Should I withdraw from Cornell ED?

Colleges & Universities Cornell University
1

<p>I’m having doubts about my decision to apply to Cornell ED. My primary reason for applying there was because of their US news rankings, which I now realize to be a terrible mistake. I applied there because I wanted to get into an ivy and because I thought I had a high chance of being accepted early decision. Thinking about Cornell now, and its terrible weather, isolated location, and its brutally rigorous curriculum (Bad GPA not good for grad school), I’m seriously considering withdrawing my application. I’m also worried about the student life at Cornell. I’ve heard Cornell been described as “anti-intellectual” and exclusive. “If you’re not one of the cool kids – which I wasn’t, in either high school or college – it can be rough. And it was especially rough at Cornell.” </p>

<p>However, I realize that if I withdraw from Cornell, I might end up having to go to my safety school. (Besides Cornell, I applied to UChicago, UMichigan, UCBerkeley, UCLA, Northwestern, and UWMadison(my safety))</p>

<p>Any advice? </p>

2

<p>I’d say if you think honestly that you’d be happier at UWMadison than at Cornell then withdraw it. </p>

3

<p>Can anyone assuage or confirm my concerns about Cornell? </p>

4

<p>Why did you apply to Cornell? Rankings? It seems you don’t like anything about the school. However, I have never heard Cornell described as anti-intellectual before. My wife’s nephew was a math major there and a superbrain. He is obviously happy with the outcome.</p>

5

<p>I am having trouble reconciling your comments with your school list. You have quite a few schools that are comparable in rigor and selectivity to Cornell. Not sure if you are a CA resident or from the Midwest. but only two schools have a weather advantage. Not sure if you are experiencing “buyers remorse” but if the only reason you applied to Cornell ED is the ranking - then definitely change to RD. Otherwise, sit down and try and write down the specific attributes of a college - think about academic, social, cultural, logistical factors - without thinking about a specific college. Then go back to the information you have for each school and evaluate them all over again. </p>

<p>And by all means talk to your parents. </p>

6

<p>Poohbah, weather and rigor are minor concerns. What really got me were the “anti-intellectual” comments I got about Cornell. </p>

7

<p>Erin, its not that the students aren’t intelligent. They obviously are. It’s that there isn’t a discussion-oriented, debate philosophy kind of atmosphere there like UChicago or the very political UC Berkeley. </p>

8

<p>How does a highly competitive college of over 20,000 get characterized as anti-intellectual? Don’t you think, in this league, there will be many types of kids, reacting and interacting in myriad ways? </p>

9

<p>Sure. But I’d be much more interested in a college with a global intellectual atmosphere that fosters discussion and critical thinking at every corner, like UChicago. </p>

10

<p>When it comes to big, competitive universities, I just personally doubt there can be some “global atmosphere” that precludes intellectual vibrancy. And you’re only going to interact with a portion of the whole. Do you think there is some other reason you’re having 2nd thoughts? Maybe you should post this question on a Cornell forum. </p>

11

<p>If Cornell is no longer your straight-up first choice, drop them a line, and ask to be moved to the RD pool. Then if you do get in, and the financial aid package (if you need one) makes it affordable, you can make your decision in April.</p>

12

<p>You are too fickle and your opinions too uninformed to ED, ask to be moved to RD so you can try to learn a bit more and think on it.</p>

13

<ol>
<li>None of those stereotypes are true; Cornell is amazing. </li>
<li>If you aren’t absolutely in love with the school (which you clearly aren’t/clearly did not do any proper research on it) then don’t apply ED.</li>
<li>Applying somewhere based on the ranking and because you “wanted to get into an ivy” and thought Cornell was your best shot is clearly the absolute wrong way to go about college admissions. You seem to almost acknowledge that, but then you go on to express fear that if you don’t get into Cornell you won’t get into any of your other colleges and be forced to go to your safety.</li>
<li>Withdraw from ED. Add some more matches and safeties that you love to your list. Do your research. There’s still some time.</li>
</ol>

14

<p>I’m wondering if you are feeling the pressure of waiting for a decision and second guessing yourself. Are you trying to reject them before they reject you? I think at this point you should keep application in - its a great school and you are as likely to be happy there as you are at any of the schools on your list. If you don’t get in, you will be in good company with a ton of other well qualified kids who will get rejected or wait listed.</p>

15

<p>Perhaps you can get comfortable with your choice and then not feel like you need to withdraw ED at all.
Though if you can’t then perhaps withdrawal should be considered.</p>

<p>Cornell is not a perfect place, and is not for everyone. However “there are those who love it”</p>

<p>.Regarding your various expressed concerns, I would first of all basically second post #9 above. </p>

