RD Chances, Hotel School.. help!

cornelltransfer06
Sat, 17 Dec 2005 02:48:37 +0000

Hey…I hate to give bad news but based on my past experiences your chances look slim. The first time I applied I had 4.0+ GPA and 1500+ on SAT’s, plus lots of extracurriculars, but didn’t get in because i had no experience. I did have a couple years in retail, which I really should have played up by emphasizing the customer service aspect of it. For Cornell Hotel, they really are looking for hospitality work experience, grades are important but when you’re up against other students who have similar stats (or maybe even lower) but with experience in foodservice, it’s usually the latter who get in. One of the things I regret is not doing my interview in person…the interviewer they gave me lived so far from me that I had to do it on the phone and I really couldn’t communicate how much I wanted to get in and what I was really passionate about. I’m not sure if you’ve applied yet or not but if you haven’t, my best advice is even if you don’t have hospitality specific work experience, try to focus your application on areas in which you did show commitment to excellent service (can you remember a past event, club, job?) Also, you can possibly find a hospitality related job right now and write that in your application, saying that now that you are a senior, you have more free time so you’ll be working and can send in a recommendation or pay stubs to verify it in spring. Even though the applications are due soon, they don’t get the admissions committee together to make a decision till spring so it’s never too late. And if that doesn’t work out, keep on trying if you really want it that bad. When I didn’t get in the first time, I took a whole year off to work in the restaurant business, went to another college and applied as a transfer for Jan '06. Sorry this post was so long. Best of luck!