Undergraduate Student Access - Cornell University Division of ...

Cornell subscribes to several of these nine “philosophicalperspectives” as its enrollment process is designedto meet its enrollment goals while enhancing theoverall quality of the students’ educational experience.The university seeks to promote the greater good andfurther the development of society at large, and accessto its programs is granted to those who have excelledacademically and demonstrated service to their communities.The university believes in the view thathigher education is a “great equalizer” and strives toensure that the student body is diverse in many ways.Perfetto, et al. noted further that:Despite what the popular press and various guidebookswould suggest, gaining admissions to college is not equivalentto finding your place on the food chain. If one mustuse a biological metaphor, a more appropriate analogywould be finding your niche in an ecosystem. Differentinstitutions aspire to serve different educational needs, anddifferent students will have their educational needs servedbest by different types of colleges. A particular institution’sdecision of whom and how to admit—its admission modelif you will—must be related to the societal role that itelects to play.Finally, these authors describe the intricacy of theadmissions process.…The “best practice model” for making admissions decisionscan only be derived after a careful review of themission of a particular institution, and only after consideringan institution’s constraints and available resources.Furthermore, a majority of institutions employ severaldifferent decision-making models, either simultaneouslyor sequentially. What at first glance appears to be a simpleprocess is in reality a very complex process, each institutionrepresenting a unique compromise between competingvalues and priorities.Admissions at CornellCornell’s admissions process allows the university tosift systematically through the 25,000-plus applicationsthat are received every year for access, as firsttimefreshmen and transfer students, to its undergraduatedegree programs. As the university enrolls a littleover 3,000 first-time freshmen every year and about600 students who transfer from other institutions,the winnowing process is significant. The admissionsprocess is even more complicated due to Cornell’stradition of allowing each of the seven colleges withundergraduate enrollments a degree of autonomy inestablishing college-specific enrollment goals (such aswomen students in the College of Engineering or studentsfrom farm families in the College of Agricultureand Life Sciences) and an active participation of thosecolleges in recruitment and admissions processes. Yetdespite this complexity Cornell operates with a coordinatedand highly focused admissions process.• Enrollment goals for first-time freshmen students areestablished for each of the seven undergraduatecolleges. (See enrollment management, page 8.)• Currently, applicants apply to a single Cornellcollege † under one of two application options:(a) early decision, where an application is filed byNovember 1st and a decision is made in mid-December, and (b) regular decision, in which theapplication is filed by January 1st and a decision ismade between February and April.• The Early Decision Program (EDP) is designed forapplicants whose first choice is Cornell, and theapplicant, if accepted by the university, is requiredto enter into an agreement to attend, withdrawingall applications that may have been made to otherinstitutions. Between 30 and 40 percent of thefreshman class is admitted under this program,and its applicants have a slightly better chance ofgaining admission as their enthusiasm for Cornellis considered a plus among decision factors. OnceEDP admissions are determined in December theuniversity begins its regular decision process.• While timing varies between the two options theprocess for both is similar:- Applications are received and processed centrallyand then distributed to the specific college towhich the applicant has applied.- In the colleges, applications are reviewed by collegeadmissions staff members, central admissionsstaff members who have been assignedas readers, and (in some colleges) faculty. Mostapplications are read by two individuals; somereceive reviews by four or five faculty/staffmembers.- Studio programs—such as art, architecture, andinterior design—require or recommend apersonal interview to permit a review of the applicant’sportfolio of previous and current work.The School of Hotel Administration employspersonal interviews to gauge student interest inthe hospitality discipline.† See third bullet on page 19 concerning a planned change.13