<p>So guys, I’ll explain my situation.
I was accepted Cornell Engineering ED but got not FA so they give me permission to withdraw my admission. A few days later, I got accepted into Uchicago (also no aid). My parents are trying to get me to pul the cornell admission, so I’d have a shot at “better schools” like harvard, princeton, upenn, stanford.</p>
<p>Although I’ve always planned to go into Engineering, I’m open towards economics and business. The reason why i wanted to become an engineer is because its a versatile degree and I plan to go into business later anyways. </p>
<p>Do you guys think it is worth it to pull my admission? Do you think, even in the long run, there is a big difference if I go to cornell or princeton (I’d major in either business econ or engi)? I hear that the difference between teh top schools are small… but could someone put into perspectives the difference in the acces to top recuitement companies and grad schools?</p>
<p>If you want engineering, I would stay w/ Cornell. If you are considering finance–such as ibanking or S & T, both Cornell and Princeton are target schools.</p>
<p>Have you visited the schools? Which one would you prefer? Oh, and you have not been accepted to Princeton yet… Or maybe you want to live in Chicago?</p>
<p>its kind of confusing because originally, my tactic was to apply to schools of 3 different majors… engineering, econ and business (thats why chicago was on that list), because i had interests in all of them (engineering has always been top).</p>
<p>For most of hs, cornell had been my favorite school, but when my grades got good, a lot of people advised me to wait til RD to apply to cornell to see my other options. But I chose to go against this advice for personal reasons. Now my parents are making me go the other way.</p>
<p>I’m an international student (canadian) studying in the US. Cornell did not give me an FA, but Princeton is a bit better at taking care of that aspect.</p>
<p>As for environment-- I liked both the princeton and cornell campus very much. I do not especially like chicago.</p>
<p>My main question is would graduating from princeton be any different from graduating from cornell? Would interviewers/business schools be significantly more partial towards accepting someone from princeton (assuming similar caliber)? Would the student body be so different that suppose if I was around the 80th percentile in cornell, id be something like 50th in princeton?</p>
<p>What did Cornell say your EFC was? wouldn’t the other schools say the same? And, what if you didn’t get accepted to those schools?</p>
<p>Do you have any financial safety schools?</p>
<p>Can your parents pay full freight for Cornell, if not, then you have no choice.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if int’ls applying RD have a harder time getting accepted to Harvard, etc? (I know that everyone has a hard time, but is it harder for in’tls?)</p>
<p>If you got no aid from either Cornell or Chicago, presumably it’s because your EFC is too high to qualify. You may not fare any better at the other schools. </p>
<p>Some of those schools (Harvard for instance) now have rather high thresholds to qualify for need-based aid. If your family income is in the $100K-200K range (I do not recall the exact limits for each school), and you can get accepted to HYPS, then you may get aid where C and C gave you none. But if your family income is >$200K, and your parents either have not saved enough or just don’t want to pay the extra costs of a tip-top private school, that’s a different story. It’s not as if HYPS are doling out more aid to people who, objectively, don’t really need it just because they are “better schools”.</p>
<p>Are your parents willing and able to cover the costs of a Cornell/Chicago education, or not? If they aren’t, then you better apply elsewhere. If they are, but you’d just like to take your chances on getting some aid, you could pull the Cornell app but then have Chicago (non-binding EA, right?) as your “safety”. That’s a pretty good safety, really.</p>
<p>This case is a good example of misusing ED. You probably would have been better off RDing to Cornell so you could wait and weigh all offers in the spring. But you want to have your cake and eat it too (get the little admission boost from ED, but reserve the right to weigh other offers).</p>
<p>^ What I don’t understand is the finaid policies of these schools toward international students. Perhaps the EFC is low enough to qualify for need-based aid, but Chicago and Cornell don’t commit to granting it to international students. If that’s the case, you’ll want to investigate these policies/practices at the other schools you’re considering. You can check the Common Data Set of each school on your list to see if how much aid it has granted to international students.</p>
<p>One more thing to remember - if you “pull” your Cornell acceptance, it’s final. You can’t pull it, and then see that you didn’t get into Princeton or Harvard or wherever, and then say, “Oh, I changed my mind. Now I want to go to Cornell.”</p>
<p>Getting into Cornell or Chicago is no guarantee of getting into Princeton or Harvard. A bird in the hand . . .</p>
<p>I’m not sure how ED works, but I think that if you reject your Cornell ED (for no FA), and then get accepted to Harvard with no FA (and that is ok with you), then there will be a problem.</p>
<p>I don’t think you can claim that you can’t afford Cornell (ED), but you can afford Harvard (RD).</p>
<p>If Harvard finds out that you rejected Cornell’s ED, they may not accept you for that reason.</p>
<p>*You can’t pull it, and then see that you didn’t get into Princeton or Harvard or wherever, and then say, “Oh, I changed my mind. Now I want to go to Cornell.”</p>
<p>Getting into Cornell or Chicago is no guarantee of getting into Princeton or Harvard. A bird in the hand . . . *</p>
<p>Very true. Your parents may be wrongly thinking that since you got into Chicago and Cornell that you can get admitted to Harvard, etc. NO, NO, NO…especially since you’d be applying RD to those schools. If you reject Cornell, you may end up with no ivies. Is that ok with you and your folks?</p>
<p>ye… I understand the risks.
Can someone compare the long term differences between attending cornell and princeton? Am I likely to land the same type of job? Will I notice a significant difference in teh quality of education and quality of job opportunities?</p>
<p>I would say that the opportunities from Cornell Engineering equal the opportunities from Princeton engineering.</p>
<p>It seems to me that there are three questions here</p>
<ol>
<li> If you back out of ED for financial reasons, does Cornell rescind your acceptance?</li>
<li> If you don’t get financial aid at another RD school,but accept an offer from that school, is Cornell apprised of this or does Cornell let the other school know about the Cornell ED pullout?</li>
<li> If you didn’t get into Princeton or Harvard RD, and chose Chicago, would Cornell and Chicago communicate about the Cornell ED pullout?</li>
</ol>
<p>You have to be very very careful here. You might be jeopardizing everything by pulling out of Cornell. If you truly can’t afford Cornell at all, then you should do it, but then you should be applying/have already applied to financial safeties.</p>
<p>And frankly, I’m not sure that you do understand the risks. Unless you know for sure that Cornell will not communicate with other schools, the risk is that you will not be able to attend any of these schools, even if you get into Princeton or Harvard.</p>
<p>I’m still curious if anyone has ever, ever seen a case of vindictiveness after declining an ED FA offer. I don’t mean a possible case, by simply being denied admission, but a case where the applicant was told that the reason was the decline of the other school’s ED FA offer. Or, has anyone been in a school’s FA office and seen this happen? I just wonder if we’re issuing warnings for something that doesn’t actually happen.</p>