Calling all Cornell (Johnson) Fall 2009 applicants!

I absolutely don't think they want an essay. Have u ever seen an essay in a table of contents. There are a lot of ways they could have worded this essay. By saying table of contents I think they were being as explicit as possible in asking for chapter headings only.

My hunch is that they are looking for creativity in the chapter titles, and that is the main goal.

I also have a feeling that the interviewers will not go into the interview "resume only" and may use the table of contents to dig a bit deeper during the interview.....we will wait and see

In my opinion you are passing on an opportunity to tell the admissions committee about yourself by confining yourself to short chapter headings and nothing else. The two other required essays and your resume will cover all the "professional" bases, so to say.

Where else do you show who you are as an individual? And why would they give you up to 400 words for that essay, if a simple table of contents is all they are seeking - just so you go completely overboard and come up with 25 chapters covering your life from 1980 to 2030?

Creative chapter titles? Not sure if demonstrating our "wordsmithing" prowess is the best use of that space. This is going to be like any other business school essay, just with an added twist.

I'm pretty sure this is an opportunity to let them know you but not in essay form at all since they would have asked for an essay if they wanted an essay.

I have short chapter headings and a few bullet points for each chapter. The other essays are a bit dry because they are so short and dense and thus really don't get to show the adcom anything about my personality at all because I had to cram so much into each one. (Including the optional essay) I'm definitely a bit more of a creative type in general so I kinda went in that direction with it even if it came out a bit shorter. I still got the info in there but I didn't write out a whole paragraph for each chapter.

We can duke this out during the info session on Monday Solaris =]

Ha ha, no. I actually like what you did. I'm not advocating a traditional essay either, obviously keep the chapter headings, but add synopses for each so it doesn't just look like a table of contents. My impressions is that what Johnson wants to know is no different from what other schools want with their personal essay topics.

And cereal255 PM me if you'd like to meet after the infosession (the 1:25pm one, right?) on Monday.

Anybody there on Tuesday?!?! I will be on campus tuesday!!! Let me know if you are!

Anyone interested in meeting up on Wednesday of this week?? I will be flying in to Ithaca to check out Cornell. Is anyone going to be available?

So I just got back from Ithaca for my class visit.

I arrived in Ithaca around 8:15 this morning after driving up from Binghamton. Nice easy drive for now but I know for a fact that it's not nearly as fun in the winter. Campus is beautiful though the buses seem to have a hard time turning on some of the narrow streets. Also, I had a hard time finding parking since nothing was really marked.

Once I found Sage Hall all was well though. I thought it was beautiful. The atrium was dead when I first got there since it was at the crack of dawn but would be bustling with life later on in the day which I thought was pretty impressive and the rumors about everyone being collegial are totally true, everyone was very friendly. I actually had the opportunity to sit in on three classes instead of the one I originally signed up for so I got to experience a day in the life of a first year almost which was nice. All classes were pretty interesting in my opinion, even accounting which was taught by one of the best professors I've seen... man I missed out by going to lame schools in undergrad.

After the class visits we had lunch and did a brief tour. We were the first tour of the year apparently so the tour guides were still getting their bearings as to what they were doing but all were very friendly and more than willing to answer all questions we had even if the tour was very very rushed after the Q&A section. They also said that it was one of the bigger tour groups that they had seen so I'm not sure what that means for the size of the applicant pool this year. Totally nervous about that.

All in all I was impressed with the students that I had a chance to talk to as well as all the faculty. Totally still my first choice school.

P.S. Solaris, I didn't see your message until I got home since I didn't have internet access which is why I never sent you anything. Nothing personal =[

No worries cereal255, I actually ended up having a very busy day. Glad you enjoyed your visit, I'm actually a little concerned after my visit. Some of my expectations weren't entirely met, so I have sit and think about whether they were realistic expectations to begin with.

Were you at the 1:25pm session though? Are you the guy who made a joke about his MIL's fast driving?

Yeah that was me... she's a little scary to drive with. Which guy were you?

Just out of curiosity which of your expectations weren't met?

I was the tall Indian guy in the blue jacket and glasses. The one that asked too many questions

I'm on the bus back to New York right now, and I thought the experience was a bit underwhelming. I do think most of the students are really friendly and laid back (and surprisingly preppy!), but I do have some concerns about the intellectual intensity of the experience at Johnson.

I sat in on a class with one of the two professors I've had everyone recommend as being the best in the school. He was cool, but no different from virtually every college professor I had back in undergrad. And despite his best efforts, he couldn't get the class to participate at all. I'd heard several people say before that lack of class participation was something they had noticed on their school visit, and I must I was a little bothered by the same. The "best" faculty members can't get their classes to do much besides listen and take notes, what happens in the other classes? Maybe I just lucked out on my earlier class visits to other schools, but those 1st year core classes were a lot more engaging.

I also learned that a lot of the students are spread around different neighborhoods (albeit all within a short distance of Sage Hall) so that for me takes away a bit of the advantage of being in a college town community. And for all its transit-friendly credentials, I don't think it's going to be easy surviving in Ithaca without a car (also important to me).

Did you hang around after the information session? Apparently the student ambassador was claiming 1 in 9 applicants to Cornell was admitted to the Class of 2010. I asked him if he was sure because I don't believe that for one second, but I didn't want to get into an argument there at the info session.

So great students, great academics on paper, but I need to think more about "fit." I'm probably still going to apply, but I think I might need to visit again to make it my #1 choice.

I couldn't stay after the info session. I had to get back home to work today (though since I'm on here you can guess at how much work I'm actually doing)

I thought that the students were very engaged in the classes that I saw for the most part. (except Economics which didn't make much sense because I thought it was interesting) Maybe I just love the school so much that I'm seeing everything through rose colored lenses. The only problem I had was the lack of organization on the tour, I definitely would have liked to see more of the school. Luckily I had visited campus a few times so I already knew the general area. Also the large tour group was kind of annoying since I didn't get a chance to ask anything and I had to leave immediately afterwards. The student hosts were pretty good though.

Either way I submitted my app today and included some stuff about my experience yesterday. Hopefully it will be enough for at least an interview... I think that I executed fairly well but I just don't have any idea how I'll stack up this year.

Wow! I haven't even started my essays yet, and I'm doing R1! Well the good news for you is, that our student ambassador (after the session) said "off the record" the application review process was almost "rolling" in nature. So by submitting earlier, you can be confident about getting one of the earlier interview calls.

Good luck!

Well, work has been dead lately and my boss knows I'm applying so I've been spending about 3 hours a day at work on essays so I'm ahead of the game on that.

Now I just need to gently remind my recommenders to get their letters in so I can go complete soon.

If you look back at my posts on my visit I had similar impressions. I still love the school but the academic rigor is not on par with the top 10 programs. I don't think a single student made a comment during my class visit. But, their recruiting is still very strong, I liked the students personally (sociable, friendly, down to earth) and I really liked the environment of Johnson, Cornell and Ithaca. You have to take the good with the bad I guess. On balance, I still really like Cornell and would be ecstatic to go there.

Just back from a Johnson visit. I got to talk to students and admissions staff in alot more depth than at any of my other school visits. LOVED Sage Hall, LOVED the students, and LOVED the staff.

I cant really add much more about the quality than what the others touched on.....however, the total package left me excited about Johnson.

Totally agree with you about the total package.