Calling all Cornell (Johnson) Fall 2009 applicants!

As high as 76% including offers made via career office contacts, but not those through alumni or school contacts.

https://mbacareers.wharton.upenn.edu/report/source_2.cfm

Interesting!! If we assume that the 62% on-campus recruiting includes those going back to their internship employer, then it's not that much higher than Cornell's 54%.

One thing to note is that a lot more Wharton grads found jobs through school-facilitated programs (9% vs. 2%).

RF

Quick question guys! How stringent is the Cornell word limit? I am at 423 words on essay 2. Should i edit my essay further?

I wouldn't worry about it. I've been following the +10% max rule. So for a 400 word essay you'll be OK going up to 440.

RF

On one of the accepted.com chats, an admissions representative from Cornell was asked this exact question and she said she thought 440 words was a little too much. I would only follow the +10% rule on essays with "recommended" or "average" word limits.

In my opinion, unless you will compromise significant content, you should bring your word count down a bit.

Thats wht i thought as well! I just edited it further to bring it back to 395. Had to take away something abt "why Cornell" which I would have preferred to keep in!

Bear in mind that's 62% of a class of 800 students. And that doesn't count the 14% finding jobs through the career office's contacts, a category Johnson doesn't track separately.

Of course, I'm still completely enthusiastic about Cornell.

Hmmm... it's not like they count the words right? An extra two sentences can easily add up to 40 words.

I've noticed from the essays that have page limits that there is quite a variation on how many words you can fit in a page. One of my essays is ~460 words, while another one I got almost 500 in. It's pretty hard to determine a word count from overall length.

I'm thinking if you don't push it too much, they won't even notice, but everyone has to make their own decisions.

RF

Did my visit today. Overall I'm very impressed. The only other campus I've visited so far is Tuck, so a lot of my comparisons are between the two.

Notable observations:

- Ithaca is in the middle of nowhere. I thought Hanover was remote, but Boston is only 2 hours away. NYC is just over 4 hours from Ithaca. The closest "city" to Ithaca is Syracuse at one hour away.

- Ithaca is a metropolis compared to Hanover. It has a pretty big downtown and a huge university area. Hanover is comprised of two streets.

- Cornell has a massive campus. For having only ~20K students, it's really big and really nice looking.

- Sage Hall is really nice. I'm not sure when it was built but it can't be more than a few years old. It's actually not that big, so it has a cosy feeling. But I don't think there is a lack of space, although some of the students said it can sometimes be hard to find a quiet area to study.

- Just on a personal basis, I thought the students were just as engaging and bright as the ones I met at Tuck. Of course I don't have the opportunity to compare GMAT scores and where they went to undergrad, but if you took a bunch of MBA students from each school and put them in a room together, I couldn't pick them out.

- The trading room they have setup at Sage is pretty dam cool, even if that's not in my post-MBA goals.

Like I said, overall I'm quite impressed. Cornell is definitively one of the elite business schools in the US.

For those who are planning a visit, be aware of the following:

You have the option of going to as many classes as you want. I signed up for a class at 10am (account with Libby, great class), but had enough time to catch another at 11:45 (Marketing with Russo, they had a practice case competition which was neat to watch). The information session and lunch doesn't start until 1:25pm (so have a big breakfast!) and lasts until 2:40pm or so. Cornell has a great parking system, you just pull up to an info booth, buy a visitor pass and they'll tell you the closest lot to Sage hall. You might want to leave early because traffic is actually pretty bad in Ithaca (if you don't stay at The Stadler). I had a ~1 mile drive from the hotel and it took me 15 minutes to get to campus and park and another 5 or so to walk to Sage.

And another thing, if you have any questions, call! The admissions coordinator (for visits and info) hates computers and admits it takes him forever to reply to emails. He's a super friendly and helpful guy so don't hesitate to call.

If anyone wants more info, just ask.

RF

Thanks for the recap! Based on your visit, it sounds like you definitely feel more favorable about the school?

Yeah, in my mind I thought the quality of the schools dropped off more dramatically once you got out of the top 10, but I was wrong.

Cornell might not be a Wharton or MIT, but I think in the long run, the differences between them are really quite small.

RF

Hey guys,

Those who have done their undergraduate from India , how do you plan to send your transcripts?

The online application mentions that the Excel template can be used only for the US universities and for non US universities, the institutions need to directly send the transcript, which in my case is not possible.

I tried mailing the admissions office , but got no response.

Are you guys uploading the scanned copies of the transcripts instead?

The rankings I like (both the methodology and that Cornell is 1) but that blog now has a post making fun of people on this board for writing essays longer than 400 words:
https://www.dis-equilibrium.com/2008/09/rules-are-for-sissies-not-mbas.html

We shall have the last laugh by getting into Cornell, graduating into top positions, (ethically) making a ton of money and buying www.dis-equilibrium.com and dismantling it into pieces for making fun of us

hahaha. Well said!

Alright guys I just submitted my app!!!!!!!!! My reccomenders have guarenteed me they would be in by Friday. Im pretty stoked. Best of lucky to all!!!!

Referring to the earlier post about the other site...

Sometimes all of us deserve to be made fun of for how neurotic we all are about this whole process. My wife lovingly refers to this board as "that geek site you go to". But I'll take the title of geek as a badge of honor if I can get an admit or two from everyone's input.