<p>Here are my stats:
SAT I: 2150 (V 750 M 650 W 750)
SAT II’s: US Hist 640 Spanish 660 (retaking some)
ACT: 32
GPA: 3.76 (unweighted at highly competitive prep school)</p>
<p>Would I have a better shot at Cornell ED or at Northwestern ED? How about Northwestern regular decision? would it be a high match or a reach? thanks</p>
<p>It’s impossible to say. Top schools are unpredictable. </p>
<p>But I’d choose Northwestern.</p>
<p>ED the one you like more, or if it’s a financial thing, the one who gives better aid. Also depends on what you wanna do!</p>
<p>Both are great schools and I know a lot about both because I got into both. I hate to sound like a broken record but people on these boards will probably tell you that Cornell is more competitive which is a complete fallacy.</p>
<p>By the numbers:</p>
<p>Cornell
1280-1490</p>
<p>Northwestern
1320-1500</p>
<p>And just like Cornell, NU has a bunch of specialized schools that place little emphasis on test scores (i.e. communication school, music school, education school).</p>
<p>I would plan on doing arts and sciences, how bout now?</p>
<p>Columbiahopeful!: I know the tests scores indicate Cornell but then why is Northwestern’s admit rate higher?</p>
<p>Cornell’s admit rate is 21% and Northwestern’s is 25%… Northwestern also has 5,000 fewer students and like 10,000 fewer applicants.</p>
<p>By the numbers, you’ll have roughly an equal chance of getting into either Northwestern or Cornell.</p>
<p>Just choose the one you like more.</p>
<p>If you can’t decide, flip a coin :p</p>
<p>If you are going to Cornell’s Arts and Sciences, its admit rate is about 14% and its SAT range is 1380-1530. You can’t take Cornell’s overall SAT’s which include not only the contract schools but specialty schools like architecture and hotel and gauge your chances on that basis.</p>
<p>Same thing applies to NU.</p>
<p>redcrimblue,</p>
<p>According to stats published on Cornell website, the admit rate was 20% last year, not 14% (BIG difference!). I couldn’t find SAT range by school anywhere.</p>
<p>Cornell buries the individual college stats these days, which IMO is a huge disservice to applicants to its individual particular colleges.</p>
<p>There has traditionally been a noticeable stats difference among its colleges though; and when last I saw them, a year or two ago, there was at least an 80 point difference between the range medians of Arts & Sciences and the Ag School for one example. And the Ag school is a big school.</p>
<p>I don’t know about Northwestern, but I recall that I saw its stats broken out on CC- quite possibly courtesy Sam Lee- and, while different, they were a lot tighter than the disparity among Cornell’s disparate colleges.</p>
<p>So I would imagine that Cornell Arts & Sciences is a lot further above Cornell’s reported aggregate median than Northwestern’s Arts & Sciences is above Northwestern’s reported aggregate median.</p>
<p>But don’t you think that the admissions stats of entering students are sufficiently similar anyway that other factors should drive your decision? I certainly do. Does it matter if there’s like a 10 point difference in the average stats of your classmates if one place has more of what you want, in a place that you prefer to be, etc?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>a couple things:</p>
<ul>
<li>it’s higher by a rather insignificant margin (less than 4%)</li>
<li>cornell has a higher yield (is more self-selective to just below very top students, northwestern likely shares very many cross-admits with HYPS in comparison to cornell)</li>
</ul>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>the average SAT score in the School of Education at Northwestern is 100 points lower than Arts and Sciences, almost 150 points lower than Engineering, Music is likewise 50 points lower than arts and sciences, 100 points lower than engineering, Communications is about 30/80, etc.</p>
<p>the SAT differences at Northwestern are just as large if not larger.</p>
<p>recrimblue, I appreciate your enthusiasm for Cornell. However, if you are going to say its sat range is 1380-1530, at least provide some data to back that up. I actually located that data and unfortunately it does not support your assertion. </p>
<p><a href=“http://dpb.cornell.edu/F_Undergraduate_Enrollment.htm[/url]”>http://dpb.cornell.edu/F_Undergraduate_Enrollment.htm</a></p>
<p>Click on contract or endowed at facts at a glance to see data. </p>
<p>Arts and Sciences at Cornell has a SAT range of 1310-1510 (ENROLLED). </p>
<p>Northwestern (ENROLLED) for the ENTIRE STUDENT BODY is 1320-1500. I am sure CAS is even higher than this b/c some of the other schools have lower scores and comprise around 1/2 of NU’s student body.</p>
<p>And if Cornell were to only consist of the endowed schools, its SAT range would be 1310-1510 as the data indicates, which is the same as Northwestern. The schools seem pretty equal. However, as the data indicates, Cornell’s endowed schools only have a SAT range of 630-730 whereas Northwestern has one at 650-740 and a higher ACT range.</p>
<p>Columbiahopeful,</p>
<p>Good work!</p>
<p>redcrimblue,</p>
<p>Stop giving false stats just to make your school look better!</p>
<p>more importantly to the OP:</p>
<p>apply to the school you like more, with admissions being so varied as far as an individual candidate goes (because keep in mind all this data we are discussing is aggregate) there is no discernable advantage for an individual applicant applying to both of these schools.</p>
<p>ever heard of the anecdotes “my friend got into harvard, but not NYU”? Exactly. Think that but on a much more equal level.</p>
<p>if you apply ED to one and are accepted, the other is out of the picture, so in this case try finding which one you would miss less.</p>
<p>Here’s that old thread; I was right it was Sam Lee.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=262866[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=262866</a></p>
<p>So you are correct there is more gap than I recalled.
I was focused on Journalism, Communications and Arts & Sciences, because these were the three schools my daughter was considering. And these three schools are very tight. As for the others, they are indeed different, and the degree of impact on the aggegate would depend on the relative number of students in each of the colleges.</p>
<p>monydad,</p>
<p>Thanks for digging that up; NU no longer makes them available. The average SAT was 1403 for NU’s A&S; if we take the middle of mid-50% of Cornell’s A&S, that’s 1410; usually the mean is less than the median for top schools though so the average is likely slightly less than 1410; that brings the average SAT for the two to be pretty much the same. For ACT, the mid-50% for NU was 29-33 (overall) while it was 28-33 for Cornell’s A&S. So the two A&S are pretty much the same in test scores.</p>