<p>Diversity is a fundamental aspect of Cornell. There are five undergraduate colleges there, which each attract different types of students, with different goals. If you really want Cornell you should have an understanding and appreciation of its diversity. Ideally you should actively want to be part of a diverse student community. Because this is a fundamental difference between Cornell and other schools that consist of only a single college with solely or largely liberal arts majors.</p>

<p>Cornell does not have just one overriding culture where everyone moves to the same drummer. Within the whole there are subcultures of different types of people, and each of these groups is sizable. The key to being happy there, as well as at other large and diverse universities, is to sift through the student population to find your own sub-group of compatible people. A lot of that sorting out takes place in the freshman dorms.</p>

<p>BTW some of your other choices are also diverse universities.</p>

<p>Regarding some of the particular comments:</p>

<p>“anti-intellectual”
Some students there are not all that intellectual. Other students there are. A lot of them. An old CC post from 2006 that I just looked up to refresh my memory showed Cornell ranking third as the undergraduate origin of students who eventually got PhDs, over a ten-year period. If you are the intellectual sort you will have plenty of company at Cornell. But it is not homogeneous.</p>

<p>“exclusive”, cool kids”. etc.
Some students there are like that. Other students there are not at all like that. About 1/3 of the students there join frats/sororities, if one wants to use that as a proxy statistic. That means 2/3 don’t. And 2/3 of a large number is a large number.</p>

<p>In the freshman dorms you will be exposed to many different types of people. That will almost certainly include some people you really like don’t like. After that, you can live with your friends and have little to do with those other people.</p>

<p>“brutally rigorous curriculum”
You will certainly be challenged there. The question is whether you can reasonably expect this to be much different at the other places you listed. Before my D2 transferred to Cornell she took courses at another top university and a 20-30 ranked LAC. She found the workload to be substantially the same.
On the Cornell sub-forum there was a guy who transferred from Tufts, he found Cornell to be easier. I don’t hear many people on the Chicago or Berkeley sub-forums gloating about how easy their school is.</p>

<p>People do whine a lot about this at Cornell. My own theory is that this is because it has relatively a lot of science and engineering majors, and these majors are tougher basically everyplace.</p>

<p>“Islolated location”
This is true, but Ithaca is a nice city, a great college town, and there are about 30,000 students right there. There is plenty enough to do, for most people, most of the time. School work and campus-centered, or just off-campus, activities occupy most of most people’s time .</p>

<p>“terrible weather”
Well yes, but there’s some nuance.
It is cold and snowy in the winter. Thankfully college is on winter break for the worst of it, but the winter runs long.
It rains a lot in the fall, but it is absolutely gorgeous there.
It is beautiful, with great weather, in the spring and summer. I spent nearly every summer there.</p>

<p>I’m not sure how much better you’d find the weather in Wisconsin or Michigan. I lived in Chicago, and I found the winters pretty comparable. The other seasons I preferred Ithaca.</p>

<p>As final counterpoint to these various issues or concerns, I leave you with this:
<a href=“http://vimeo.com/23897683”>http://vimeo.com/23897683&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

16

<p>You need to talk to your guidance counselor if Cornell is no longer your top choice and see if it is possible to move out of the ED pool. One of my S’s friends wanted to withdraw his ED application from Cornell and our HS guidance department would not allow it (fortunately he did not get in to Cornell and went to UMichgan which was his preferred school in the end).</p>

17

<p>You have about 2 weeks to decide; if you still aren’t fully committed in a week or so, then it is likely a single phone call to admissions and they can change your app. from ED to RD. You also have time to add more schools to your RD list.</p>

18

<p>If you didn’t know that much about Cornell or love it very much when you applied, it’s hard to imagine that your essays demonstrated much enthusiasm for the school/program anyhow. Would you feel relief if you changed your app to RD? Sounds like you should. ED is for those who have a clear #1 choice.</p>

19

<p>If I were in admissions and I saw that a student withdrew from ED, I might be less inclined to accept them in the RD round, because it sounds like there’s a greater chance they would turn it down (and yield is important to colleges). They could get the impression it’s not as high on your list. Just a thought. But it doesn’t sound high on your list anyhow, so leave room for someone else who would love to go.</p>

20

<p>I think if you wanted to rescind your application you had to do so by the 17th or 18th, however, I’m sure you still could. If Cornell isn’t your absolute first choiceI think you should heavily consider withdrawling and applying regular if they will let you (maybe not since you passed rescind deadline). Remember ED is binding and if accepted you must go, if you don’t they will most likely contact all other schools you are applying to besides maybe the public ones. If you are qualified for those other said schools, I believe you will have a fair chance at Cornell RD. Also had you ever visited Cornell? I do not understand how people apply early decision with out ever visitkng the school. If you do decide to withdrawal application you should do so in a timely manner so you don’t potentialy take someone’s spot who actually wants to go. Lastly if you applied soley off rank, why didn’t you pick UPenn or similar?</p>