<p>hey amc1702, first of good luck on your transfer app! I’m not exactly an expert on transfer apps, but I’ll try my best to answer as many of these as possible. </p>
<p>1: Yes. Professors here are generally extremely receptive to students who reach out to them. Last year my research group had a member who was undergrad from Cornell taking a gap semester. All he had to do was email the professor and she invited him in. Actually come to think of it my research group even has a HS student atm… Point is, there’s never any harm in making contact with a professor, and usually something useful will come out of it. Not sure how much it would help you with your app, but its a good thing to do regardless. </p>
<p>2: Hmm… I don’t think that would be a problem. It might even help support your claim that Cornell isn’t the right place for you it you were compelled to leave campus for your 2nd semester.</p>
<p>3: I think its probably universal that it doesn’t reflect very well to send in applications at the last minute possible (I got burned by internship apps because of this last year…), but beyond that I don’t think it will make a huge difference. I don’t know the process though so I can’t really say. I doubt you would hear back much sooner by sending it in early though</p>
<p>4: This one is tricky…the irony (considering you were dissatisfied with your college enough to want to transfer out) might be somewhat of a turn-off for the admissions officers haha. On the other hand it takes a lot of initiative to get anything published. congrats! My gut would say its best to give them everything and let them decide. </p>
<p>As far as your chances, as usual its impossible to say. Transfer apps are a whole different beast, and I imagine are very competitive and evaluated on a very case-by-case basis. I do know that there are a lot of transfer students around here though, so that’s good. Sell your soul to the Core on your app and promise you’ll take advantage of the city, beyond that its all a mystery. </p>
<p>Out of curiosity what program are you applying for?</p>