretty much guaranteed to get into the classes they need (regardless of their major). For example, for my son’s major, at most schools, he would NEVER need to take college Biology. It would come as a surprise to most advisors at other schools that he would want to take it at all, much less have 2 semesters of it with a lab. If the advisor was cranky that day; if the classes were full; etc. he might be given a hard time getting the courses. Having that much foresight to be a step ahead of this kind of thing, I think, might be unusual to expect for a 17 or 18-year-old. </p>
<p>I appreciate what you say about taking a step back. We did that for our S to make up his mind about taking the GT offer or not–totally his decision. He had acceptances to other great schools with his major that would have avoided all this. When he decided to go with the GT, though (which he now has), we wanted to be sure the program got set up correctly for him. Once he’s on campus, it’s totally his effort. I’m a college prof., so I may have a heightened sense of the glitches that can go wrong with a plan like this. It’s his grades to get, certainly, but I’m watching over the GT year to make sure his plan doesn’t get derailed by things he either had no idea to guard against or that are out of his control due to his year-1 college’s expectations, scheduling conflicts, etc. These kids can get pushed around by the college system pretty easily, especially as freshmen, so we’re just watching out for that.</p>
<p>Interesting to hear that Cornell wants to see mid-term grades the spring semester. Oh, I guess that makes sense, though, since your D is hearing soon, and her final grades for spring semester wouldn’t be out yet. Good to keep in mind, since mid-terms do not always reflect a student’s real position in the course (I can say this, having had to turn in mid-term grades and knowing sometimes the major assignments were coming in the 2nd half of the semester). </p>
<p>The uncertainty your D and family are feeling–one year later!–is one of the negatives of this program. Some kids just wouldn’t want to go through it again. The program is set up, I think, for the student who has his/her heart set on Cornell. For them, it is worth it, so our S is leading us through the process because that’s what he wants to do. </p>
<p>Thanks for the tip on the extra (non GT) classes. Our S is thinking about adding a second science class to the Bio., which would also mean another lab to schedule. I’ll tell him about your D’s experience with her added class. All information we find goes into the mix.</p>
<p>BTW: Since deposits are now coming due May 1, he’s deciding today about the 2-yr. vs. 4-yr. school for year 1. I’ll pass along what he decides!</p>
<p>Many thanks to those who post here about the GT! Our family has found the anecdotes told here helpful in terms of thinking of more questions to ask Cornell, overall support, and for hearing about the feelings, successes, and failures of other students who may be in the program. We appreciate it!</p>
<p>diehldun–I wanted to add that I think it’s great that you’re looking into getting your courses OK’d for transfer early. Good luck! :)</p>
<p>Just to say…my mom was a great help with doing the paperwork and keeping the actual structure of the GT (like making sure forms r sent on time and keeping me in the structure). So it’s definitely great what you parents are doing. It’s my place to get the grades but it’s great to have a parent helping with forms and dates and such along the way. So I hope you parents on here realize how much of a help you are. Congrats w/ ur kids getting the GT and gl with the coming year!</p>
<p>hey maryjulia and other concerned parties, i forgot to tell you…i know a cals gt and he got his letter yesterday. he’s in some kind of sociology program, not aem. but w/e. bonne chance!!</p>
<p>CollegeMom4 - was out enjoying the beautiful weather all weekend and did not read your message until tonight. No, we have not heard yet; supposed to be this week. Wow, it must have been such a tough weekend for your family! We are thinking of you and wishing you GOOD LUCK.</p>
<p>Dr._Mom- As always, you make many valid points; I especially agree with your comments regarding college freshman. These 18 and 19 year olds are forced to make life-altering decisions, and for most they do not have the maturity or experience yet to do so. Your s. is lucky to have your input and support (and experience in the college arena). </p>
<p>It’s my personal opinion to be posted another time and place that the whole college admission process has spun out of control. Our kids can only do their individual best; they can’t make themselves into something they are not.</p>
<p>Keep the faith, all, that in the end this will work out!</p>
<p>Quick question:</p>
<p>If I’ve taken Political Science 101/102 in a community college whilst in high school, and got a ‘B’ each semester (4 credits/semester), do you think I can transfer the credit to Cornell ILR as “cultural perspectives”? What exactly are Cornell’s requirements with community college credits? Because I know Cornell offers political science as a cultural perspective course, but it would be virtually identical; and no, mine’s was NOT a high school class. </p>
<p>BTW: I’m also drafting an e-mail letter right now to send to Ian regarding freshman course selections. But I just don’t want to overwhelm/inundate him on the first time.</p>
<p>Figgy–Thank you for the kind words to parents on the GT board!</p>
<p>TrilliumCB–Thanks to you, too, for your kind words! I certainly hope your D hears great things soon. And I’ve been shocked by the difference in admissions this time around from the last time we went through this a few years ago with our older child. I will be interested to read your post on that!</p>
<p>diehldun–I don’t know about ILR (and you should, of course, ask them), but it might be useful for you to know that for my S’s college at Cornell, he has to be a fulltime college student while taking the req’d. courses for the GT. That said, he also has some college courses (like yours–NOT taken for h.s. credit or taken in a h.s. classroom) under his belt that we hope will transfer in the grand scheme of things once he gets on Cornell’s campus. We have not asked about those courses at this stage (but none of them really equate with his GT req’d courses, either). Eventually, you would want to be sure to have the official transcripts from the CC classes sent to Cornell. Good luck talking with Ian; from what we hear on these boards, he sounds like a terrific GT counselor!</p>
<p>Figgy - thanks for the kind words to the parents going through this process. My husband and I try to balance helping (D is busy getting the classes and grades she needs to transfer - not to mention living away from home for the first time and everything that goes with that) and not taking it over. But honestly there is too much to keep track of during this process (getting classes approved, meeting financial deadlines, grade submission deadlines, etc) to just hope it works out.</p>
<p>D is very appreciative and in sync with us, but it’s nice to hear from other students that the effort is recognized.</p>
<p>TrilliumCB - Thank you. It was a looong weekend. She spoke with Ian this morning and she’s officially in, so expect the call soon - good luck and let us know.</p>
<p>collegemom4–Congrats. to your D and to your family! I’m sure that it’s a great relief to hear for sure, and now you will have an exciting summer looking forward to moving your daughter to Ithaca in August. I’m glad to hear you agree that the GT entails quite a bit of detail for the average freshman to keep track of. I don’t want to overstep, either–and it is defiinitely a balancing act as seeing one’s children off to college always is. Our S is grateful to have a 20-year academic in the family right now…this is one of those rare times when I can see that it actually helps, somewhat like having a medical doctor (rather than a Ph. D.) in the house. 
But we’re totally clear and together on whose decision this is ultimately, and who has to make it work.</p>
<p>collegemom4 - CONGRATULATIONS to your d. and her family for all the hard work over all these years! I’m really happy for you and I wish her the best of luck.</p>
<p>I think I misstated the date my d. would hear - I believe the selection board meets April 27, not this Friday, and decisions go out a couple of business days after that. We feel pretty good about things and are no longer stressed, though. If it works out, great, if not, my d. gave it her best shot and that’s all you can do. </p>
<p>Celebrate the good news!</p>