Legacy sway admissions?

kellyinaurora
Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:27:02 +0000

My daughter is a legacy at Cornell - both myself (her mom) and my sister (her aunt) went to Cornell. Furthermore, my sister (her aunt) and my sister’s husband (her uncle) are both professors at Cornell (aunt at Johnson school, uncle in A&S).

My daughter is a student at an arts high school in Italy (in Venice) and expects to transfer to a public school in the US for her senior year. This means that her first language is not English, she will not take any SATs or ACTs until her senior year, and even then, may have difficulty with them being ESL.

What are her chances of getting in? She is not a great student at the moment (a sophomore) but I understand that when students transfer to a school from outside the US, their grades do not transfer, only the pass / fail. She has done some volunteering over the summer and plans to do more this year. Will being a legacy and being an “interesting” candidate pull her through at Cornell?