Calling all Cornell (Johnson) Fall 2009 applicants!

I think its back up to the mid 30's for class of 2010. But one problem for Cornell is that they have less diversity among their international applicants. Over 50% of their international applicants were from India alone and although I don't have the numbers for China I would suspect they were another 30-40%. Schools don't want their entire international population to be from 1-2 countries, they want a more diverse international class. I believe most other schools have more applications from europe and latin america, etc than cornell. So... they probably didn't have enough good applicants from different regions to get to the 35-40 range. Schools will have 35-40% international if they can have students from all over the world, but they don't try to put together a class that is 65% american, 35% indian. Whether they admit it or not, there are soft quotas for different countries/regions. Fair or not, right or not, I don't know. But that seems to be what happens.

I can't figure out why on earth Cornell has such a disproportionately huge following in India (disclaimer - I'm Indian myself)?
I know of no other school where 40+% applications are from folks in India.

But I'm glad the international students are now back up to making a third of the total MBA class.

Since the discussion has taken a small diversion to number of Indians getting admitted in various schools, let me ask you seniors out here a question...

Which all are the India friendly schools in US? This doubt was there in my mind for sometime... I suspect Thunderbird is one... or atleast they are marketing their school in India more than any other! The reason why i am feeling so is, I started hearing the name of Thunderbird from the days of my graduation. Ain't there much better, lesser known colleges in US?

NoeL

Well, actually there's no such thing as a school "friendlier" to a specific demographic. However, based on the limited sample of GMATClubbers from last year, a lot of Indians made it to Ross.

Thunderbird markets itself very well to people seeking a degree in "international business" (whatever that is) so you need to be careful you research their program properly and go in with the right expectations. This is a topic beyond the scope of this thread anyway.

I would say that all schools are "friendly" to indian applicants. I mean there are a ton of talented, very intelligent applicants from india and of course admissions officers want them at their school. And, just like any other demograghic, they can't fill up an entire class. A class is not going to be more than 20-30% bankers, consultants, IT, northeasterners, westerners, indians, chinese or europeans. Schools try to put together a diverse class. So, any school where one portion of their applicant pool is overrepresented will make it tougher to get an admit from that pool. It seems that cornell is a school where indians are an overrepresented part of the pool. At the same time, I would still say that (like all schools) cornell is indian applicant "friendly". In fact, I think they have one of the highest (enrolled) indian populations of any top school.

My theory: Internationals, since they're already traveling to a whole new country, don't care much about the surroundings as much as a US citizen who would care. Therefore, there is less competition for the internationals at remote schools such as Cornell.

You can try applying this theory to other remote location schools, and see if it works. But that's what I've always thought.

Anyone started working on the essays yet?
The supposedly new essay will be 400 words, too?

Right now I am not sure if I have time to finish Cornell App by end of September....

Supposedly its 400 words. but that essay topic is very unnofficial. It came from a BW interview and Cornell has not released it yet. I'm still hoping they change it cuz the question sucks!

why don't you think you can have Cornell done by the end of September? Essay 1 and 2 are both pretty easy, and the app itself (at least last years version) is pretty basic. The only tough part is essay 3. You should be able to have it done by the end of September unless you have a few other schools that are higher priority.

Oh, and no I have not started Cornell yet.

Yup, because Kellogg is higher on my list.... And I haven't started THAT.
Hopefully can start Kellogg next week, and be finished by mid September.
No matter how I look at it, I think at most I can only squeeze in 3 schools by early October.

Since you are speaking of Kellogg here, i am a little curious about your GMAT score.. Or atleast, what is the current average GMAT score for Kellogg?

NoeL

I think it's off-topic, but the average for Kellogg is 711, my score is below it

Anyone know when class visits will start? I plan on visiting September 23rd (on my way to Ann Arbor).

RF

For all you IM folks out there, the Cayuga Fund generated +5.56% in 2Q08. That's actually kind of impressive. If any of you managed to beat that, you should totally talk about it in your applications (which as of now is still not live).

Does anybody have any clue when the official essay questions will be announced? This wait is tough.

By 9/1

https://www.johnson.cornell.edu/academic/mba/faq.html

Q: What are my chances of gaining admission into your program?
A: The short answer is: we simply don't know and won't until you apply. If you look at the profile of our admitted students, read our student blogs and see yourself at the Johnson School, then please apply!

As you'll see on our Fast Facts page, the number of applicants to the Johnson School has been growing, and this year we accepted about 12% of those who applied.



Something doesn't seem right about that number.

I think 12% of applicants ENROLLED. At least that's what I calculated on the Fast Facts page. Cornell's adcom is either deceptive or dumb, not sure which.